Monday

We both had a work day today, even though it is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I am so used to having the day off, it felt funny to be at work. The Boutique was very slow. I barely broke $100, but I was able to start the book The Kite Runner while I was there. It seems like a good, but heavy, book. Jeremy had phone calls from his friend Mike and his mom - both called because they had assumed that he had the day off. He enjoyed talking to them anyway. Nothing else really happening today.... right now we are watching a special on Rocky Mountain PBS called, The Lobotomist. Quite an interesting program. It is mostly about the doctor, Walter Freeman, in the 1940s/50s who did way too many lobotomies to count, and introduced the procedure in which a lobotomy could be done by putting an ice pick through the eye to get to the brain. (The story of a 12 year old boy who had the procedure done can be found at this website http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080) This is quite disgusting, and not highly scientific if you ask me. It seems that they it didn't really solve the problem, just created others. It also happened at a time when little was known about or much time given to mental illnesses. Even today, more education is needed about mental illnesses. Please take a moment to pray for people with mental illnesses and those who live with, work with, and love those with a mental illness.

Work Week #10

Well, the week is almost up, and I am only now writing. I will have to improve my blogging practices next week. This week, although uneventful, has been busy for me at work. The new manager, Vernon, at Rainbow's End officially began this week. He has great ideas for what he would like to happen in the store, but the transition period will be a little shaky. It takes time to retrain people and get them - and the community - to break bad habits. We are going to be more picky with acceptance of donations - that way our quality of product improves in the store, and people will take pride in their donations. I worked on an ad for the newspaper for next week. I have no idea what makes for a good ad, but I managed to create one. Maybe I can put it on the blog and you can view it.

I have been continuing to unpack and arrange our small area for Ten Thousand Villages (TTV). This picture shows almost all of the store area TTV takes up. About the only thing you can't see is the jewelry case. Steve (my boss) keeps saying, "Order more stuff for TTV." I keep saying, "I want to know what will sell before I keep spending more money." I suppose I should get a preliminary order ready. It would be bad if the store was empty after the first week. We are selling the new items at 20% off to get people in to buy them. I think that is a good deal. The cookbooks will only be around $16 with the discount. I opened the package to the Simply in Season cookbook (great cookbook by the way; if you don't have it, go get one!) and noticed the new hardback cover with the spiral enclosed. I liked it.

Jeremy is still working. I think he is a little bored - not given enough projects at this point. He has been trying to train on this ARC mapping software at the NRCS (National Resource Conservation Service). Unfortunately, there has been some sort of computer glich that has held him up - the joys of technology.

We got our first package in the mail on Monday. It felt like when you are at college and get a care package at exam time. It was just a great surprise because we weren't expecting it. (I am not writing this so you all go and send a package; we definitely don't expect that!) It is great to see comments on the blog, to hear from our parents that people have talked to them about our blog, to know people are continuing to pray for us, and to have phone calls from home. We have definitely felt the support of friends and family both while we prepared to come and now that we are here. Thank you for not forgetting us! You are not forgotten either. (Yes, I know that "you" is a pretty general pronoun, but no one wants to read the list of all the people we remember!)

People have asked us if we are enjoying our time here, if it is all we hoped it would be, if we miss home, etc. I have a hard time answering questions like those. We are enjoying the time we have in Colorado with MVS. I think having an opportunity to serve is never a bad thing. I am learning that each time I serve, I learn something about myself - in Mozambique, I learned that I need at least one other person to energize me; here, I am learning that I need a work environment with a variety of people that I relate with daily. I don't necessarily work with a lot of people. I do a lot of behind the scenes work, and I miss that people interaction. I think I would say that I don't miss Ohio - the state. There isn't a huge spot in my heart that feels Ohio is the best place in the world. I like it - the hills, the colors, the Amish :) But I don't know if there is any one place/state/country that I would feel a deep longing to live in forever. That being said, I miss the people. I miss friendships that were beginning in Columbus, my family, longtime friends spread out around the state and neighboring states. I just miss the people. If we could just convince everyone to move here, I would be perfectly happy to stay here. :) I have not formed deep relationships here yet - but I've only been here a couple months. We'll see what happens as the year progresses. I look forward to Christmas time to visit with the part of Ohio we do miss - the people. Did I say I miss all of you people??? :)

Anyway, this has gotten long winded. Congratulations to those who made it to the end with only one picture to spur you on! We are headed to Taos this weekend to help build a horno - Mexican oven - for Jeff's boss. We will also do a little exploring around the town. I am sure I will come back with some pictures. Until then, have a great Friday and weekend.

Work Week #6

Well, it is Wednesday morning and I realize that I haven't been writing. It is suddenly cold here at night. There was a hard frost on Monday night with temperatures in the 20s. I actually let the car run to de-ice/frost the windshield. The days are still warming up to the upper-60s and low-70s.

Rhonda has been sick both Monday and Tuesday, so it was just me holding down the fort. It wouldn't be so bad, but it has been so quiet there. I wonder if it is less quiet when there is someone there to share the lulls with you. I think that she will be back today; hopefully, she will be fully recovered because I don't feel like catching anything. We have received a number of donations from the big mailing we sent out. This means that I get to open each donation and then write a receipt and thank you letter. I don't necessarily mind this; it just hurts my hand. I am enjoying parts of my job, but not feeling like it stimulates my mind much. It is actually pretty basic work - at least the part I'm doing. I am trying to think of other things I could do that may help me feel more challenged. The advertising/marketing is challenging because I have no clue, but I am also not very motivated to care about learning the techniques. I am thinking about talking with Fanny at the Adelante program (2 year transitional housing). They have the PALS program which works with children ages 4-16 (I think) during an after school program from 3 - 6pm. I think that part of this program is tutoring right when they get off the bus. I believe that I would enjoy this, if she could use any help and if it would work alongside what I am doing now. I have said that I would either enjoy just tutoring kids one-on-one or doing office work; this would give me an opportunity to do both. We'll see what comes of that. I think that I need more people interaction - besides sorting and handing out clothing at Re-Threads - and this may provide that.

Jeremy is still working at finding things to do at his job. For awhile, he was working on a website, but then that wasn't really what Mike wanted him to do - they had had a website developed and he wanted Jeremy to figure out how to just implement that one. That became pretty complicated for some reason - I don't think it would load right, or there wasn't enough storage on the free site they had. Now, Mike said that Jeremy could just go ahead and start from scratch; so, now he has a mission.