College in Speed Mode

Goin' places that I've never been.

Seein' things that I may never see again

-Willie Nelson, On The Road Again

Okay, pictures are up, I'm exhausted, and two days of Institute are done.  I'm feeling good for the most part though!  This is my first official moment to myself, all work obligations done.

To give you a run-down of my day, we are all split into groups that go to different sites.  My particular site has to be up, dressed, fed, and on a bus at 5:55am. Again-EARLY!  The days are long, filled with lots of sessions, TONS of information, and learning content at a super-fast speed.  I feel like I'm pretty well-acustomed to educational classes, long classes, and little sleep from college, and these all feel the same, just at a faster pace.  The bus ride to my site alone is over an hour long, one way!  We were driven through one part of the community and it was really disheartening.  I've known there would be a level of poverty, but I was not expecting it to the level of extreme that I saw.  Houses were missing doors, windows, falling in, had water below them, tons upon tons of beer bottle broken and thrown everywhere.. As sad as it was, I was at that point more inspired than I had been the whole time to do this.  I'm ready to make a change, help close the achievement gap, and help these kids know there is more to life, and a path to higher knowledge so they choose to have it.

We did have an Opening Ceremony for Institute Monday night as well, in the midst of a huge thunderstorm!  We all used trashbags as ponchos to run from the cafeteria to our dorms, dry off, then cross a mini flooded road to get to the auditorium!  It was actually kind of fun!

Tuesday (today) started out with a bang as well, but once again-I'm tired! Time to get to bed!  I'll write more soon! (Sorry to cut this short!)

-Love from the Delta!