Volunteering for SISTER'S CAMELOT

1) Sister's Camelot

The photo at least if a part of the Sister's Camelot Bus. This bus is what one looks for in south Minneapolis if they want free organic food. Today, I volunteered to assist them in their magical duties.

Leah ( a neighbor at the Pumpkin Palace ) and I went to their location at 36th and Chicago at 9:45. It seems their website it out of sync with their true volunteer times - as no one was there until 10:30AM. No big deal, we chilled out and waited. We met Tracy and the infamous Eric the bus driver.


We first drove to the warehouses. Both are the Twin Cities largest provider of organic foods. One is Co-op Partners Warehouse, then to the ( ? ) warehouse which is quite larger.

The first beneficiary of our newfound foods was The Jackpine. They are another collective that is essentially a meeting place where activists can organize. They are located at 2815 East Lake Street and open 7 days a week.

Our next stop was 1st and Lake Street - right next to McDonald's. I wish I had my camera because it was quite humorous. Here we are giving out organic vegetarian food next to a corporation that sells empty calories and meat. Can things have been any weirder? But that is just how it was - very memorable if you ask me!

Anywho, that went quite quickly - though I did not get home until about 3pm. But I got a box of free organic foods - which I gave most away to neighbors. After all, I can't make it to the neighbors meetings so I might as well support them. It is also worth pointing out that the founder of Sister's Camelot lived in the Pumpkin Palace when he started it.

I made myself lentil soup for dinner. Yumminess.

Then at 6 I went to a Somali store and bought another phone card - TC Express is what all the Oromos are raving about for calling Nairobi. So I will call Phanice using it this weekend.

Then onto the Carlson School of Business for the SC meeting....

2) Green Party Steering Committee Meeting

The meeting went very well. It is interesting that the Minnesota Greens are still very interested in having the GPUS convention in Minneapolis for 2008. This will most likely occur before the Republicans, but there are no guarantees with the Greens. The Global Greens will have their 2008 convention in Nairobi. Phanice should be in Minnesota before next year May, so she will have to miss it. ( though never proclaimed to be a Green, she holds similiar values )

Anywho, I am just glad that we got a lot accomplished and look forward to our next meeting in May. I am certainly optimistic about the Anti-Racism Training we have scheduled for the 20th. Though I am still reluctant to call the Green Party Meetup any sort of "success" until more show up to them. So always more to work on and strive for. But am upbeat about current successes.

Are there more who care?

I was able to talk to Phanice early this morning. She is doing well in Nairobi, and is glad that myself and her sister Ruth can visit her soon. Our chat didn't go as smoothly as it has in the past, and I wasn't sure why. But after we talked, a huge storm hit and Phanny wasn't able to take a bus to the downtown cybercafe to e-mail me.

I got a letter from CARE stating that the Horn of Africa had just gone through months of drought and was now being hit by seasonal storms. The storms are very excessive causing massive floods. Phanice told me about this in her letter:
...was to write you a mail yesterday but i got messed by the rains,they are too much here,all the plans i had aborted,its that bad.At the coast its flooded n a number of people havelost there lives.All we can do is just to pray and hope that it ends soon coz if it goes on like this,several people are going to get messed.

While many I know are cynical about donating money, I am not. I gave money to Sarvodaya when the tsunami hit Sri Lanka. That was while I was in Kuwait leaving soon for Iraq. I always wish I could help more, but know that my current economic constraints will not always be so. I also pray that more people would care.

For all the giant big screen plasma tvs, Playstations, and SUVs people buy - I wish more could live ligher and donate more to effective causes. I pray that more become conscious of the suffering in our world and compassionately work to improve our world.