A long time coming...

So I haven't posted anything in well over a month and that means that a lot of things have happened since then: SAFV's Holiday Party, a trip home to Long Island, several weeks back in Sitka, and Massachusetts electing a Republican to the Senate?!

In the week or so before heading home for Christmas, a significant amount of my work time was spent preparing for the shelter's holiday party for residents and a number of other women and families that the shelter has served over the past year or so. In total we had roughly 50 attendees and it was a really fun, uplifting event to be a part of. On one hand, the smiles and happiness that emanated from the women and children made all of the preparations, gift wrapping, and clean up more than worth it. On the other hand, the generosity that came from throughout the community and beyond was inspiring and humbling to witness and be a part of. In preparation of the party, we reached out to several local grocery stores and businesses for donations of party supplies and food and their responses were all very positive and garnered support from my own JV community as well as FJV help in the daunting task of gift wrapping all of the presents that Santa gave out at our party. The gift and goods donations that SAFV received during the Christmas season was overwhelming (I did not feel like I could see another Christmas gift after our party was over.) Each year the shelter receives a donation from the Today Show Gift Drive from NBC in New York and their donation this year was absolutely incredible. Given that both Meg and I are from New York we both got fairly emotional sorting through all of the gifts that they sent and thinking about their origin. The community support that SAFV receives is generally very constant and positive but the support this holiday season was incredible; we received a number of gifts from the local giving tree set up at the bank, the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station donated their giving tree presents to our shelter's children and the shelter on the whole received a large number of donations (food and otherwise from Alaska Airlines in Sitka, the Coast Guard, the elementary schools and individual members of the community) that helped to provide a powerful holiday celebration and continue to enable us to better provide for the needs of the women and children that we work with.

A few days after SAFV's party, my roommates and I began traveling home for Christmas. Before leaving town though, I had the opportunity to celebrate the Winter Solstice with Katie and Greg by attending a Christmas parade in town and a bonfire at the home of a friend of Bridget's (our support person.) We had some great conversations, good food (I had a smore that was made with a Reese's Cup instead of a Hershey Bar!!!), and we sang Solstice songs. It was a lot of fun and a great way to close out our time together before Christmas.

After traveling for what seemed to be an eternity and spending a mostly sleepless night in Seattle (yes I was Sleepless in Seattle...that's for you, Mo) I finally arrived home in New York 2 days before Christmas. It was really nice to see my family and spend some time catching up with everyone at home and Christmas, while a very long day, was really nice too. I also had some time during my trip home to see a good number of friends who live in the area (and some who don't) and it was really nice to hear about all the incredible things that they are doing all over the country and to find that even though we hadn't seen each other in months (and hadn't really talked too often either) that nothing had truly changed with our friendships.

Upon returning to Sitka, it was nice to see three of my roommates in the Seattle airport and spend some time catching up with Greg about break and then the others once we were home. Since then, work has been fairly exciting with lots of changes coming to the shelter and some changes coming to my own work. With regards to the shelter, one of the families that I have been working with since I arrived finally was able to move into their own place!! It was really sad to see them leave the shelter but so life giving to see how happy and excited they all were about moving into their own home and being able to move forward together as a family.

With regards to my job, Meg and I are starting to work more closely with the shelter's prevention coordinator in hopefully getting some sort of healthy relationship class or curriculum in place at the local middle school. I have also had a few conversations with her and am going to begin facilitating a focus group of men from the community who are interested and hopefully committed to taking a stand against Intimate Partner Violence and promoting healthy relationships in the community. This is still in the very early stages of planning but I am thinking that the White Ribbon Campaign or some other community action that the men can take a lead on would have a positive impact in the community and begin to make some real change in the perceptions that many have of violence against women and reduce (and eventually eliminate) its prevalence in Sitka and beyond. If anyone has any ideas I am most definitely open to hearing them so please pass them along.

After 2 weeks of rainy and overcast days, it has been clear, sunny and coldish (high 30s low 40s) for the past week or so. My housemates and I have taken advantage of the weather and gotten outside as much as we can. We took a short hike with a few friends a couple weekends ago, had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows and had a Sitka wide scavenger hunt for our community night which although I was soaked with rain was an absolute blast! Well done Katie for planning! On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Katie, Evie and I took advantage of a precipitation-less day to hike up Mt. Verstovia (pictures will follow.) The temperature seemed warm (I decided to wear shorts) but at about 1200 feet, it started snowing and we were walking through a few inches of snow. We aren't sure how high up we actually got but we turned back once the snow falling starting impeding our vision and there were 6+ inches of snow on the ground. It was a really nice trail with a lot of lookouts and I am really excited to get back out there in the spring. The clear weather and longer days (we are up to 8 hours of sunlight now!) has also meant that I have taken more walks down by Totem Park and along the beach at low tide. Meg and I went for a tide walk on Saturday and found lots of crabs, snails, an eel, and what we are told might be the barnacles off of a humpback whale (random I know but also awesome.)

This weekend also provided us with yet another unique opportunity: dinner with the bishop! On Saturday night we had dinner with Bishop Burns from Juneau and Fr. Scott at St. Gregory's. The bishop is a really personable man, gave what I considered to be a really good homily and really took an interest in learning more about us as individuals and reaching out to as and ensuring that we know how much he admires and appreciates all of the work we do as JVs in Southeast Alaska. He is what I always thought a bishop should be like but had yet to truly encounter in past experiences. At the end of dinner, he invited us to have dinner with him when we are in Juneau for our second retreat in a few weeks and we extended an invitation to him to watch any and all of the Conference Championship games at our house on Sunday. Now many of you will think that he would have politely declined and gone about his day. But since I have come to expect the unexpected this year, I knew that he would probably stop by for at least part of the game, and he did! He called us at the end of the fourth quarter of the Saints-Vikings game and came over to watch overtime with us. Even though he and Fr. Scott were rooting for the Vikings (basically Brett Favre) we enjoyed the end of the game. I am torn about who to root for in the Super Bowl but think I am going to stick with my admiration for Drew Brees as both a football player and an individual who is truly working for change in New Orleans and root for the Saints in two weeks.

Aside from all that has been going on, I recently read John Krakauer's book about Pat Tillman (Where Men Win Glory) and I highly recommend it. I have also spent a good amount of reflection time thinking about the challenges I have and continue to face this year, the ways I am challenging myself (and can further challenge myself), how I am challenging my housemates, how I am being challenged by them and what it all means. It is definitely a lot to think about but it was really beneficial to explicitly think about my challenges, the way that I am approaching them and realizing the impact that they are having on me as I go through this experience.