By our calculations, today, Saturday February 11th, marks halfway through our year of service! We're settled back in after our trips over the holidays and Andrea's brief time house sitting. Working is going smoothly, our chores and cooking have become routine, and "Jane the Virgin," (the show we've been watching on Netflix going on 3 months now) is keeping our weeknights full of twists and turns (especially when we thought we might lose access to our parents' Netflix accounts in the next couple of months due to upcoming password sharing restrictions).
This week I was able to spend more time with my co-workers in person. On Tuesday I visited a detention center for a Know Your Rights presentation and individual orientations. There were thirteen women attending that day and I did four intakes and spoke with two others from Mexico, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic. This was an emotionally heavy day or receiving stories but I was able to process it with co-workers over really good queso birria tacos for lunch. On Thursday, I had another chance to interact with coworkers in a relaxed way at a coffee shop in Tucson. Getting to interact with teammates in person humanizes our work and provides much needed support systems. I'm continuing to take the online course over immigration law and helping out on the hotline most Thursday afternoons.
I have really enjoyed cooking here in Tucson and this week we did very well as a house. A highlight this week was falafel and pita that Jessie and I made on Thursday evening. To help us stay on budget, we plan our meals in advance at our weekly house meeting Thursday evenings. This week's menu includes Brussels sprouts and sweet potato hash, vegan lasagna, a curry, a bean soup and salad, and black bean burritos. We also regularly make Pad Thai, ground nut stews, and black bean burgers. Trying new recipes is always fun so feel free to send us your favorites!
Last week I shared the time-lapse video of us painting our pickle-ball court and this weekend we actually got to use it! We enjoyed playing without having to drive to a park. Plus we could play our own music.
The weather is slowly starting to change and warm up but it's still in the upper-30s in the morning. I'm trying not to wish away the cold because I know soon enough I'll have to deal with some intense heat on my afternoon commutes.
Happy halfway! 💕🙌💕
Your dinners sound delish! Maybe you could make/teach us how to make falafel sometime? Glad you have and are such a good community of support for each other.