What happens in Omaha, stays in Omaha...

So I got home last night from lovely (?) Omaha, Nebraska by way of Evanston. For anyone who wasn't clear on what I was doing, I was on an ASB trip to work with a refugee resettlement group there. ASB rocks my world, I highly recommend it to you all, and I invite you to join me on the spring break trip I will be taking somewhere as a compromise for having to spend this summer at home in Dayton.

ASB is hard to explain, but do let me say that I met some awesome people plus I got to spend time with Suj. I came home feeling both inspired by and frustrated with international politics and community organizations. We didn't do a whole lot that could be measured as concrete volunteer work, because we were only there one week and the organization we were working with was on probation (much to our suprise), but it was still an incredible experience. I know for sure now that I have to spend my life working for some sort of non-profit organization. Things I did do include: delivering Toys for Tots gifts to refugee families, working with Sudanese children in an afterschool program (see the picture below), organizing a warehouse of donated items for refugees, meeting with a variety of Sudanese, Somali, and Zimbabwean families and individuals, going out with a sixteen-year-old Sudanese girl to find clothing for her baby, sitting in on a variety of meetings and learning about community organizations, public health services, and grant writing, and eating lots of delicious Somali and Sudanese food.



We also had our share of non-volunteer related adventures such as sitting on the side of the road in Western Illinois for three hours Saturday evening because we ran out of gas, going roller skating with a crazy socially awkward bisexual "kind of a pyro" guy who worked at the church we were staying at, driving a long-ass time to arrive at an "aquarium" featuring some tanks of fish scooped out of the local ponds and rivers, visiting the world's largest truck stop in Iowa, exploring the booming nightlife of downtown Omaha, and having a post-ASB party Saturday night centered around margaritas, wine that tasted like grape juice, and everyone watching each other Facebook each other and creating a group (People in Omaha are Fucking Nuts, or something, if you're curious). I, therefore, continue to hate Facebook.

Today has been spent sleeping, researching summer internships (ahhh), convincing my mom to let me go to Morocco, finding ethnic vegetarian recipes, and watching Barbershop. The evening will probably be rounded out with some reading and more sleeping. Hooray for break. Love you all.