A Day of Work and Learning Together

Today was a super eventful day! We’re all pooped over here, but it was totally worth it. We started off our day at a beautiful farm helping Cece and Chris harvest their turnips. We spent a couple hours in the muddy fields and although there were a lot of fire ant hills we pushed through! It was really cool being able to work with everyone on the trip as a team. We ended up collecting 1,665 pounds of turnips! That was the biggest harvest of the year. All the food we gathered was donated to a local church for distribution. 

Showing off our turnip haul 


Pretty good for a first time turnip picker 


After our experience on the farm we headed to McLeod Plantation for a tour with our wonderful tour guide named Toby. She was an amazing woman who educated us on the history of the plantation and Charleston. Unlike other plantation tours focused on the life of wealthy plantation owners, this tour told the story of the enslaved people who lived and worked on the land. It was a very impactful tour for everybody. I know we learned a lot. Towards the end of the tour I gave my prayer shawl to Toby and we all shared a very powerful moment together. Andrew offered a beautiful prayer and it was a very meaningful way to end our time there.

Many of us were moved to tears at McLeod

From the plantation we headed to Angel Oak tree after MANY people told us to go visit. Let me just say it was worth the trip! Angel Oak is the largest living tree east of the Mississippi River! It covers 17,000 square feet of shade and is 400 years old! It doesn’t look a day over 40. It was truly awesome to be able to experience such a magnificent thing with such a good group of people. 

It's impossible to capture the Angel Oak 
in a single picture


Tonight we debriefed our week and shared affirmations with reach other. It was a powerful ending to our program. I believe over this past week we have grown so much, and bonded together and with God.

Tomorrow we return home, but it will still be a full day! See you soon Glastonbury.


-Tess 

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