I've been at ECHO for four days now and I am proud to say that I have actually done some work! Yesterday I cleaned out a tool shed and today I helped wash windows in a guest house. Tomorrow I'm going to start a more regular schedule, which is helping out the interns that work here.
On Monday I got oriented, including a "behind the scenes" tour of ECHO (in a rather flashy red golf cart I may add) that included a visit to the ECHO seed bank (more on that later), to more experimental farms that aren't as glamorous and thus aren't shown to visitors, and also a warning to watch out for Africanized bees in the back portion of the property. Yikes! I have been bee-free so far, although I did have a run-in yesterday with some cockroaches and a pretty decent sized spider. I could say I handled these incidents with grace, but most people reading this blog are already imagining me hopping and scurrying around trying to get away from these creatures, so I'll just not comment. Actually, I handled the spider just fine, but I spent about 5 minutes pushing gloves around a warehouse with the end of the longest broom handle I could find to scare all of the cockroaches away. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but why have it any other way?
The couple I am living with run a guest house for ECHO and often invite visitors staying in other housing at ECHO to have dinner and visit. For example a pastor from Texas who is staying here for a week ate dinner with us tonight. I made apple crisp for dessert, which turned out quite tasty, even though I tried several times to mess it up (including using corn meal instead of corn starch). In fact, when I realized what I had done, I felt sort of like Harry Potter when his potion is supposed to be turning light green with a faint aroma of cinnamon and instead it's bright yellow and smelling like rotten eggs. And though my host Bob spent a good five minutes scraping the carmelized sugar from the glass pan, we'll just remember that it was really good with ice cream.
Besides my help(?) with dinner, I washed windows today with Susan, a volunteer who cleans the guest houses after people leave. I can't believe how much she reminds me of Peggy, our old youth director. Both are kind of short, very spunky, pleasantly talkative, and a tad bit scatter-brained. It's amazing. It was like spending the day with a long-haired, pale-skinned Peggy. Maybe Peggy can come down this summer and spend some time with her long-lost twin :)
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3 comments:
Yay for the handling of bugs! You sure did a great job, Jamie :D
Ehehe, I want to eat apple crisp too D: remind me of the days when we cook together :DD eheh we made a huge mess but those day were fun!
Great comparison with Harry Potter XDDD i can imagine the situation.
Once, in making cornbread I got mixed up about whether to use baking soda or baking powder. The result was disastrous and, seeing how I now no longer remember the distinction, I leaver the cornbread making to June. As I am from West Virginia, cornbread is food from heaven and one does not trifle with such sacred things. I'm glad you are settling in. Say hi to Bob and Ellen for me.
Bob Hartley
Ah yes! Fortunately when I was making my apple crisp Professor Snape was not looming near my saucepan.
It's great to hear from both of you :)
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