Tuesday: Tumbling Through Adventure

After exploring Knoxville on Monday with our new friends from University of Tennessee, we all were ready to get back into our main goal of providing service for domestic violence survivors and learning about the situation. The plan was to work at Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries (KARM) again, however due to an error in booking they had to cancel on us. We decided instead to dedicate the day to group bonding. We played Mike’s new version of Jenga in which after successfully removing a block we asked each other questions ranging from the humorous (What would your superpower be?) to deep and insightful (What is your greatest fear?). We learned a lot about each other and let our walls fall down in a safe space while still having fun in an escapade that lasted more than two hours, until Mike unskillfully toppled the tower (Video to follow). 

We then had a reflection about privilege. We began standing in a line and stepped forward when aspects of privilege applied to us, and stepped backwards when aspects of being underprivileged applied to us. After seeing where each member moved in relation to the line we broke into smaller groups to discuss how privilege has affected us, how it relates to service, our ability to serve, and how those underprivileged are affected by our service. This was a very intense reflection that helped us appreciate what we have and how we can give more, regardless of different levels of privilege. The reflection allowed us to see things through the different lenses of our members and the people we serve. 

After an interesting meal of hotdogs, we took an optional late night trip to the movies to see The Green Hornet. Mike, Julie, Ashley, Rasshmi, Mandy, Kelsey, and myself (Emily) were in for more than we paid for. The movie was great, combining humor and destruction in a perfect synchronization, however tragedy struck. After a ten minute walk to the car we realized to our dismay Mike left the car keys in the movie theater. We ran back determined to regain our lost property, however upon our arrival we discovered the theater closed and all the employees had vacated the premises! Mall security tried to help us but were unable to locate the keys to the theater and told us to wait for night maintenance to arrive between 2:30 and 3am. Our new friend Jim, head of night mall security, let us hang out in the food court till then offering engaging conversation and we further bonded in the face of the occurring crisis. Despite his confidence that maintenance would show, the clock ticked and no one arrived. At 3:45am, Rasshmi hailed a cab and we returned to the hotel only to get four hours of sleep to prepare for our busy day on Wednesday. At 5am maintenance arrived and Mike returned to the theater to pick up the keys and all was righted again. I do not know if the movie was worth it, all I can tell you is that my fantasy of being locked in a mall all night should have remained a fantasy but I could not imagine a better group of people to experience it with.