100 Sardines

Hello friends!

It's been a great first couple of days on the road! The travel day to Lowell, Massachusetts was exciting and taxing. We woke up at 4am mountain time, and finally went to bed at 11ish eastern time. We met our host families upon arrival in Lowell, and they were welcoming and maybe more excited than we were! On Tuesday, we participated in the Merrimack Riverside Beautification Project. The Merrimack River runs through Lowell, and it's a large part of their history. It used to power the mills for the textile workers, and over the years, the banks have slowly gotten neglected. A group of about 50 of us cleared large logs, painted a mural, picked up trash, etc. The stamina of the group was extremely impressive. I was so proud of us!

Today, a  group of students and I conquered the town to promote the show. We played a game called "Trade it Up" where we started with a quarter and traded it for something other people were willing to give us. We ended up with a demo phone from AT&T and $5 from a person planning on attending the show. The idea of the game was to tell people why we were trading, and tie Up with People into it. I had a blast meeting all kinds of people from all over the city.

Now, imagine the whole cast in a meeting, sitting in auditorium chairs, talking about the next day's activities. Then, we migrated to the stage to play a couple of team bonding games, and a suggestion was sardines. Now imagine 100 people running all over Lowell High School searching for one person. When we finally found him, we packed in like sardines, and laughed our heads off until the rest of the cast found us. It was a great way to end the long day.

I hope you are all doing well!

"Go confidently in the directions of your dreams."

Bonnie Waller, USA