Another Wednesday, Another...

Another trip to visit Tent City. Yeah, I got my comics, too. But the visit to Tent City was fun.

As I mentioned, I got a couple of battery-powered lanterns to donate, and I had grandma's money to buy some more supplies. Since they'd mentioned on Monday that they needed water, I stopped at the grocery store on the way and got three big flats of 24 bottles and 2 one gallon jugs of drinking water. I also bought a couple of packages of Oreos (they were on sale) and some donuts.

I was able to carry everything but the flats up to the camp on my first trip. They were delighted to see the water, and one woman loudly announced "We have drinking water again!" to a few scattered cheers. They said that they had been going down to the local McDonalds and getting ice, which McD's gives for free, and drinking the melted ice.

The donuts and Oreos vanished quickly, and the lanterns were put aside for "tonight's drawing". Any camper who wanted them would get a chance to have them in their tents. One of the campers, Jim, came down to help me with the remaining water, and asked where I'd gotten the lanterns. He said he would get some more himself, and tell the church so they could get some. He was on security detail, and he pointed at his chair by the camp's entrance... he was in the middle of a novel, and it is really hard to read at night by flashlight.

Jim also mentioned how dark it got on the lot at night. The church on one side has lights in its parking lot, but they don't reach under the trees. With the ground as bumpy as it is, they had a few accidents when people tripped. Especially recently with the rains which turned everything slick. He said that people with glasses were afraid to walk around at night for any reason. That made the lanterns I got, which had both wide and narrow beam settings, that much more appealing.

I said farewell and promised to visit some more. I'll be going home from my stint house-sitting very soon, probably this weekend. It'll be easier to take things over there then.

For my previous posts on the subject: first reaction, letter to the Seattle Times (they did not publish it), attack of the killer newsvans (ok, just a mention that hubby-Eric was nearly run down by some), my first visit to the tent city, another Bothell resident responds, tent city in the news, my second visit to the tent city, more tent city in the news, and my third visit to tent city (with pictures!).