post ten - oatmeal and stuff

june 11, 2008 (wednesday night)

oatmeal for breakfast was a lot less glamourous than i thought it would be. i don't think my stomach wanted that much food when i woke up. i was glad for it though. come noon lunchtime i was really hungry, but the oatmeal stuck around longer than cereal would have. YAY! whole grains! after breakfast our devotions this morning were great. Patti led them; the primary focus was God's sovereign power within a situation. I thought it was great especially recognizing the context of our trip here.



After devotions, jim handed us all sheets with topics to choose from and he sent us all into downtown hartford to go to their impressive library and research hartford's north end. we had six hours but i still don't feel like it was long enough. my topic was economics. the other people's topics were history, demographics, and ecuation. i have my notes on all of it, but it's not worth writing them all here, so if you want to talk sometime, i've got the info.



Soem quick facts though: connecticut is america's wealthiest state. hartford is america's second poorest city. the area we are staying in has a median income of $20,000. two thirds of people here rent their home, and less than a quarter of the people who live here own the house they live n. This also has huge implications for how they view their communities and their own personal worth. Also, the unemployment rate is