Sunday, September 10, 2006
I'm in staging now - at the University City Sheraton in Philadelphia. I'm glad to be here - took a nice walk on the Penn Campus last night. I'm on a lunch break...so some quick notes.
- Got a voicemail message on Friday from a friend of an aunt of a friend, who had served in Morocco. She said to get tincture of walnut and wormwood, a probiotic such as acidophilous, and an anti-parasite health food thing. The person who had mentioned having parasites all the time was interesting. The massage therapist I spoke to on Sunday said to get anti-parasite stuff and I got a bottle. Well, this message jolted it into me - we went to Whole Foods and got a four-month supply (expensive) and I arranged to have regular shipments.
- There was a map yesterday showing where the Small Business Development volunteers are. They're not just in the middle Atlas mountains - they're all over, from the very east to the Atlantic Coast. So I could be anywhere.
- Interesting people in staging. The Youth Development people all look like recent college grads. The Small Business Development people have a significant number of older (however you want to define it) people, mostly women but also men. So I feel like one of several, not one of a handful. All nice and interesting people, so far - which I expected. I am looking forward to getting to know them and hearing stories.
- For the "item I brought along" ice breaker exercise I chose to share that I brought cards and games - there were a couple of other people who mentioned that too. A lot of the artists brought art supplies and several brought knitting or the like. I may have to have that knitting and needlepoint sent to me after all! For now I have crochet.
- I still feel that my prevailing emotion is disbelief. I can't believe I'm doing this! Around mid-August I shifted from being sad at leaving to being more ready to go - but I guess there's so much unknown, so much that I am still waiting to find out and experience. Tomorrow we get on a bus to JFK and then on a plane and then we will be there.
- Got a voicemail message on Friday from a friend of an aunt of a friend, who had served in Morocco. She said to get tincture of walnut and wormwood, a probiotic such as acidophilous, and an anti-parasite health food thing. The person who had mentioned having parasites all the time was interesting. The massage therapist I spoke to on Sunday said to get anti-parasite stuff and I got a bottle. Well, this message jolted it into me - we went to Whole Foods and got a four-month supply (expensive) and I arranged to have regular shipments.
- There was a map yesterday showing where the Small Business Development volunteers are. They're not just in the middle Atlas mountains - they're all over, from the very east to the Atlantic Coast. So I could be anywhere.
- Interesting people in staging. The Youth Development people all look like recent college grads. The Small Business Development people have a significant number of older (however you want to define it) people, mostly women but also men. So I feel like one of several, not one of a handful. All nice and interesting people, so far - which I expected. I am looking forward to getting to know them and hearing stories.
- For the "item I brought along" ice breaker exercise I chose to share that I brought cards and games - there were a couple of other people who mentioned that too. A lot of the artists brought art supplies and several brought knitting or the like. I may have to have that knitting and needlepoint sent to me after all! For now I have crochet.
- I still feel that my prevailing emotion is disbelief. I can't believe I'm doing this! Around mid-August I shifted from being sad at leaving to being more ready to go - but I guess there's so much unknown, so much that I am still waiting to find out and experience. Tomorrow we get on a bus to JFK and then on a plane and then we will be there.
# posted by 27monthswithoutbaseball @ 10:08 AM 
