DAY 1: JAILTIME

So today, Disaster Relief arrived in Hyde County. Our first stop? The grocery store (many of us are HUGE fans of food). Then naturally, we headed to jail. Where else would you go? Okay little background: After our first housing arrangement fell through, the county was generous enough to offer us the Hyde County Detention Center in Swan Quarter. This newly built jail that has actually never been occupied so disappointingly we have no inmate roomies. We are currently using the cells as large closets and the common areas as the sleeping area with our cots! It’s like a huge sleepover with us girls! Sadly, the two boys on the trip have to sleep in a smaller area with only 4 cells (we girls have 8). This was the sheriff’s only stipulation to our stay here. He must know how wild these boys are (Cane and Matthiew).

While we are living it up over here in jail (#YOLO) we are also helping out the Engelhard Medical Clinic. This place is about 30 minutes from our jail and the town is rather similar to Swan Quarter.

Oh I haven’t explained Swan Quarter yet! So Swan Quarter seems to have one large street that seems to be around 1-2 miles. The small town has one grocery store and a couple churches. People say small town I always think of one Starbucks instead of you know five. HECK NO TECHNO! There is nothing around here for about 30 minutes. We drove 30-45 minutes just to get gas where we saw a Food Lion (the first franchise in 30 miles). If you ever want to see a small town, Swan Quarter is to place to check out.

So back to the medical clinic. So this clinic is the only medical facility for about a 25-mile radius and the closest hospital from there is around 45 minutes away. For me, THIS IS CRAZY. I could run to my family doctor’s office and I am not much of a runner (though my beginning jogging class keeps me, and Sarah, on our feet, twice a week!). Well Hurricane Irene had ripped off the top part of the building and created water damage to the back part of the facility. So we are currently working on repairing insulation, replacing ceiling tiles and cleaning up the facility, in general. This was so much fun and a great opportunity for team bonding. But tiring to say the least… So after 3 hours we were off again back to Swan Quarter to get some more food.

Helen and Keefer were kind enough to prepare “Breakfast for Dinner.” With pancakes, bacon, eggs and hash browns, we feasted on so much good food. But we weren’t done with food. We then headed over to this cute restaurant called “The Lone Goose.” We were there to watch the ultimate rivalry: the Carolina vs. Duke basketball game. And this time, we beat the Blue Devils at Cameron- SO SATISFYING. The restaurant had a very small town feel to it. The customers, servers and owners definitely knew each other. The family feeling of a town was definitely there. The place was about 30 minutes away from the jail (in a different direction than Engelhard). Everything here is so far away. When people said rural, they mean rural.

So by the time we got back it was around 11:30 PM. This was late enough to make us ASB-ers prettttty delirious. While laughing and sharing stories (Katherine55 aka The Pretty Girl loves talking about serial killers) we went into the showers. I am now certain that I never want to go to jail. The cells here are okay but the showers—THEY ARE SO HOT (and not like Katherine55). I think almost burned off my skin. On top of which, you have to turn on the shower every 30 seconds. It was rough but we are tough here at Disaster Relief.

Well until next time…