Breathing Peace

Hello there again! Well last week was a short work week! Veteran's Day we all got off from work, so we decided to work on our garden! We borrowed a pick-up truck from Cece's dad and went around to different spots we found on craigslist for dirt, pots, and pallets for the compost. We also stopped by Ace Hardware to get potting soil, top soil and manure (we kept saying "that's horse shit!") haha. We constructed a compost that's right under our kitchen window, so we can just open the window and throw compost out into it. That's right, we're that bad-ass! We tied the pallets together with old plastic shopping bags. Doing the REUSE part!

(<---me+compost) On Saturday, we had some more time to work on our garden. When we went to actually dig it though, it proved to be more difficult that expected! The ground here is close to rock hard so it has to be pick-axed first, then dug up. It was very taxing on the pick-axers (I stuck to the shovel most the time, because I learned that I suck at using the pick-ax!) After digging, mixing in soil and manure and covering, we ended up with a garden that is about the size of a grave (it kinda looks like one too....oh well!)

<--Me, Jeff, Jen, and Erin with our garden (compost is behind me, kitchen window right above!)


Saturday night, to get ready for Sunday, we went to a gathering at Southside Presbyterian church (where the Sanctuary movement started!). And that is where I saw Father Matt! It was good to see him again and we talked a bit! He got to meet my community members as well! They had a free lasagna dinner and then a get together that included singing, prayer, reading and tai chi! I really liked the tai chi. Never having done it before, I didn't know what to expect, but I really liked the whole "breathing peace" idea. Coolness. So, what we were preparing for was Sunday when we drove to Fort Huachuca to protest torture and war. It was my first protest in a while, and definitely the biggest I had been to. There were about 100 of us protesting together in song and prayers for peace. Very awesome.

On the other side, there were counter-protesters who were very rude! They swore to us, told us to leave the USA and move to Afghanistan or Iraq. They kept telling us "torture works!" and shouting "USA! Support the Troops!" I don't think that promoting peace is anti-American, but they seemed to think so! Anyway, it was a very interesting experience to say the least!
Now, I'm on my last full week before Thanksgiving break. Next week I'm working Mon-Wed with a half day Wednesday and then driving 6 hrs to Palm Desert for a family Thanksgiving! woo! This week so far has been a good teaching week. I had a great class with the 2nd graders, teaching them computer terms and they had to search for them in an online picture search. Overall, things are going pretty well!! :)

Halloween/Dia de Los Muertos!

Heeeyyyy! So our Halloween weekend here was really fun! On Friday night we went over to the Mennonite volunteers' house in costumes! I was a unicorn (child's costume), Erin was Bob the Builder, Jen was a cow and Jeff was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (yes he wore a blue dress!!) Unfortunately, Jen has all the pictures from that night and hasn't posted them on Facebook so I don't have them, but they are on her blog if you want to see (here) Saturday and Sunday of that weekend were pretty lazy days. We slept over at the Mennonite house Friday night and ended up staying a lot of Saturday just hanging out and watching movies (Anchorman!)

This weekend was the Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) parade. One of the two houses from Phoenix came down to stay the weekend and that was really fun! There are 5 of them and they all really cool people (and funny!) On Saturday we went on a hike in Sabino Canyon to 7 falls (more like little ponds, but that's ok!) I took like one picture of it on my phone -- wow I need to get better with pictures here! Anyway, um that hike was really great! I love nature, it's so nice to get out of the city! Even though Tucson isn't a big city, it's still concrete and cars I like to get away from!

On Sunday was the parade! People dress up as skeletons and parade down 4th ave. through downtown. We actually didn't dress up, but some of our friends did. Even though we weren't dressed up, we still walked in most of the parade! At the end there is a huge show/concert/acrobatic thing. It was hard to see so we went to a nearby parking garage to watch from there. There was a giant paper urn that they burnt and a big crane with a jellyfish type thing and people hanging off...craziness! I got a couple pics of that on my phone too so I'll upload those soonish! The people we were marching with for a bit (Casa Mariposa) made a video of the parade (here)
So, yeah it was great. They made a big thing with butterflies on it-one for each person who died crossing the US-Mexico border this year.

So, those were the last two weekends. Other stuff that's going on-Nora, our site coordinator, is visiting us for a week from Santa Clara. She meets with each of us and our supervisors, then we have a retreat day on Friday. Also, Veteran's Day is Thursday, so I've got a three day work week!
And, our house has started to play this awesome board game called Settlers of Catan. It sounds kinda silly, collecting resources like sheep and wheat, then creating settlements and cities. It's kind of a cross between Risk and Monopoly, but it's really cool!

Yeppp that's my life right now! I've been running to train for the half marathon, but I fell on our hike on Saturday and when I ran today my leg still hurt :( but hopefully it feels better soon and I can run more than 2.5 miles like I did today! haha. It's also actually getting cold in Tucson! The high today was like 69! crazzyyy