New Start, New Blog

I figured i may as well start a block while I'm out in Denver so that I don't have to constantly repeat what I have been up to!

So I arrived here last Friday, and Kay was a wonderful host who took me in for the night! Saturday was the first 'official' day. Moved into the 'new' house, known as 'CoHo.' CVV has expanded this year from 13 volunteers to 20 volunteers, so there are 10 at each location. 'WoHo', or Woody's House, is the original site, made up of two town homes, or NoHo (North House) and SoHo(South House). The new location used to be housing offices for the Denver archdiocese and is barely two blocks from WoHo. Since we are between 16th and Colfax St, we are 'CoHo.' Have fun keeping track of that! We all have our own rooms, and plenty of space throughout. It's a very old house (most of hte rooms have fireplaces in them, but not mine :-( ) so there are definitely a couple kinks we're working out. Such as a lot of windows that are either painted shut, nailed shut, or just fall apart if you try to open them. We do have a really nice porch/balcony on the 2nd floor, which makes up for a lack of yard. The presence of the porch makes me a little bit extra sad about the rule of having a dry house, but so is life.

I love everyone in this program. I really really do. As in many similar situations, I know that there are some 'kindred spirits' I will be closer with, but I am so happy to be living in community and having dinner with 20 people at a time. This honeymoon period will not last, but I am loving it while I am in it. We did some high and low ropes team building during orientation and I really loved how we were able to come together during that and seriously kick some butt. And doing that kind of stuff in beautiful mountain-y area? Really cool.

I got to meet my supervisor for work yesterday! I am working at an agency called MetroCareRing. It's the largest food pantry in the metro area here in Denver. I really love the work they do because they go over the needs of each client and what is available in the pantry and include the client with the food choices instead of just handing them food. There is such a focus on treating people kindly and with dignity and there is no sense of any kind of hierarchy there. It's awesome. The staff there are so connected with one another, and they arent just co workers. Next week I have times set up to meet with each of them, including the executive director to just get to know their job better, and to get to know them as people. I will be doing a little of everything, but I have my own desk in a shared office, and my own extension and voicemail and such. Work starts on Monday!!

I will put up pictures from my first week here as soon as I figure out how to ( I'm terrible at this blogging stuff. Thus the very very simple set up).

If anyone is interested in finding out more about what I'm doing, or supporting the programs I'm a part of this year you can check out the Colorado Vincentian Volunteers or MetroCareRing!

I will post the next time I can get to Internet!