After our week on the Borderlands Delegation, it was time to go back to work. This week I did some research on country conditions to find sources that will help support peoples' asylum cases and had another chance to help out on the Hotline (where people in detention are able to call the Florence Project and we do intakes and try to answer some of their questions). After my previous challenging hotline experience a couple of weeks ago I was still a little nervous to get back on the phone. But, it went well and my Spanish is very useful. Hopefully, it's even improving a little. Maybe not as much as living with a host family in Ecuador but poco a poco (little by little) it feels more comfortable.
Tuesday, I experienced my first flat tire! I think this is pretty good for saying I've been biking to work at least three days a week for the last two months. At the end of the work day I walked outside to the patio where I keep my bike locked. I stepped out the door and from 15 feet away could tell that my front tire was absolutely flat. Turns out, I had ridden over a couple of thorns on my way into work that morning! I took the thorns out and made sure there weren't any super bad leaks in the inner tube, then pumped up the tire and hoped it would hold until I got home. I did have a patch kit but made it home and was able to patch my tire at the house rather than at the office.
Our house celebrated Halloween by watching the first Harry Potter movie (because wizards and trolls and ghosts) and then Dia de Muertos on Wednesday by watching Coco!
On Friday afternoon I live-streamed Goshen College's Symphony Orchestra concert. It is very different being on this side of the live-stream but it was a lot of fun to hear the music that my friends have been working on for the semester! To get some playing in here, I'll be playing my bass guitar at Shalom this Sunday. Not quite the same thing but it's definitely an enjoyable, life-giving experience for me to be able to share music with the community.
Friday Jessie and I also set up all of the tents we could find in our shed. Turns out we have good quality six-person, four-person, and two-person tents! Today we need to check out the sleeping bag situation. We're planning to use the six-person tent next weekend for the Shalom camp-out!
As we continue settling into our house we've been adding some MVS flair including (but not limited to) a giant whiteboard for our weekly menu, monthly calendar, grocery list, quote wall, and other random things; a giant map of the U.S. where we've put pins of Tucson, other MVS units, and our hometowns; and a (faux) leather two seat Barcalounger that we found at the curb and brought back to our back patio. We've also slowly been growing our indoor plant collection!
Here's to another week of fewer flat tires, successful house modifications, and being on Mountain Time after Sunday!
Ten weeks of settling in to MVS Tucson house will continue I suspect for weeks to come; your descriptors sound like you four are enjoying the process!
Ah the proverbial goat heads, bane of bicycling in greater Tucson. Are your tires Kevlar protected? Joy’s bicycle tires were not, until I tired (pardon the pun) of patching the tubes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat's_head shows some of those prickly seeds.
Mighty fine improvement with that couch on the back porch/flowers are mighty fine. Are the oranges still green or are the ripening to orange color?
Awesome furniture find and hooray for house plants! Sounds like you chose some perfect movie selections for the Halloween season!