Hows the Morale? | Snowpocalypse

Well.. that happened.

While in Texas, the sky opened and dumped a foot of snow. As most of you know, Texas was not prepared. The Scaces and I had sneakers and some semi-winter coats. It wasn’t nearly as fun as snow has been in the past. We were considering how much food we had, that we were snowed in, and potentially better off then those who were in charge of hosting us at Mercy Ships. I was still feeling gross from my cold, and my morale was wavering. Lisa, who works in Staff Development at the ICS, was also snowed in with us.

This week, now looking back, was a little fun and a little drab. Lisa and I worked in the cafe (I actually worked above the cafe where the heaters were…) I was editing photos for Shawn, the Global Content Creator, who is training me to understand all the ways and systems of my position on the ship.

Jeff Scace, took his truck out on the roads and made it to a grocery store. We semi-broke into the cafe (with permission), and now had access to an oven and stove! Through the days, we would each run out at different times to start our cars and de-ice the windshield. My poor car has never endured such temps. haha

Morale dropped quite a bit Tuesday when we woke up with frozen pipes upstairs, and low-pressure water downstairs. We started filling the tubs we could for flushing water, and I got all the containers I could in the cafe to fill with tap water. Lisa filled with huge drinking pitchers in our little breakfast room. Slowly each faucet stopped dribbling. It was pretty disheartening. BUT we had power. Honestly, Andrea and I both were struggling a little bit with perspective. I think we both felt like this week was turning into the longest week ever. It was absolutely bizarre looking at the weather app to see a 50 degree Saturday coming, but knowing currently people around Texas were suffering and endangered.

On Thursday, Lisa was starting to plan to leave the next day, and so were the Scaces. I was looking at staying alone with no water at the guest house for the weekend. Shawn had offered his parents home at the beginning of the week to all of us, and I decided I needed to make a decision before I was there with my car snowed in, and alone may be feeling a little nervous. So I decided that afternoon to head to the generous Thompsons.

Our cars <3

This was the first day. I opened my window… bad idea.

Sunsets were incredible.

This was my office spot! Above the cafe. (notice the heater to the left)

Ate a lot of oatmeal and blueberries. <3 And mucinex.

“Breaking” into the cafe.

The last faucet to quit on us.

never really had to deal with ice like this. Lisa let me borrow a heavy duty ice scraper.

The money spot.

The local snowman.

All our water! We didn’t even use all of it before we left.

Some Ash Wednesday hanging. We used ice for painting quite a bit.