“You
sure have a lot of training?” My
roommates have said a few times. Monthly,
our giant calendar has “Argentina” training on it at least once. Yes, we have had a training day in
Blacksburg with the RYLA Conference (Rotary Youth
Leadership Awards) and an
amazing District Conference in Greensboro where we met Rotary Peace Scholars,
Fellows and Rotarians. Really, we
got a much better idea of what our experience will look like (4 days in a
different city, host families) and sessions on culture preparations, packing
and more. The weekend, above all,
gave me a MUCH better idea on the wide and wonderful outreach of Rotary and
their international care and connections with culture and people.
However,
overall, I needed to explain to my roommates: “A lot of our training is getting
to know each other as a team. We
want to make sure when we get over to Argentina for a month and have a base of
relationship.”
So
far, on that note, mission accomplished.
One thing is certain for our team…we are going to laugh a lot. For Stuart and Joe (or Jose, Jose
Perro, J-Dawg) they get loopier and funnier when tired. The other certain piece of our
tried—being tired---sets us all up for laughter. So far we have had good conversations about trip concerns
and we have laid questions and hopes on the table. It is refreshing and comforting knowing that with our trip
of unknowns we can rely on each other.
Specifically, more than once, Joe has heard a concern of me missing a
writing conference (my profession) and advocated and brought up scheduling
around them. I have seen this behavior
of care and concern through each of our teammates. Their bios will be listed under their names but here is my quick
take on them:
Oakley- our
fearless leader is a musician and speaks Spanish. One of our “trainings” was at
his historic house in Staunton with the hospitality of himself and his gracious
wife Margaret. She could be on the team too because she has a great sense of
humor. Both of them researched
typical Argentine cuisines and blessed us accordingly. Oakley used to own a plant shop in D.C.
and his house has so many beautiful examples. I asked him how long it would take to water all the plants
and he said about 1 ½ hours to water them all at once.
Stuart- is one of the hardest working people of
our age (team members must be 25-40 years-old) I’ve met. He flows with impressions, movie quotes
and stories. We will never be
bored with Stuart around and I like hearing about anything historical (or
anything really) from his memory-amazing-mind.
Joe- is a family
man with three boys and a lovely wife named Maria (we haven’t met her yet, but
the loving way he talks about her…we all want to). I like how Joe appreciates the small things and
literature. He told me on our car
ride home from Oakley’s that I reminded him of his sister and that might be why
he likes being around me so much.
That makes my heart feel happy and comfortable.
Pam- a.k.a.
Smalz wears lots of hats in our group (for real she looks wonderful in
hats…Pam, take this as a request to pack some for our trip). Seriously, she brings a unique and
quick humor to our group. When we
went uniform dress shopping, we both decided to try on “flight attendant
uniforms” just because. She is up
for anything and pitches in profusely with our team projects.
As we proceed
and wrap our minds more around this April 27-May 27th experience
that will be here before we know it; we seek to prepare with bios,
presentations, immunizations, documents etc. For more on that, stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on
“What does it mean to prepare?”
We are meshing
and not to be too hokey but really starting to care for each other.
So….”training” is going well.
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