exciting month coming up
I've realized that in the next month, I have a lot of exciting things coming up! I get to go home for Easter ('home' being all of fourty minutes away... but still, exciting nonetheless). Then... the real craziness begins!
Next weekend is the CCDA Institute, which I am extremely excited about. Sometimes when I have helped plan big events like this, I get so worn out and tired of thinking about it, that when the event actually gets here I am just glad to see it come and go. However, with this conference, I am still just as excited to have it come as I was when I first heard about it! Friday's class, which will be taught by Mary Nelson from Chicago is on Listening to the Community, and she'll be talking about asset-based development. I feel like I'm back in my Human Development Days at Cornell :) On Friday, Bob Lupton (whose most recent book we just read as a staff...) will talk about Empowerment of the Community. I'm really excited to see him because he has some really interesting ideas on gentrification, and how it can be a good thing if justice is part of the equation. I'm really interested in that, especially since a lot of the 'social justice' circles that I've run in have been pretty anti-gentrification, so, the idea that it can be really beneficial to the poor if done well is pretty new to me, and at a gut level, seems right... but we'll have to see.
THEEEEN, I get to go see the Celtics for free! Go Boston sports, right?! On the topic of sports... it's March Madness time, and guess who made the brackets? Cornell basketball. That's pretty much possibly the only time I will ever see that, so I'm going to soak it in.
THEEEEEN, I get to go to Ecuador! I'm leaving April 3rd and will be gone for 10 days. I'm traveling to Cuenca (and Guyaquil, and other places as we see fit...) to visit a good friend of mine from DC who is living down there. I'm really excited to see her, but also just to spend time in South America. I've only ever been to very modern western Europe, and I'm looking forward to seeing a new place and a new culture that is really unlike my own, especially in light of what we've been learning in our Lazarus at the Gates bible study. A few weeks ago, during our fair trade night, we focused on the impact of the banana trade in Ecuador on the people, and while I don't know if I will get a chance to really see that impact or visit a banana coop or anything like that, I do look forward to putting a face to things I learn about and care about.
When I get back (April 13th), it'll only be a month and a half until summer staff arrive, which is pretty nuts. It's hard to believe that while I'm complaining about being cold right now... I'll soon be c complaining about being too hot. But I'm ready!!!!
