Saturday, January 25, 2003
Right now, I'm getting ready to call Egypt and I
needed to get the phone number from an email message.
It's Sat. morning and it would have been nice to sleep
in, but that didn't happen!
This week, we had different sessions each morning and
afternoon for about 2 - 2 1/2 hrs each. Some of it
has been learning about Mennonite Central Committee
which is the organization doing all the planning for
our assignments. We also had a brief overview of what
is going on in our part of the world one afternoon.
Thursday morning and afternoon we had sessions on the
"theology of peacemaking and service". Those are 2
areas very important to the Mennonite church and I
learned quite a bit. It's also good to note that not
all the volunteers in this orientation are Mennonite
-- it's not a requirement. Christians who want to
serve and share values with the organization are
eligible, regardless of their denominational
association.
A couple of the mornings, we have had an opening
"devotional" time with a very dynamic African-American
pastor. That's good for waking us up! The first day
he came in and started us thinking about how we are
more like pilgrims on a journey into the unknown than
we are missionaries.
Friday morning, we discussed "power relationships",
but I was tired. It was good, but just very low key.
Lots about how if you have power, you need to
recognize that fact so that you can use it to help
people and/or keep it in check and not harm people.
That's been the official stuff so far. Beyond that,
I've been trying to meet and talk with lots of the
people here. There's definitely a "20-something"
group with 5 or 6 of us, but the older adults are
great too. More on that in my journal. I'm going to
post there later this afternoon and hopefully send out
the link.
needed to get the phone number from an email message.
It's Sat. morning and it would have been nice to sleep
in, but that didn't happen!
This week, we had different sessions each morning and
afternoon for about 2 - 2 1/2 hrs each. Some of it
has been learning about Mennonite Central Committee
which is the organization doing all the planning for
our assignments. We also had a brief overview of what
is going on in our part of the world one afternoon.
Thursday morning and afternoon we had sessions on the
"theology of peacemaking and service". Those are 2
areas very important to the Mennonite church and I
learned quite a bit. It's also good to note that not
all the volunteers in this orientation are Mennonite
-- it's not a requirement. Christians who want to
serve and share values with the organization are
eligible, regardless of their denominational
association.
A couple of the mornings, we have had an opening
"devotional" time with a very dynamic African-American
pastor. That's good for waking us up! The first day
he came in and started us thinking about how we are
more like pilgrims on a journey into the unknown than
we are missionaries.
Friday morning, we discussed "power relationships",
but I was tired. It was good, but just very low key.
Lots about how if you have power, you need to
recognize that fact so that you can use it to help
people and/or keep it in check and not harm people.
That's been the official stuff so far. Beyond that,
I've been trying to meet and talk with lots of the
people here. There's definitely a "20-something"
group with 5 or 6 of us, but the older adults are
great too. More on that in my journal. I'm going to
post there later this afternoon and hopefully send out
the link.
Thursday, January 23, 2003
Today is the 2nd full day of orientation! What a
process! About 35 of us here, including children.
People heading all over the place. All around the
U.S. and Canada, plus various spots around the world.
It's a time for learning, thinking, and even a bit of
second guessing. My thoughts all along were that I
wanted to go far away to serve, but now I see all the
great things people are involved with closer to home.
Oh well, maybe on a future assignment!
Many people are preparing for their first assignment,
with just a few people who have gone places before.
I was able to see Alonna, Michael, and the boys on
Monday evening when I came in and then spent most of
Tuesday at the house and running errands with Alonna,
the boys, and 3 of their cousins!
Things are busy during the days and our free time
begins around 8:30 in the evening. That will change a
bit this weekend, as we have optional trips and more
choices in how we spend our time.
process! About 35 of us here, including children.
People heading all over the place. All around the
U.S. and Canada, plus various spots around the world.
It's a time for learning, thinking, and even a bit of
second guessing. My thoughts all along were that I
wanted to go far away to serve, but now I see all the
great things people are involved with closer to home.
Oh well, maybe on a future assignment!
Many people are preparing for their first assignment,
with just a few people who have gone places before.
I was able to see Alonna, Michael, and the boys on
Monday evening when I came in and then spent most of
Tuesday at the house and running errands with Alonna,
the boys, and 3 of their cousins!
Things are busy during the days and our free time
begins around 8:30 in the evening. That will change a
bit this weekend, as we have optional trips and more
choices in how we spend our time.
Thoughts from the first full day:
---------------------------------------------
Things are wacky here. That's my best description
right now. There are about 30 of us, including kids
whose parents will be volunteers. It's people from
all over the world (but mostly Canada and US) getting
ready to leave for all sorts of places...
A bit overwhelming at times, but a great positive
experience so far. Today is the first full day and
it's going to be a long one, but we have nice breaks
every now and then.
---------------------------------------------
Things are wacky here. That's my best description
right now. There are about 30 of us, including kids
whose parents will be volunteers. It's people from
all over the world (but mostly Canada and US) getting
ready to leave for all sorts of places...
A bit overwhelming at times, but a great positive
experience so far. Today is the first full day and
it's going to be a long one, but we have nice breaks
every now and then.
The story of my train trip:
-------------------------------------------
And so it begins…
Slowly.
After a weekend of goodbyes including the Birthday Bash in Ann Arbor, time with Rob and Beth, plus my friends Andy and Carrie, I stayed up all Sunday night packing. Of course, I still forgot some things. Well, I didn’t forget things entirely. I just didn’t bring enough of some things that I should have. But I’ll be fine.
At some point, Sunday ended and Monday began. Around 3am, I think. That’s about when I started getting a bit frantic that I was running out of time and wasn’t going to get everything done. That turned out to be the case, but I cut my losses and made it to Dad’s house a bit after 5am. I was getting ready for a 7:10am train out of Toledo, so that still gave us enough time to get there.
