The first day of orientation

Today begins the first full day of orientation. After breakfast we had a hour of devotions, which included readings, hymns, and meditation. Then we had two sessions about the history of MCC and the structure of MCC - not like anything I've ever studied in management class. It's confusing, but I won't bore you.

This orientation group is the largest in MCC history, and we had a photo taken before lunch. In the afternoon I met with Ed Martin, who is the director of Central and South Asia, and all the other Central and South Asianites. There are two others going to Bangladesh, Jerry and Ethel Shank, and 6 going to Indonesia.

MCC had a huge increase in donations this year due to the tsunami. This is a good thing, but most of the donations are designated to tsunami relief only, and cannot be used in places that need it even more.

Ed also talked about how MCC is focusing on moving away from direct implementation and towards local partnerships. This is especially true in Bangladesh. MCC used to have a lot of staff and a large hand in what went on, but now they are turning the control over to the citizens of Bangladesh.

Next we had the Staff Tea with the MCC staff from Akron. However, as Mennonite convention is this week, 2/3 of them were absent. We also toured the MCC offices, which were also deserted.

During the tea I realized that Maria's cousin David, whose family we stayed with in Paris last March was sitting beside me. He had been working in New York City with the United Nations prior to March, but just came back again recently for another 6 months in New York and was touching base in Akron. It's such a small world.

In the evening we had story time, and learned more about the history of MCC. I then managed to get lost going to Kmart, which is literally a minute from the MCC village. I somehow ended up in Ephrata before I figured out how to get back.