Earth and East LA

Google Earth has become my new friend. I love it! I can spend hours just roaming the world looking at Victoria Falls (it whups Niagra's tail!), my mom's house, L'viv, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, etc. Also it was helpful in figuring out how East LA looks, Phoenix, El Paso, Tucson, Santa Fe and more. You can even visit the Grand Canyon. Furthermore, I found out that Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Park (2 places I need to see!) are both really close to LA; also LA really is in the Mojave Desert, which makes me all the more happy about the fact that.....I probably am moving there! I had my interview with the East LA program a couple days ago (3 hours long--whew!) and they like me and I told them I'm 90% sure I'm coming. But I still have an interview with Phoenix tomorrow so you never know. And to make things even more confusing maybe I'll just throw in the towel and decide to not go anywhere at all. Now here's the thing about East LA--this is where infamous Hollenbeck is (gangs galore). But I'd be living in a convent (no nuns though, just the volunteers) attached to a Hispanic church, and they've had no problems before. My job? Working in a very poor Catholic school 5 days a week and perhaps getting to do some prisoner work in the evenings. Yay! My favorite parts of the interview had to be: 1) when I told Sister J. that something friends complain about with me is that I often commit myself to something I really can't do. (Like say, "Yeah, I can do that" but then not do it at all.) Sister was like, "OK you need to open the Bible and read it on your own time. It's called honesty." Whoa! 2) When I asked her if there was any work I could do with gangs in East LA and she sounded confused for a second then said, "Well, I mean, you're right in with the gangs!" I love Sister J.!!!