Estoy haciendo algunas ecepciones

So, this whole communication fast thing, needed some tweaking ("t-w-e-a-k-i-n-g...well, that's it. He's married. with 3 kids." gold star to whoever recognizes that quote). See, I only get internet in the office, not at the house, which is when I'd normally be distracted by outside communication. Since that's the case, I've been forced to be intentional with my host family (either that or I just sit in my room from 7pm-7am. LAME-O). At the office, I'm normally jumping from job to job and talking with different people anyways. When I'm not, like right now, everyone around me is busy. I haven't been on facebook, which I'll keep off of for a while longer, and I haven't sent a text message until this morning and that was planned and that was to all my C3 family.

Anywho, blogging and restricted emails to my prayer partner and fellow interns are now allowed. texting, facebook, and excess emails are not.

So, here's what's been going on.
Saturday: babysat for the successful marriage counseling training event. I miss kids a lot!

Sunday: went to Citi Church. Chattanooga residents: picture a New City Fellowship without the Presbyterian title and a Hispanic Randy Nabors and VOILA! you have Citi Church. The worship was incredible! There was music, shouting, dancing, laughing, crying it was almost like a small small picture of Heaven. I got to go dress shopping with Yvonne and her 13 year old mentee who needed a white graduation dress. And, the Sawyers other son came home from studying abroad in Europe. He knew I was going to be there and brought me Swiss chocolate. I wanted to cry when he gave it to me because I haven't had chocolate in at least 13 days, and it was Swiss!

Monday: Mary asked me to look into this Christian youth mentoring network that's national. She also invited me to their staff meeting about their next mentoring orientation. So, I sat in there, not really expecting to say anything; then she asks me for my opinion on the last orientation I sat in. I gave my honest opinion and they took my advice! me, the little college intern who's had no social work experience and only been in the office for a week, gave advice that changed the way they ran their next orientation! HOLLER! We also had another "Family" dinner at my hosts' house. The 2 youngest sons are hilarious! and musicians! I've heard them practicing or playing their music at night.

Tuesday: I helped Mary put together her power point for her part of the orientation. It was interesting because the secretary, Lilly, told me how much she hates power point because she doesn't really use it. I told her I hated it because I had to use it for every stupid high school project and sometimes at Covenant. I also helped stuff the packets for the attendees for the orientation and got stuff together for that. We then went to Cross Bridge Church to run the orientation (during which I was taking notes), and then went home.

The Random Observations:
- the phones in the office are extremely loud, no one puts them up to their ears, they hold them against the side of their face.

- Friday, Mary and Lily told be about Memorial day weekend on Miami beach. It’s Hip Hip Weekend and they told me not to even think about going out there. A lot of crap happens then.

- The Miami Herold featured an article on microfinancing in Haiti. I sent it to Dr. Mask and Kevin. Dr. Masks' response to it? "Greetings, you micorfinance monster!" oh...no...

- Florida water has a very distinct taste, even if it’s filtered.

- Jorge (from accounting) makes Café Cubano EVERY DAY he comes into work! Friday is no longer my
favorite day.

- If anything bad happens to me, it will most likely be a car accident because people here, are MANIACS! Normally, car horns startle me and make me sheepish, but here, I don’t care.

The Problems:
- still no response from the email I sent out. I'm praying a LOT right now that God just reminds them to respond. If I don't hear anything by lunch, I'm hunting some folks down. I need to start setting up interviews!

- Because I'm not "doing anything", I'm the candidate for a lot of other jobs, which is fine, but I'm getting a little nervous about people remembering I'm here to complete a very specific task. and those who are giving me the extra jobs? they're the ones I need to meet with so I can start calling for interviews.

- holy Cynicism, batman! The head of the organization says a LOT of negative things about the church, other programs, the local and national government, schools, etc. and it is driving me CRAZY! but I don't know how to deal with it, so I let him rant on in hopes that something positive will come out of my mouth.....eventually

The Good Stuff:
- I'm getting to know my host brothers better. they are AWESOME!

- I'm getting to know the staff better and they really trust and value me and my work.

- I've adapted to the culture. And by "adapted" I mean that I'm no longer in shock by some of the outfits people choose to wear or by the dramatic changes between geographical locations, and
Estoy estudiando espanol todos las noches.

- I'm getting use to spicy foods.

Gracias para tus oraciones!

Rebeca