Quite a week.

Or two weeks, I suppose. It's hard; there's always a lot going on here, and I try and filter out what has been most interesting down here, but inevitably I'm always forgetting some things. So this post is going to be an attempt at catching up on everything that I've missed in the past two weeks that I want to talk about.

Most recently, there's been a stomach flu that has infiltrated Hands-On and is getting its volunteers sick. I don't know if any of you have ever been forced to live in an intensely communal environment during a contagious sickness, but it is terrifying. Every day I wake up with dread in my heart as I watch my courageous fellow volunteers get picked off like flies. I've been using hand sanitizer like a mad man, and have gotten ritualistic in my daily habits. I never use the front bathrooms at Hands-On because I haven't used those since the virus and so far I haven't gotten sick. I only sleep on my right side because that's what I'd been doing the first couple days of the virus and so far I haven't gotten sick. I have the tendency to always, always, always catch whatever virus goes around, so I'm determined to beat fate this time.

Being sick is the only time I really miss home at Hands-On. It really is impossible to have a moment of isolation that lasts longer than an hour here, and those are the moments I wish I could just lock myself in my room and sleep. It's also hard to not work on a work day here, because the drive and (unintentionally, of course) the pressure to work hard is so strong that skipping a day to rest feels awful. Well, I would imagine. I've never taken a sick day here. I will say that wearing a respirator in a moldy house while you have a head cold is a pain in the ass.

Last Friday my friend Kirby came to Hands-On. She's going to be here for a month. So excellent! She was the friend that I stayed with in Atlanta on my way down here, and in the first few weeks of being at Hands-On, I did a lot of phone talking about Hands-On and a little bit of convincing and now she's here. Having an old and established friend is a bit of a relief. I've made this point on the blog before, but one of the tragic things about friendships at Hands-On is that the majority of volunteers are only here for a couple of weeks before they go back home, so no matter how close you get to someone here and how wonderful it is, the truth lurks in the back of your mind that this is only temporary, that once they go home you will keep in touch for a while, but your lives are too separate to be as you were for those one or two weeks. Having Kirby here eliminates that. I've known Kirby for four years, and she'll go back in a month, but we will remain friends.

But now, at the risk of sounding contradictory, I think that I made a friend here that will go past the two weeks at Hands-On. A group from Skidmore came a couple of weeks ago, and I had the privilege of getting pretty close with a couple of them. One of them in particular, M.R., I think I'll stay friends with for a long time. I don't think I've ever met anyone that was so easy to talk to, such a natural conversationalist. Here's where having a blog gets a little tricky. Talking about the specifics of a friendship, what makes it tick, is an intense and personal thing, too personal for a public journal. So all I'll say is that I find it inconceivable that three weeks ago I didn't have such a great friend. In fact, three weeks ago I didn't know you existed.


Isn't that interesting, everyone? There are so many inspiring people here, but before they came I had no idea any of them were even on the face of the earth. Everyone should experience that. It makes the time here richer.