Raider of the Lost Ark(s)

Well, here's the thing. I'm supposed to be down here working with the Noah organization, volunteering at six local centers, which they call "Arks."

For reasons of confidentiality, I'd rather not refer to the places of the arks, since there are privacy issues.  But here goes the history as of Day 3.

Monday I was looking for Ark #1 at 2:00. I was in the area about 45 minutes early, but directions were off. I spent the next 2 hrs driving around a township (I asked a nearby gas station if it even WAS the right township, since the sign board listed on my directions was missing.)  I drove around long enough that I think I ended up on a first-name basis with some residents, as long as my first name is "that-idiot-in-the-grey-car."  Called the ark director for help, and she kept referring me to the first landmark in the directions. Hopeless.

After that, I decided to look for 2 other arks that were nearby.  For one, the last reference was a squatter camp. Would that be a destination or a landmark?  Then it says "you will see squatter camp you ask Noah center next to playground."  That's it. So where's the playground??

0 for 2 on arks.

One more should have been nearby.  Found the township. Found four-way intersections.  You'd think a church would be visible to the naked eye.  Gave up.

0 for 3.

On Tuesday, someone from Noah staff offered to drive me into the squatter camp. (It WAS the destination!)

Today, someone was to meet me at a day-care center to lead me to Ark 4.  Easy enough if you can find the day-care center.  Suffice to say that about 5 people gave me about 7 sets of directions.  What I didn't know is that the lady standing on the side of the street, whom I passed at least 6 times, was my "guide."  The day-care center: sign?  playground equipment? near road??  Naah.

We were 50 minutes late.  0 for 4.

There should have been an Ark 5 in the afternoon, but I didn't have directions.

Not that they would have helped.

0 for 5

That said, the 2 arks I DID see were wonderful, although different. At the first, we started with about 15 kids, late elementary to early middle school aged, working on some spelling stuff. By the time we finished, there were probably 45.

We were working with words that started with "A."  Some interesting words came up:  Aids.  Abuse.  Alcohol.  Another came up later, that I didn't catch at first, but clearly an abbreviation:  ARV.

ARV?

Anti-retro-viral.

Ouch. Reality check.

As Wendy and I discussed later, good that they're learning some of these things.  Sad that they have to.