Orientation is already half over, which means that on Saturday (notice I don't even have to say next Saturday) I'll leave for Paraguay! How exciting, right!?

Yesterday I went to New York City and walked around for the day, just seeing different parts. Some may think that it's not the smartest thing to do, to go walking around NYC by yourself, but really, I'm going to be doing that in South America, so why not start off in a city that speaks English? Needless to say, I was fine. :)

At church this morning, the pastor talked about peace being a central belief of Mennonites. I think most of us here at MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) in Akron agree on that, myself included, but I learned a lot when we were discussing it later on in a small group of us. From what I understood, I learned that pacifism isn't central to what it means to be Mennonite, to the Mennonites around the world. This was completely new for me, and I'm sure that, by volunteering for Mennonite World Conference, I'll learn a lot more about this topic and really what unites us as a global Mennonite Church. Any thoughts?

A few minutes ago, there was a group of MCCers that got together so we could figure out this whole "blogging thing." It was great! I now know how to set up boxes to show the countries of people who look at your blog and how to add slide shows- the whole bit! :)

Hello from Akron, PA!

Wow, this is finally happening. Ever since I was in Zimbabwe for Mennonite World Conference (MWC, I'll try to explain the acronyms that unfortunately the Mennonite Church is famous for) volunteering for the next conference was just a dream, and finally it's right in front of me! I have 2 weeks of orientation, and then on July 19th, I'll fly out of Philadelphia, for Asunción, Paraguay. Until then, I'm in Akron, PA for orientation with MCC (Mennonite Central Committee).

Orientation starts officially tomorrow, but those of us on the Latin American and African teams had to be here today for meetings (so we all came sunday afternoon/evening) and had 2 meetings today and plenty of free time. The next couple weeks look like they will be more structured, which will be nice.

I'm already making so many connections with people here who know people from different stages of my life, it's great! The learning curve will be steep over the next... (oh dear, probably a long time), but I'm ready for the challenge! :)