A First for Me and Olivia's Last Day

"What did you learn today, little one?" Jenny asks me as she and Lucas chop vegetables for dinner.

It was a day of experiences! Today was my first day alone in the office. Totally alone. Jenny was out east, Brenda doesn't work on Fridays, and Robyn was taking a vacation day. So it was just me in the whole Family Advocacy side of the Williams Street office. I spent a good chunk of the day reading through the training manual and fielding phone calls about Christmas Basket sign-ups and air conditioners. (One woman had some relatives pick up her A/C at the office today and within the hour her kin were calling about getting one of their own!) But I also had some interesting experiences with a shipment of socks (6 huge boxes), a man wanting a bed, and a man wanting me to help with his disconnect which was going to happen Monday at 8 am (and he called at 4:15 on a Friday!) So yes, I learned a lot today, as I do everyday!

My housemate Karen got back from Disaster Relief today, but Meaghan is still out in Pike County until Wednesday, and Carl and Grace (both of the Mt Vernon House) are staying until next weekend! Karen says it was brutally hot which I can imagine. It's been in the 90's and super humid the whole week, but that's Kentucky summer for you! Apparently Carl, Meaghan, and Grace are all loving it out there. I would be dying!

This evening we went to dinner at a small diner in town (near my office) as a sort of send-off for Olivia. She has been wanting a Vanilla Coke for some time and finally got one tonight. I'm so sad that Olivia is leaving tomorrow morning! She is my first housemate to leave. Although I've only known her for just under two weeks, I'll surely miss her cheerfulness and taste in music. She has promised to send me some mix CDs when she gets back to North Carolina.

On the sidebar you will notice the addition of the "Evolving Housemates" list. Let's see how many people I will have lived with by the time my 11 months are up. For the sake of clarity, I'm only counting people who lived in Rockcastle House (not Mt Vernon House, although I do consider them housemates-once-removed) and short- and long-term volunteers (not prospectives who only stay for a couple days at most).

I think one of the most confusing? weird? interesting? things about my living situation is that I live Kentucky in a house full of people not from Kentucky. Aside from Jay Jay and I, everyone else is from somewhere else, and most aren't from the South at all. Today some of the housemates were teasing me and Jay Jay for the way we pronounce things like crayon (crown), tour (tur), and the like. But before it diverged into that conversation we were talking about the stress that comes with service. It's very easy to help someone that you like, but it is a real test of Christian character to help someone you don't care for - someone who you are almost positive is lying to you, or taking advantage of you. But I'm thankful for people like that, because it causes me to stop and look at my motives for service, to reassess my judgements, and to practice "cheerful giving"

I'll leave you with some kernels of wisdom from the training manual:

Rats and Bugs - When roaches get on you - be cool - shake them out of your clothes and get going.
Roosters - Cockfighting is very common in our culture but not a discussion topic.
Do not lose your sense of humor.

The last one is very important, I'd say!