Day 3

   3/19/2018
 
   After breakfast and a quick shower at the YMCA, the Alternative Breaks group drove to EdVenture, a children's educational museum. As we all entered the building, we saw a massive sculpture of a person. We couldn't see his face properly, but we learned that his name was Eddie. We then met Dr. Kathy, who gave us a tour of the museum. The exhibits contained various interactive activities for children to learn valuable skills about science, safety, creativity, and the society we live in. These exhibits included an interactive farmer and market relationship, newsroom simulation, aviation, as well as a technology lab with 3D printers.

We then headed to Healthy Columbia in the afternoon where we met Terri, their director. With her charming and welcoming personality, she gave us an overview of the underlying health care issues and the solutions her organization are trying to accomplish to combat them. She discussed how it is important to not only give medications to patients but also to understand their lifestyle in order to improve their health in the long term. She also mentioned building relationships with patients is what must be acknowledged in order to know how to treat anyone experiencing a disease. Terri lead us to a trail location that needed cleaning by picking out weeds and clearing the trail route in order to allow others to be able to run and become more active by using this clear trail.

Next we went to a neighborhood where we are going to set up a Health Screening the next day. We went around door to door passing flyers and informing residents of the free event happening, while giving the incentive that free groceries will be provided to participants. Terri helped put up posters throughout the neighborhood. As we were ready to leave, the children playing there invited us to join them. We played basketball and football with them. Some of the girls watching the others sat with some of us and shared their life stories.

As everyone was hungry when we got back, the dinner crew started their preparations for pancakes, eggs, and bacon. The griddle was right underneath the smoke detector, and some smoke was released during cooking by accident. This triggered the smoke alarm, and set off dispatch from the local fire department. Once the firefighters came to check, the church staff decided to take a picture with them. The food turned out to be delicious though!