Day 42: But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before.

Feeling much better, it was back to my job at Sasha Bruce today! On the way in, I read Sonnet 42 and briefly chatted with an old friend/twin of mine.

Home Sweet Home
It's so educational to be on the other side of the desk. Today, I was in charge of the front desk in Sasha Bruce's main administrative building. Gina McClain (who usually holds down the fort) was out today, and Carolyn Eaves (who works with her) was very busy with a media event going on at REACH (the all boys' house). My duty from Carolyn was to answer the phone and direct callers to the appropriate extension, and my simultaneous assignment from Vera was to organize stacks of her papers. It was a fun day! When Priya and I were younger, we used to play "office," and "call" one another from hotel phones, all the while frantically writing "memos" and "reminders" for our make-believe real estate business. Well, this was basically my day. (Needless to say, Priya was pretty jealous when I told her I got to do this for real!)

A message from Gina's desk . . .
Over lunch, I got to see Jessie again! With Ashley, we grabbed sandwiches from Subway and then returned to Jessie's office through the rain for a great conversation about the actual organization of organized protest. I was proud to recognize 4 of the artists whose songs played on one of Jessie's Pandora playlists -- Never Shout Never, Meiko, Lenka, and Lily Allen. Good stuff. :)

After lunch, SBY's Executive Director Debbie Shore passed by my desk. When I mentioned I had been in Brazil, she told me that Sasha Bruce actually has an exchange program with Brasilia, and representatives from there will be coming here to DC over the next few weeks. She invited me to meet with them and share my "favela experiences" -- I certainly look forward to doing so!

The afternoon got much busier. Since most of the administrative staff attended the media event at REACH, I was left to "handle" the office! This was more challenging than one might expect, and really fun. After checking in with Vera and helping her get organized for a conference she will be attending tomorrow, I headed back downtown to meet Papa.

As I was writing this post, NANI ARRIVED!! ("Nani" = "Mama's Mama" in Hindi.) So now, if you excuse me, I am going to go spend time with NANI!

Nani and Priya at the lake in Chandigarh several years ago.

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