Happy Holidays from the Imani House!!

Dear Readers,

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at the Imani House. We hope this greeting finds you all happy, healthy, and ready to celebrate the holidays. Here are some updates and highlights form each of us.

Brent: This is a check-in from the most nerdy and awkward roommate from the Imani house. This has been a great and challenging year so far! At my placement, I’m in charge of finding people job opportunities, a difficult task in this economy. Consequently, I’ve had a hard time finding hope in this work, but my roommates, work staff, and clients have been incredibly supportive and driven me to maintain at least some on a daily basis. In case anyone is worried about my nerd level going down because of the social nature of my job, you don’t have to worry – other LVCers and myself are starting a dungeons and dragons campaign!

Mary-Eileen: I work at Sojourner Truth Academy Elementary School as a kindergarten assistant, after-school teacher, and . . . lunch lady! Yes, I am the lunchroom monitor at our school, and I’ve started a new lunchtime program called “Bring the White House to Our House!” We are leaning manners and writing letters to President Barack Obama inviting him to come have lunch with us in our new “Banquet Hall.” Outside of work, I’ve been busy crafting, cooking, and curling! My New Year’s resolution is to work less and workout more. I’m looking forward to going home (California) for Christmas—beaches, shorts, and sunshine!

Andi: Howdy to you all. 2009 is on it's way out, but it's been a full and good year for me. After journeying from Berkeley, CA to Mini-apple-lous, I find myself working for Lutheran World Relief and living in the Imani house. Next year I hope to worry less about getting things done - but my other resolutions include: learn the banjo, blog more, facebook less, read more books than there are days, understand the financial crisis of 2008, write more letters, apply to seminary, join a gym, climb a mountain, and (why not) take up birding. So here's to 2010!

Miranda: This year as been pretty great, if I do say so myself. After graduation I moved home to work at a migrant clinic and enjoy some home cooking. After spending most of my summer ensuring that I'd seen every episode of Friends, I moved to Minneapolis to start work at The Advocates for Human Rights through LVC. So far things are going really well, and I have enjoyed the challenge of learning about something completely new to me. In my spare time I have been playing in a local orchestra and rewatching episodes of LOST so I can be prepared for season six. Since my usual goals of working out never seem to pan out, my new year's resolution for 2010 is to sleep eight hours per night (or more!).

Maggie: While work has been slightly less productive than I had hoped for at my placement this year, I am finding creative ways to keep myself busy and fulfilled! I find myself facebook stalking often, helping to launch a progressive spiritual community in the twin cities and making/eating a lot of homemade popcorn. I also enjoy making Andi sing the “happy kitty” song daily. In 2010 I hope to hold myself accountable for sweating to the 80’s with Richard Simmons atleast once a week, taking more pictures of my life this year, and re-teaching myself how to do long division. Hooray for 2010!

Thanks for continuing to follow us through this blog this year. We hope that each of you is blessed this holiday season!

Love,

The Imani House

tis the season

The week before Thanksgiving was probably the low point of my time in LCV thus far. I was burned out of work, cohabitation, and just being in a place that was the polar opposite of my life last year. After a really rough day at work, in the heat of the moment, I woke up at 4:30am and decided to go home a day early for Thanksgiving. What a good choice that was. Over break I was able to watch infinite amounts of trashy TV, eat some gourmet food, spend time with my family and catch up with old friends...without any guilt! Although I wasn't ready to come back to MN, I was feeling much better about my situation and ready to tackle whatever came my way.

Although there are a lot of things I really hate about my job, this week has kind of put everything in perspective. The after school program is off an running...so seeing the kids twice a week has been a joy. I've been signing up residents all week for Toys for Tots...so it has been awesome seeing all the kids who will now have toys (even if they aren't necessarily for Christmas in most cases). We also did move ins this week and we had a family come straight from shelter...so it was really exciting to hand them the keys and give them a place to call home...just in time to beat the snow that came this week! A volunteer also donated a bunch of household things to this family so they could start their new life a little more comfortably. I feel like this week I finally felt needed. I was actually doing work that made a difference...and as selfish as that sounds...it felt really good.

So now we just need an epic dumping of snow on the ground...and the holidays will be in full swing! We are taking our Imani Christmas card pictures this week...so get excited...the blog will be updated later this week with all of our adorable pictures and updates