a long stretch of road: Some shots of the other volunteers

No big surprise, but I've been spending a lot of time hanging out with the other volunteers. It's been really cool, they're all great people and it's been fun getting to know them. I was a little concerned at first what types of folks would be here with me. The crowd is definitely different than the sorts of people I've been hanging out with in NY the last few years, and I definitely miss that scene, but the people here have been very open and nice. It's also been cool to talk to people who are a lot more religious than I am and get a reminder that it's possible to be Catholic and still be open-minded. I've been stereotyping religious folks for a while and it's good to be called out on it.
Like I had mentioned in an earlier post, there are 24 of us here volunteering, 12 of us just started and the other 12 have been here for six months already. There are actually more people from Germany here than from the US. Apparently Germany has a mandatory year of military or volunteer service after high school for all men, so non-profits are huge over there. They just did away with that law this year so there's been a drop in the number of male volunteers, but there are still a ton of Germans here.

Out for lunch in Antigua with the group (missing two). Around the circle starting from the left: Janelle (US), Me (US), Charlotte (US), Nicole (Ger), Ani (Ger), Marlene (Austria), Stephanie (US), Veronika (Austria), Elena (Italy) and Liz (US). Only missing Holger (Ger) and Karla (Guat)

Me and the girls stopping for some ice cream. Interesting experience when you dont know what flavor anything is and you have to order by color. Makes it a little more exciting :)