July 1

July 1, 2009

Today was to be the first in our three day stent in meetings. We have a mentor supervisor meeting, a school visit, and a mentor meeting on three consecutive days. Exciting but I am sure that they will be exhausting.
So, I woke up pretty early for some reason. I started straight in on getting myself caught up on notes and reading. Joan was coming to pick up Ginger at 10 and I had to tend to this new kitten. Ginger has found out that Joan’s sister makes formal gowns so they are headed into town today to find fabric for Ginger to get some dresses made. I, on the other hand, took my time getting ready and grabbed a bota-bota to take me to this craft place I had been eyeing. Joan and her friends all shop there so I figured I would be able to find some good gifts. Can’t disclose the gifts at this point through, it may be too obvious. Regardless, I am getting pretty damn good at this haggling business. I got some really good deals because I bought so much. I finished up all my shopping by 1. This only gave me one hour to travel the 4 (maybe 5) miles I needed to go to get to the foundation. I had to hurry.
I met up with Ginger and we took off for our meeting. Walking would take us too long yet taking the taxi could put us being late as well. We opted for the taxi and arrived in 45 minutes. A big difference from being in the U.S. Get this, daily population of the city hits over 3 million yet there are only 7 traffic lights, two of which don’t work. It is ridiculous to try to get somewhere and close to impossible to be on time.
Our meeting was the usual of mentor supervisors and Rev. Obed on Wednesday. Some really interesting things surfaced in this meeting though. The questions and concerns that we have presented to Rev. in our different meetings have prompted some change in hum already. He has taken to reading through all of the mentor and supervisor reports as we have been and came to recognize many of the gaps in the reporting process. He presented these to the supervisors as areas for change. Secondly, we questioned why Rev. did not visit schools himself to make sure things were going the way that he intended. This has prompted him to re-arrange his schedule and include two days in every week where he visits schools. In both these cases he has already taken to the recommendations that we were going to pose at the conclusion. He seems to be one of those people where you have to make it his idea or he won’t acknowledge that it is a good one. It is rather frustrating.
At this point Ginger and I were starving and our favorite Italian place is just around the corner. We gave in and went for an early dinner. The food was amazing as usual. We had an interview scheduled for 7 all the over a the other end of town so we took off to walking to ensure we got there on time on account of the traffic. We arrive on time as usual, had our iced coffee, and read the paper. After waiting for 45 minutes we gave up. I sent the informant a text saying that I had to reschedule and headed home.
All I wanted to do was take a shower , get some work done, and wait for Becky to call. Of course, the electricity was off so no hot water and my computer was dead. Ginger headed off to bed and I sat to catch up on writing by candle light awaiting my phone call. I almost made it without getting too sleepy, but just as 2 o’clock hit I was exhausted. I had to text her to go ahead and call cause I was worried that I wouldn’t wake up if she called if I were to fall asleep. It made me feel so much better to hear from her and afterwards I passed out. A perfect ending to a horrible night.