Getting to Gaston!

Most of the winter AB trips had reallllly long journeys ahead of them to get to their destinations. Instead of a 7am flight to the Bahamas or a 16 hour drive to New Orleans we just had an easy 4 hour straight shot down 95. But before we could get to the driving we had a TEAM SLEEPOVER. We all gathered at Tricia's beautiful home in College Park. Her husband Eric cooked us a delicious dinner, we talked about our core values, played a bunch of board games and got pretty competitive. We all got to bed at a decent hour and woke up to another meal from Eric and Erin's homemade donuts. Stacking and packing all our luggage in the vans proved to be quite the challenge - but thankfully that was the only real difficulty we encountered the day.

We hit the road, grabbed Chick-fil-a, and then arrived at the Lander's beautiful home. After unloading and choosing our rooms we loaded back up for our orientation at KIPP. We were greeted by Mr. Muma, the AP government teacher and KIPPPOC (KIPP Point of Contact). KIPP Gaston has a primary school with Kindergarten and 1st grade, and they are adding one new grade a year so next year there will be K-2. The middle school is 5th-8th grade and the high school is 9th-12th grade. We walked through the different school buildings on the campus and got an introduction to how the school works. We also got an introduction to how open and friendly all of the students are, reflecting the schools mission to build knowledge and character.  We also learned some of the tasks we would be helping the teachers accomplish.

We arrived back at the Lander's just in time to watch the sun set over Roanoke Rapids Lake, literally right out their backdoor. iPhones in hand and Instagram open, everyone headed out to the dock where we proceeded to take a million pictures. Once the sky had lost all its color we headed back inside for a wonderful meal prepared by Mrs. Lander's. I think everyone would agree that the best part was the cherry pie cake she made for dessert. Stuffed and sleepy we settled onto the couches for our first reflection. We did an ice breaker and learned where people would go if they were invisible. We set expectations for reflections and all signed off on it. 

We are so thankful to have arrived safely in Gaston and can't wait for the next 10 days!

- Erin and Queenies