Note: if riding Amtrak, call ahead to see if anything unusual has happened…like say a train derailment…before you leave for the station. *laugh* So you see where this is going, don’t you?
We got to the station around 6:40am and then they announced that a freight train had derailed east of Toledo, blocking tracks in both directions with hazardous materials. *sigh* They sent a bus to take people from Chicago to Cleveland, stopping at all the stations along the way. On the plus side, this gave us time to get breakfast at Denny’s!
Eventually, at about 9am, the charter (mini-)bus picked us up in Toledo. Most of the seats were filled when we got on, which made it really interesting when 5 additional people got on at a later stop! *grin* From that ride, I now know some of the secret, inner-workings of Amtrak. *bwahahaha* For all their routes, with the exception of the east coast corridor, Amtrak leases the tracks from a freight company. So, Amtrak customers are at their mercy. Thankfully, the Amtrak staff were very helpful and apologetic about the problems. Lunch was even provided for free. *burp*
It’s now nearly 7pm and the train is bumping along. Maybe around 8:15, we will be in Harrisburg, which puts us in Lancaster about 9pm. Not bad, considering that we were scheduled to be there at 7:45 and there have been all these problems! Nice people on the train. The 2 amish couples and their children that we picked up on the bus are on the train too. Young mothers and young babies, but very cute (kids) and friendly (their parents).
I’m definitely not traveling light! My big backpack is stuffed full of stuff, a suitcase on wheels is near capacity, my small backpack holds my laptop and some other goodies, plus I have another shoulder bag for books, camera, etc. I’ve managed fairly well so far but I wonder how it will work with my flight in 2 weeks… Well, by that point I should have finished at least 1 of the books to leave behind, eaten some of my snacks, and resituated things a bit.
Another bit of advice about riding Amtrak. Don’t both to pay extra for “business class” like I did. I thought that the advantages would be a reserved seat and maybe a bit of extra space. Nope. For some bizarre reason, the seats are significantly smaller in business class than in coach. Plus, there was no one sitting there, which would have been very boring. So, I stayed in coach. No big loss, though I may give Amtrak my opinion on the matter and on the delays.
We just pulled in somewhere. Definitely not in Harrisburg yet. Oh well, writing all this town is keeping me occupied for now. I’ve also read about 100 pages in a book and taken about a 2 hour nap. *ZZZ*
That’s all for now, unless something eventful happens. I think I’m going to eat dinner. *woo woo*
-------------------------------------------
And so it begins…
Slowly.
After a weekend of goodbyes including the Birthday Bash in Ann Arbor, time with Rob and Beth, plus my friends Andy and Carrie, I stayed up all Sunday night packing. Of course, I still forgot some things. Well, I didn’t forget things entirely. I just didn’t bring enough of some things that I should have. But I’ll be fine.
At some point, Sunday ended and Monday began. Around 3am, I think. That’s about when I started getting a bit frantic that I was running out of time and wasn’t going to get everything done. That turned out to be the case, but I cut my losses and made it to Dad’s house a bit after 5am. I was getting ready for a 7:10am train out of Toledo, so that still gave us enough time to get there.
Note: if riding Amtrak, call ahead to see if anything unusual has happened…like say a train derailment…before you leave for the station. *laugh* So you see where this is going, don’t you?
We got to the station around 6:40am and then they announced that a freight train had derailed east of Toledo, blocking tracks in both directions with hazardous materials. *sigh* They sent a bus to take people from Chicago to Cleveland, stopping at all the stations along the way. On the plus side, this gave us time to get breakfast at Denny’s!
Eventually, at about 9am, the charter (mini-)bus picked us up in Toledo. Most of the seats were filled when we got on, which made it really interesting when 5 additional people got on at a later stop! *grin* From that ride, I now know some of the secret, inner-workings of Amtrak. *bwahahaha* For all their routes, with the exception of the east coast corridor, Amtrak leases the tracks from a freight company. So, Amtrak customers are at their mercy. Thankfully, the Amtrak staff were very helpful and apologetic about the problems. Lunch was even provided for free. *burp*
It’s now nearly 7pm and the train is bumping along. Maybe around 8:15, we will be in Harrisburg, which puts us in Lancaster about 9pm. Not bad, considering that we were scheduled to be there at 7:45 and there have been all these problems! Nice people on the train. The 2 amish couples and their children that we picked up on the bus are on the train too. Young mothers and young babies, but very cute (kids) and friendly (their parents).
I’m definitely not traveling light! My big backpack is stuffed full of stuff, a suitcase on wheels is near capacity, my small backpack holds my laptop and some other goodies, plus I have another shoulder bag for books, camera, etc. I’ve managed fairly well so far but I wonder how it will work with my flight in 2 weeks… Well, by that point I should have finished at least 1 of the books to leave behind, eaten some of my snacks, and resituated things a bit.
Another bit of advice about riding Amtrak. Don’t both to pay extra for “business class” like I did. I thought that the advantages would be a reserved seat and maybe a bit of extra space. Nope. For some bizarre reason, the seats are significantly smaller in business class than in coach. Plus, there was no one sitting there, which would have been very boring. So, I stayed in coach. No big loss, though I may give Amtrak my opinion on the matter and on the delays.
We just pulled in somewhere. Definitely not in Harrisburg yet. Oh well, writing all this town is keeping me occupied for now. I’ve also read about 100 pages in a book and taken about a 2 hour nap. *ZZZ*
That’s all for now, unless something eventful happens. I think I’m going to eat dinner. *woo woo*
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