World AIDS Day

This Friday, 1 December, is World Aids Day. Bristol- Myers is donating a dollar to AIDS everytime someone goes to their website and moves the match to the candle and lights it. Please forward this to your friends to spread. It takes one second to raise a dollar (and it's a nice website).
https://www.lighttounite.org/

The Tigers

THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!

WORLD SERIES BABY!!!!!

THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!
THE TIGERS WON THE PENANT!!!

June 2006 (pt 1)

So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Goodbye!

Saturday, approximately 4AM, Pascal drops the keys to his flat through the letter flap in my door, leaves the building, walks to the bus stop and begins the journey back to Germany. I am of course, asleep and it will be another 5 or 6 hours before I get up and find them lying on the floor. The afternoon before I watched the last half hour, the half hour overtime, and the kick-off of the Germany v. I-don’t-remember-who game with him and a couple of other German volunteers. I think telling you Pascal has been on television saying “Football is life” gives you enough of an idea about what that was like.

The point of the above tale? My first goodbye in a series of many that will and have already taken place in my last two weeks. Of these many goodbyes, there are some that I am looking forward to and feel I can’t say soon enough. Most others, though, I don’t know that I want to say “farewell!” just yet. And then there are the few that I’m somewhat ambivalent about. It’s the usual time-to-move-on-but-not-sure-if-want-to-going-to-happen-anyway conundrum. Certainly I am not the only one saying good-bye to people and places. At the college, there are students who have completed their course and may or may not be returning in the fall; there are staff who are moving on and saying goodbye to students and colleagues. At church there are persons retiring or graduating, often moving, and usually to another country. And of course, there are the other YAGMs, YAVs, and TfG-ers. It isn't necessarily a matter of being ready to leave. It’s life dictating now is the time to go.

I don’t know of anyone who really genuinely likes goodbyes. They are, in general, saying goodbye not for a short period of time, but forever. We are constantly changing, so each time we meet, even if it’s the difference from morning to night, we’re different people. Not drastically different, of course (unless there’s some major tragedy that befalls the day such as the oft talked about July 7th London bombings and 9/11). But the change is noticeable with long-term separations. As I say goodbye now, it’s not a “we’re going to keep in touch and visit when money allows trans-Atlantic journeys” but “Goodbye forever because the next time we meet, no matter how often we e-mail or call, the person I’ll present to you next time won’t be the same as the one hugging you now.” And when I land in Detroit in the no longer far off future, it won't really be "Welcome back!" but "Hello! Who are you?" Yeah... like I know!

And for some reason, the pictures I'm trying to upload don't actually want to upload, so you'll just have to wait a few days for part 2.

It Works!

So, I now know that it will work. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to write because I'm off in a few to see Milton's 'Paradise Lost' at the Hackney Empire. Last night I went the Globe Theatre with the young adult group from St. Anne's and saw Shakespeare's 'Titus Andronius.' Very bloody play. A few people in the audience passed out. Not because they're all squeamish but because of the poor air circulation (the hole in the ceiling which allows for natural lighthing) was partially blocked because of black sheets the director wanted up there for mood. That wouldn't have been so bad, but the director also had a smoke machine puffing out stage smoke at regular intervals for mood. We were standing for about 2 hours when the fainting began and some people, I'm sure, had not enough food throughout the day. Add it all up and it's bound to happen. Very well performed though! I'm sure an English major with a feminist bent could use all the violence, mutilation, and possessive treatment of women as fodder for a thesis.

And I've used up my available time. So I once again promise to try to get photos up in the next day or two and find a way to post the last couple months' newsletters. If you don't remember any such promises, it's because I made them but they didn't get posted.

Cheers! :-)

will this post?

Before I once again invest time in writing a post only for Blogspot to malfunction and me lose everything, I'm doing a test post. And this is it. I hope you have enjoyed it.

April and May Newsletters

The April and May newsletters have been sent! April a couple of weeks ago and May today. Unfortunately I have run out of memory on the tripod site to load them. And as I'm going on holiday starting tomorrow morning, it'll have to wait until I get back before I can remedy the problem with a new site. I really apologize. Especially to those of you whose computers have crashed trying to load them. Ouch.

Off to Manchester tomorrow am, Liverpool Saturday, Dublin Monday, Belfast Wednesday, and I don't really know beyond that. But I've got a ticket from Cardiff to London booked for Saturday. I'll see what happens.

And that's the update from here. About 45 days until I land back in Detroit. I'll get to see my cats!!!

March Newsletter

My March newsletter is now available online. Check it out at:
http://kdrefke.tripod.com/id15.html

Some Pictures from an outing with Service Users

On Tuesday 14 March, Pascal and I took Jackie and Tendai to Madam Tusaud's- the famous wax museum (btw- if you're planning a trip, unless you have cash to burn, it isn't worth the mega ammount of money you'll pay to get in). It was interesting-ish. Anyway, here some photos I took while we were there.
Enjoy!






This first pic is of Pascal and some famous footballer (soccor player to the US). I don't know which one. Pascal is 'always' talking about football. He likes to meet up with friends at a pub to watch the games.









This is a picture of Tendai with Tony Blair (UK Prime Minister) and George W. Bush. Tendai is the intelligent one in the middle.








And this last picture is of Jackie with the world's most famous and, depending on who you talk to, the most fradulent bard- William Shakespeare. My big goal for my last 100+some days is for Jackie to learn the letters of her name.