Hey-o

Been awhile, I have been busy, yes indeed I have. This past weekend was fun filled and volunteer filled ha. On Friday I had fun working at BICAS again, I'm getting to know the guys better and I'm actually working on bikes now so it's good. I can't wait until the end of the year and I know everything there is to know about bikes and how they work. Then that Friday night, Ana, my roommate who works at Catholic Community Services helping with refugees had some of her clients that were our age come over. It was one guy and his two sisters who were all early 20's. They had just arrived in the US from South Africa but were originally from Somalia so it was sweet getting to know them and hearing their stories. As it is was just me and Ana because both Amy and Audra were gone, we invited the 4 Jesuit volunteers, JVCers we know fairly well now so it was a small get together and a great time.

Saturday I woke up early and got a full body massage for free! because an ex-VSer who works at CHRPA, Kristi, is in massage therapy school and she needed volunteers for her final exam. I can totally volunteer for that so I jumped at the chance. In the end, great choice, massage was great, just what I needed and I felt very relaxed and zen. Then, that night it was one of the JVCer's birthday so we had a little party, hanging out, eating ice cream, talking and dancing to some sweet tunes. AND, the Presbyterian volunteers were getting back from a seminar thing and 4 of them came a little bit later and joined the festivities which was grand. I work with Luke who is a YAVer, young adult volunteer, so I had met him but it was the first time getting to know the other 3. They are all cool, and we are all cool and it was a cool time.

Sunday, I woke up at the crack of dawn, 6 am, to get picked up by my boss, Scott, and his younger son and friend to go mountain biking. Tucson is great like that, that you can drive 15 minutes to a sweet plot of desert full of trails just for mountain biking. I guess mountain biking is super popular here so there are trails all over, but Fantasy Island haha, where we went is real close. It was a swell time, out in the desert, ripping trails and cutting up some dirt. I hadn't mountain biked in awhile so it took me a little to get accustomed to the difference in street biking but after that it was so fun. You just have to watch out for cactus haha. After we got done biking, we drove straight to a park where some church/CHRPA people play ultimate frisbee before church and I we played some frisbee. I have to say, I got back home at around 10 and was utterly exhausted. So the rest of the day was spent napping and watching football.

Then last night, the YAVers invited us over to a house that they swam at earlier in the weekend and they were cooking the son of the people's whose house it is dinner in thanks. I hope that made sense, but I'm too lazy to proofread and not sure if that sentence was put together correctly. So me and Ana, for our last night alone went over to the house and played water volleyball, ate some delicious food and hung out with they YAVers and Sam, the son, who is actually our age going to the U of A.

Finally tonight, everyone is back, including our newest member Miriam who just got in from Evansville slash Kansas where she is from. I'm cooking dinner, which I'm pumped about, Greek fennel skillet, and we will all eat together as a full house. It's nice to have people around as it got a little lame and lonely with just me and Ana.

Until next time, keep your heart in your hand and your eyes to the sky.

Cheers, Daniel