Home Again

            After two and a half days at Little Portion Friary on the Northern side of Long Island (a really cool place), we have returned to Harlem for the long haul. It was, I will readily admit, a good decision to send us away on retreat immediately after having arrived – I was so overwhelmed even after the little bit of the city I saw on Monday, that it was blissful to be in a secluded place where cheerful friars serve you 3 delicious meals a day.

            Not that it was all fun and games. Trying to turn 5 people who’ve only just met each other into an intentional community is no mean feat. We spent a lot of time getting to know each other, writing personal mission statements, and beginning the hard task of writing a community rule of life. Given the easy accessibility of this blog, I don’t expect to post much detailed information about my fellow interns, but I will say this – I think we’ll be a fabulous group.

            I can’t be sure (our schedule has been so action-packed and subject to change that the only thing you can do is go with the flow), but I think the rest of today will be devoted to practical things, most notably an orientation to how to grocery shop in Manhattan. Tomorrow, the 5 of us and our program coordinator are going on a cross-town expedition to visit everyone’s worksite but mine (NJ is too far away…). That’ll take us to: a foster care agency and an Early Head Start program in the South Bronx, a special ed preschool in Brooklyn, and an AIDS clinic right across the street. Should be an interesting trip, to say the least.

            Oh, and a quick note about pictures, since so many of you have requested them – I do indeed have a few (mostly of our apartment and the friary), but it may take me a while to post them. Our internet connection is unreliable at best, and I somehow doubt it’ll be able to handle uploading several-megabyte files. I’ll do my best.