A Letter to my brother--who is wondering what i have been up to

Dear Ben,

Mom said you were wondering what I have been up to. So please feel free to read the following letter and see the pictures. I hope this helps!

First I wake up at 5:45 am and then I go to morning prayer. (Actually that schedule hasn't actually happened yet, but we as a community will be starting that on Tuesday.) Prayer starts at 6--Ben I think that is before you even wake up!! My room looks alike a normal room: it has a bed and a desk, a closet, and a sink. Don't worry, Ben, your picture is up so that i remember you.

See it looks like any other room I have lived in-- messy, mom's quilt is on my bed, pictures on the wall, and candy on my desk.

After morning prayer i eat breakfast and walk over to the school. It is a high school for all girls, so it is kinda like the camp i worked at over the summer. So I meet the girls at 7:30 along with the other work staff and we check them all in. We check and see if they are there, and if they are in dress code. Ben, that is my least favorite part because sometimes i have to give them a detention if they are wearing the wrong clothes. after that we send them to work. Some mornings, like this week I get to go with them in the morning and drop them off at their work sites. Have you heard of places like Wells Fargo Bank, and American Red Cross? Those are some places that our girls work at. Other weeks, Liz and I switch and instead I pick them up in the afternoon from their work. Do you remember at DisneyWorld when we rode the train to Epcot? that is what the train looks like that I ride every day to take the girls to or from work. It is very fast, and kind of fun! On Tuesday all of the Juniors will be working at their different sites, but all the other students stay at school and learn.

This is a picture of the school from the outside. See, it kinda looks like the school from Sister Act 2

After the morning transport my day hums along. Some projects we are working on are contacting job sites to see if they would like to participate in the program and hire a team of our students. We also make sure our students are doing well at their jobs and there are no problems with their supervisors. Ben! just like you they have a check list every day! They get one score, from 1-5. 5 is good, like a yes and 1 is bad, like a no. So part of my job is making sure all of our students are getting 5's and not 1's. by helping them learn how to work.

I sit at a desk in a very busy office. There are at least 10 other people in the office with me, and it can get very noisy sometimes. They are trying to get some dividers up, so we do not distract everyone else in the office. Sometimes during the day, instead of sitting at my desk, I sit in the library. If some of the girls are not at work we do projects in there. This week we watched the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, which is fun, because it is a movie that was taped in San Francisco.

The day ends and some people go and pick up the students and bring them back to school. I walk home (or around the city) and we have evening prayer at 6pm. Then we have dinner afterwards. Ben, a lot of times we have mexican food that is Dee-licious! it is like going to the mexican restaurants at home. After dinner sometimes I watch TV--Wheel of Fortune, or read, or walk some more. If I am really lucky i see a beautiful sunset, like the one in the picture below.

Anyway, I hope this helps. I love you Ben!!

This is a picture of Liz, another volunteer, and Sister Lilly, and me

hey BUB!! look-- this tree looks like a pineapple.

If I can make it there, I can make it ANYWHERE

It's so great to hear from everyone! I just wanted to put up a few pictures from when Kira and I got to hang out in NYC with Sister Alice and her sister, Peggy. We certainly had a riot of a time despite the humidity. Also, we got to hang with Jen this past weekend and I will be going out to see her on Sunday. I'm excited to see a whole new part of the city! So far we've hit Manhattan (the island where NYC is really found) and Queens, driven through Brooklyn a bit and set foot on Staten Island when we took out the ferry. This will be my first time in the Bronx! I foresee it being a good time.

Here are a few pics to enjoy:



A look at the different boroughs. We are out to the east of Queens on Long Island, which is not technically part of NYC.


Me and my NYC! We got to hear some great stories from the sisters while we were out there.


Kira and I hanging out in Rockville Center!


Attempting to look like one of the dancers in West Side Story, my FAVORITE musical. I'm going to see it live on-stage for the first time on September 19th to celebrate my birthday with my sister :-)!

