Hello all! I am alive, well, and back from orientation. I have moved into a wonderful house/ ex-convent located in Gresham, Oregon (outside of Portland) across the street from a catholic parish (we have already received two boxes of donuts and a pie from the parishioners—among other things). I am living with 7 other people—aka the cast of characters who I will introduce later—and have not yet started working (Wednesday is the day). Orientation was a week-long affair in a lovely mountain camp. Given my propensity for making a story out of nothing I have way more stuff to share than time to do so. So I have assembled the following list:
Snapshots of orientation:
#1 DIDN’T throw up!!!! Might be the first serious transition I have endured without dramatically casting up my accounts. Don’t get me wrong, it was a hell of a lot of work. I was really tense and constantly on edge thinking about how big this year will be. It took constant journaling, daily mass, and a few lengthy meditation periods to keep my lunches in place. Not to toot my own horn—but TOOT! I am proud of myself. I even found beauty in the anxiety (only briefly—I haven’t ascended to sainthood yet—most of the week I spent cursing it).At one point I was sitting by the river—which went from calm and deep, through a brief waterfall and then was calm and deep again—and I wrote the following: “as I sit, in what I hope isn’t poison oak [it wasn’t], I realize that the part of the water that I want to watch is the turbulence as it falls through the rocks. The transition from one deep calm to the next is the beautiful part—that is what elicits poetry. I suppose the same will be in my life—the parts that are worth writing about are the transitions”
#2 During orientation we had WAY too many information sessions about conflict management and intentional communication. I was exhausted and my butt hurt (folding chairs from hell) so I didn’t get a lot out of it. Three moments particularly stood out:
The Good: my community (I’ll explain them later) had a conversation about meals. Joe (the lonely male among eight women) said that he had recently read Omnivore’s Dilemma and was interested in seeking out food without corn or corn products in the interest of sustainable farming. I nearly shed a tear.
The Bad: one presenter made us practice conflict-resolution statements “When you x I feel y because z.” so I turned to Lindsay: [Me] “When you wear the color red I feel threatened because it is a sign of warning in nature.” [Lindsay] “When you make snarky comments during group presentations I feel reassured because I know I’m not the only bitch in the room.”
The WTF?: I didn’t realize that talking about what milk to buy was really necessary. I am easy going; I will drink skim, 1%, 2% and even whole milk when in Africa. But six of eight of my housemates said that they preferred almond milk. WTF? How does one milk an almond?
#3 Because JVC Northwest got a huge AmeriCorps grant this year they have changed the system of support for JVs (something about the federal government requiring JVC Northwest to give a minimum level of financial support to volunteers—psh! commies). Consequently we now get $700/mo. $550 of that automatically goes back to the community for rent, utilities and food but the rest we are left with to pay for transportation, healthcare and personal needs. But JVC Northwest is encouraging us to consider donating all of our money back to JVC except for our $80/mo stipend and a bus pass. Everyone in the community felt differently about it. In the end I decided to give it all back to JVC Northwest. I started thinking about what I could save the extra money for and decided that this was exactly what I didn’t want to think about. A few of my housemates chose the same (the few, the proud, the dirt-poor).
#4 This was the most somber moment of the week. A representative of the Oregon Province of Jesuits came to speak to us about a legal settlement that will be announced later in the week. The Province is officially bankrupt and is dividing its savings of $160 million among victims of sexual abuse from decades past. A lot of that money is apparently being sent to the poorer reservations where JVs are serving and no one is quite sure how that will impact the community. The priest also read to us the letter of formal, heartfelt apology that is being sent to each of the claimants. He was crying while speaking to us and it was really tense. I had never really understood how these things I had read about it the newspapers really impacts individuals. It was a lot to think about. One of the more random depressing thoughts that passed through my mind is that if we ever do discover an alien race in the next few centuries then my fond dream of the Jesuits secretly building a spaceship to send a mission probably won’t happen now that they’re broke (has anyone else read The Sparrow?)
A serious note to end on, but never fear! I have many more stories and insights to impart to your computer screens (whether or not you read them, they will be there). Feel free to text or facebook me—though I cannot promise how promptly I will answer. Hasta Luego!
PS hipster update: I am NOT yet a hipster but one of my roommates did knit us all hats and then my housemates taught me how to wear it like a hipster and informed me that it looked great. The process has begun…
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