news...

i am a bad blogger.

but in my defense, there has been a lot of stuff going on. and sometimes you need to just be present, and not always thinking about how to write about it on your blog later. that might be my biggest frustration with growing up in this generation. since when is it better to type words to someone halfway across the world than to talk to someone in front of you (not that i don't love those of you who are halfway across the world and wish i could talk to you more. just that sometimes, we should cherish what we have right in front of us first).

i last wrote here, essentially, just before the election. i won't pretend that posting links and short sentences counts as writing. now we have a new president. a new and awesome president. the only thing i guess i can say on a personal level on the topic is that we had an inauguration party in el paso and wore ridiculous dresses. here's alissa from the el paso house (left) and four of my roommates. love.

of course even though dad gave me a camera to use out here i'm still living like i don't have one, so i'll steal everyone's pictures soon and put them on flickr... hopefully for real this time.

i last wrote about my job and the program that i'm in september. yikes. in my defense, i didn't have a whole lot to say about work. i had a really hard time at habitat in the fall. the affiliate here is going through some major changes, and i got here just in time to be stuck in the middle of it. they really needed a lot more from me than i was able to commit to, considering the commitments i had made to my community and, well, honestly, when you're not really being paid all that much it's hard to feel excited about working more than 50 hours a week. and some weeks, i was working 50 hours and not getting everything done. it was making me really sad and frustrated all the time, and it had a really negative impact on my community life. i decided that for my own sanity, and for the sake of my community, and for the sake of the relationship between border servant corps and habitat, i needed to leave.
in january, i started work at jardin de los niños, a day care for homeless and near-homeless kids. i work primarily in the 2-year-old room, although i can "float" to other classrooms if i need to, and we don't have too many 2-year-olds (we have to keep teacher/student ratios at 1/4 in that age). i'm really enjoying the new job, but of course it's not without its drawbacks. these kids are exposed, at a very early age, to a lot of difficult situations--in many cases the least of which is their homelessness (not that the poverty their families experience doesn't play a major role in making those difficulties a part of their lives). in the end, the organization is structured well, my boss is understanding and supportive, and i go home every day thinking that i did something that was good, even if it was "just" giving a kid a hug.

hmm. what else has been going on?

have you ever heard of white sands national monument? it's amazing. it's one of my favorite places on earth.

as you can see, the first time i went there i was really excited.

we've been back a couple times since then. it's only a little more than half an hour drive from las cruces, and it's just a whole bunch of gypsum sand dunes. it's fun to go sledding, or build a sand man (kinda like a snow man, but built into the side of a sand dune), or do danger rolls...

they're dangerous.

again, more pictures on flickr soon...

in the same vein, we went to the city of rocks on friday for community day. it was pretty cool, but it mostly made me want to go back to chaco canyon. i was sad we didn't get to spend so much time there, but we had some delays with leaving las cruces in the morning, and then we didn't really prepare for cooking the black bean burgers we had brought for lunch, and we ended up eating them at about 4:30, hung out for a little bit, and then cleaned up quickly so we could go hike before the sun went down. we emptied out of the van just in time to run around and find a good perching spot for watching the sunset.hmm. i feel like that's the most exciting news i've got right now. hopefully it won't be another four months before i write again...