Live Your Life

If you are expecting some sort of general update on day to day life in Chicago for its fantastic five volunteers, I am sorry, but I don’t really have the patience to say anything more than our jobs vary from sort of crazy to almost normal, and that we all love Chicago. Ask another of the volunteers to update you on the boring stuff. I wanna tell a story.
So, this Saturday Stefanie invited us (Bridgette, Trent and I) to accompany her and her roommate Ann Marie to her favorite bar in all Chicago. Confession time, I don’t remember the name of the bar because I was immediately distracted by the bar’s atmosphere. (Edit: the name of the bar is Guthrie’s) The bar works like this: (1) find a table. Tackle drunk people out of a spot if necessary, because you need a table or else the night is ruined. (2) Get drinks, because you’re at a bar, and not having drinks is like deciding to skip seeing the Pope while touring Vatican City. But I digress. Step 3 in this process involves journeying to a shelf in the middle of the room, and picking out the board game that will keep you occupied while you drink. We chose to play the game of Life. It was awesome.
Before I divulge the juicy details of how people chose to live their lives, I should mention that for a while we had to shout at each other just to be heard, because the group beside us had given up on their game (Taboo?) and decided to return to that other favorite bar pastime, loudly sharing stories, inside jokes and raunchy punch lines. Needless to say that their unintended interruptions to our intense game of living usually brought welcome mix of laughing with their jokes and laughing at their glorious lack of sophistication.
On to the game. Stefanie and Ann Marie opted to start careers immediately, and both immediately proved how little this game resembles reality by gaining decent salaries, with Stef as a cop and Ann Marie as a Salesperson. While Stef and Ann Marie reveled in their nice jobs and salaries and sped through life towards the smooth plastic men of their dreams, Trent, Bridgette and I feebly tried to relive the glory of college while painfully aware that Milton Brady University doesn’t give scholarships, and somehow we’d have to come up with $125000 in Life money to pay for our “degrees.” Realizing that this board game would force us to get real jobs upon the completion of college, Trent settled into a $100,000 pay day job as an accountant, I found work as a technical support person, and Bridgette became a doctor.
Once Bridgette had a job, Stefanie lost no time announcing her plan to help Bridgette to find a nice blue boy so Bridge could hurry up and get pregnant. While planning Bridgette's romance, Stef went to summer school and got a new job as a teacher, but worked as a cop over the summer somehow. Ann Marie and I also went through midlife crises, becoming a pro athlete and doctor, respectively. Trent also lost his big payday and watched as it got repeatedly stolen but never quite ended up with him again.
I’m sure that more stories from this night will surface, but I don’t want to tie up your time too much, so I will leave you with the final score. I married a nice girl but we ran out of people so I donated her to become someone else’s daughter, and became a priest who also ran for mayor somehow. Ann Marie got the garbanzo bean farm she always wanted and retired with her husband as a millionaire also she had 2 kids and adopted 2 more, but that was after we ran out of people so her last 2 kids were invisible. Bridgette had a very (re)productive game, retiring just below millionaire status, but with 6 kids. Trent did find a nice pink girl with curves molded into all the right places and even lived in a nice beach house. The true winner though was Stefanie, who retired with ample children and a net worth of 1.25 billion life dollars. Unfortunately, none of that money could be used to pay the tab.
All in all a great night! Hope y’all are enjoying everything your respective cities have to offer as well!

All is Well in the ATL

Everything is going smoothly here in Atlanta. The four sisters we live with are awesome. They're overflowing with entertaining, informative stories that reveal a wealth of diverse experiences. I'm still not fully adjusted to my new schedule despite the fact that I've been here for 2 weeks. I wanna be more active after school (that is when we get out at 5) but its been hard to find the required energy so far after eating dinner and attending our community prayer session. Everyone at ICS had been real receptive and supportive of Amy and I. The staff is committed to enhancing the lives of the children through the implementation of thoughtful instruction and a commendable dedication to maintaining a positive, empathetic attitude. The kids at the school are energetic, loving, and willing to learn. I hope that as the year progresses my responsibilities will increase with regard to the actual presentation of lessons. We've spent some time around the city with the Jesuit Volunteers in Atlanta. My initial impression is that they're all quality people that know how to have a good time yet are focused on serving society within their specific ministry assignments. The year is still in its initial stages but so far I'm satisfied with my decision to join DVUSA. I hope everyone else is adjusting well to thier new environment and can say the same. I'm confident this well be a fruitful, fulfilling experience for each of us in a variety of unique ways If anyone wants to spend a little time in the ATL let me or Amy know the deal. Also, I'm trying to get to Chi-Town sometime before Christmas. I'd appreciate it if those residing there could start thinking about a tenative date that works for them and let me know whats good.

Peace and Love,
DB

PICTURES!!

Hello all--

I am still waiting for all of the pictures taken by Dominique to be sent but, here is what I have so far.

For those of your without facebook....

Ok so maybe that is just Dan, BUT for the benefit of family and friends I wanted to put up some photos of us during orientation, most of which I snagged from the facebook pages of others. Kira has some great pictures from our NYC outing she'll be showing off soon too!

Hanging in the parlor at Mission San Jose after commissioning

The beautiful grounds of Mission San Jose

A California sunset :-)

Jen and Kira unknowingly framing Sarah after our talk on the Dominicans in the United Nations

Just hanging out on the tolly...too bad it ended up being broken
(L to R: Amy, Stefanie, Dan, Trent, Joe, Kira, Jen and Emily)

Busing to the BART station. Too bad we don't have mass transit like this in the OH!
(Joe, Trent and Dan, Becca and Emily)

Looking classy post-commissioning
(Back: Joe, Emily, Sarah. Middle: Becca, Jen, Katie, Kira, Dan. Front: Rachel, Kristen, Emily, Liz, Bridget and Trent)

A group hug before the last group left
(Too tangled up to tell)

Amy, Bridget, Sarah and Trent wait for a cable car

My love extends to all of you and to all the volunteers out there :-)!