Just got back from the Young Adult Friends retreat in West Virginia this afternoon. I was feeling kind of unenthusiastic before I left, because helping to get things ready for it was sort of a pain. I didn't actually end up doing that much aside from helping Rosie go shopping and going to a committee meeting, but whenever I'm involved in planning anything, I tend to overthink it and spend a lot of time worrying about it.

But in any case, the retreat turned out to be a ton of fun. We went to this Quaker retreat house in West Virginia on Friday evening and got back this morning. The drive up was a bit stressful because Rosie was worried about the directions and the last bit involved driving through some dark, narrow, rocky roads. When we got there, things began to perk up. There were a couple of people waiting and a "tree-house" structure for us to sleep in. It wasn't actually in a tree, but it was this large wooden structure that was stood on stilts on the side of a hill- no walls, but an obliging roof above. We laid out our sleeping bags on the floor and cooked up some mac and cheese as others arrived. Two of the new arrivals, Basil and Conamore, brought their dog Camilla, who was a great addition to the party.

Unfortunately, I didn't really get any sleep on Friday evening (and had gotten about four hours the night before) due to a bout of insomnia and the nighttime soundtrack featuring a couple of birds, a little snoring, and Camilla's occasional barking. So I was pretty tired when I woke up, but everyone was in a good mood in the morning. We had breakfast then a bit of worship-sharing for about an hour or so on the subject of simplicity. In the late afternoon/morning, we set off on a hike through the woods. It was mostly uphill for a while, which was definitely a work out for me, but it felt good, and hiking is really a good way to get to know people. The vibe reminded me a bit of the APA group when I was in Paris and we'd take side trips together- everyone's very genial and it's a great opportunity to have little chats with people. Plus some of the scenery was great. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch on a cliff face overlooking a bunch of rolling hills.

After we got back to the treehouse, everyone collapsed for about an hour and slept, then began to revive. I made chili for dinner with the help of Andrew, Barrie, and Calley. It turned out pretty well, and despite my worries that there would be too much, it was all gone just like that. After dinner, we all hung around in the tree house and then went down to the fire and made s'mores and sat around talking for a while. Some people stayed by the fire for a while longer singning, but I was tired and collapsed into slumber in the treehouse.

This morning, I woke up (yay, I woke up, which means I was asleep!) with everyone else. Basil patched together some of the food we had left (way more than we could actually eat) and we had bagel-poached egg-spinach-onion-cheese and tomato sandwiches for breakfast, follwed by the most restful Meeting I've had in quite a while. It made me remember some of the reasons that I kept going to Meeting this year. I'm never quite sure of my beliefs, but this morning I had moments where it seemed impossible to doubt that the Light was there with us.

I've basically spent the afternoon putting music into the iPod that Uncle Larry bought me. I was going to go contra dancing with Robin, but I decided I was too tired and wanted some alone time at the last moment. So now I'm sitting here listening to music and reflecting on the weekend. Nice.

Hm, I suppose this blog is supposed to be about Mali, isn't it? Well, I have been thinking about Mali a bit, but to be honest, the prospect of leaving DC is more on the forefront of my mind. I'll only be here another week and a half or so, and then it's home to Wisconsin and off traveling for a month or so before I leave for Mali. I've been feeling kind of mixed about this on and off, and I'm sure I still when I leave, but now that the end of my time here is staring me in the face, I'm feeling a bit better. Like now I can finally take some concrete steps in getting ready to leave. I'm no longer stuck in that "between-time" before I leave, and I think that's kind of a relief.

This morning when I was sitting in Meeting, I was trying to meditate a bit on the idea of home. The past few years, feeling at home anywhere and settling in has kind of been the last thing on my mind. I've been more interested in exploring. But as I was thinking about my time in DC, it seemed to me that I could really make this place a home and be very happy here. That made me feel kind of satisfied, as if even if I'm leaving, I can always come back. Not that I didn't know that before, but it just felt like more of a comforting idea this morning than it has.

Well, I think that's it for now. I promise to write more about my thoughts on the Mali trip and what I'm learning about Mali in future posts.