First Week!!

Casa Nacho=Jeff, Me, Erin, and Jen! :)

Jesuit Volunteer Corps is just starting for me and it's all so confusing and exciting at the same time! We had Orientation in Aptos, CA by the beach (but cold!) for five days (Aug 7-11) then drove down to Tucson on Thursday! (822 miles!) It's been so crazy! There were 86 volunteers at Orientation, and there are only 4 of us in the house in Tucson. The other cities in our region with JVC are like San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Phoenix, etc. So, I got to meet most of them at some point. Our Orientation was full of meetings, prayers, and lots of good food! But, we had to sleep on cots in big dorms! It was great though.

This year, I will be working (volunteering) at a Catholic elementary/middle school called Santa Cruz and I'll be teaching computer classes for grades Pre-K to 8th grade! So, yeah!! I don't really know that much about computers or teaching, so it should definitely be an experience! Yesterday, we got a little tour of the city and got to go to each of our volunteering sites. I got to see the school (it's so little and cute). There is one classroom per grade at Santa Cruz and a church attached.

So, if you don't know much about JVC, (jesuitvolunteers.org) it's basically a volunteer program rooted in four values-Simple Living, Spirituality, Community, and Social Justice. My casamates and I will be living in our house with limited budgets for food and basically no luxuries (so, if anyone wants to send us some cookies or chocolate that would be great, can't fit that in the budget yet!) Our house is called Casa Ignacio Ellacuria (or Casa Nacho for short)! It's very cute, 3 bedroom, with living, dining, and kitchen. We tried grocery shopping today, which is very hard when you are on a tight budget!! So, it's all just so new. We'll get used to it soon I'm sure!

I haven't taken any pictures yet, the picture on top we took about 5 minutes ago at the library (where I am posting this because I don't have internet at the house) When I do take some pics, I'll post them on facebook and a link on here!
I start work on Monday ahhh! And Tucson is sooo hot I am drinking water every 5 minutes!