A Road Trip of a Lifetime

Last Thursday, I had my first visit from the West Coast. Alan came out to do a short road trip on the East Coast. I picked Alan at the Baltimore airport up just after midnight on Thursday and we drove to a hotel about 30 minutes outside of Washington D.C. to spend the night. The next morning we parked our rental car and hopped onto the metro into D.C. We stepped off the Metro at the Smithsonian stop and immediately when we got off we heard bull horns blaring. One guy was yelling, "audit the fed." Once we ran past the people asking us to sign petitions, we realized the ugliness of the National Mall. In between the Washington Monument and the Capital building was not much more than a mile of dead grass. After taking a few pictures, we found our way into a few different Smithsonian museums. It didn't take too long for the fossils in the natural history museum to become boring so we decided to head over to the Holocaust Museum. We picked up tickets to go through the exhibit later in the afternoon so we could grab a bite to eat first.

Alan and I are extremely indecisive. We walked around for close to an hour before deciding to go to a Thai restaurant for lunch. We had an awesome lunch and then began our long walk to all the sites. We walked to the White House, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, and the Capital Building (After the trip, we mapped out how far we walked and it added up to 10 miles). After seeing all these sites we headed back to the Holocaust Museum and did a quick tour of the exhibit. The exhibit was intense and I am looking forward to going back there in October to spend more time.

That night we left D.C. to visit some friends in Virginia. On the way to Virginia, we decided to stop for dinner at Five Guys, an awesome burger chain out here. This was the first of many times we found ourselves lost on the drive to Virginia. We arrived in Charlottesville, VA around midnight at our friend Justin's house. Catching up with him for a couple hours after we arrived was great.

Spending the weekend at Justin's house was refreshing after spending so much time at the crowded International House back in Millersville. On Friday morning we made a huge breakfast and headed out to see Charlottesville. Justin took Alan and me to the University of Virginia and then to Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello. These were both incredible sites to see, but not the best part of our trip. Next, we headed out to the Atwell's house for dinner. Alan and I hadn't seen the Atwells since they left Modesto five years ago to come out to Charlottesville to start a church called Portico. Hanging out and reminiscing with friends was my highlight of this trip.

Driving through Pennsylvania, Maryland, D.C., West Virginia, and Virginia was fun to see each of these states. On our way out of Virginia, Alan and I stopped at a winery by the name of Veritas and did some quick wine tasting. On the 5 hour drive up north to Pennsylvania, I introduced Alan to Dunkin Doughnuts because out here America truly does run on Dunkin or at least I do.

We arrived back in Lancaster on Sunday night. On Monday morning I showed Alan the Amish countryside. In the afternoon he came into HOPE with me and sat in on a meeting. Our trip was winding down and the next morning I drove him to the airport in Baltimore. This was an awesome break to this summer's internship.

Since I was gone this weekend, I had to do some mowing on Tuesday evening after work. It was 90 degrees when I left the office and by 5:45 I was mowing in the rain. Lightning bolts were splitting the sky. I kept thinking, "hmmm, I wonder if I should be mowing in this lightning storm." I am learning to roll with the punches out here whether that be at HOPE or when I am mowing. My experiences this summer has taught me to be more flexible and spontaneous. I thank God for today and know tomorrow isn't a promise but this verse is comforting as I am growing this summer.

For I hold you by your right hand-- I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, 'Don't be afraid, I am here to help you.'

Isaiah 41:13 (NLT)

Amish Adventures, Philly cheesesteaks, Patience, and the Future

In my last post, I wrote that I had made a trip out to Philadelphia, but didn't talk about it much. The night before Philly, Deirdre (my office mate) took all the interns on a journey through Amish country. It was a lot of fun driving through the countryside and seeing a lifestyle completely different than the way we live. It is pretty incredible how young the Amish kids start working around the farm. We saw boys that couldn't have been more than 10 years old steering the mules while another family member operated the hay bailing machinery attached to the mules. A couple minutes later we were driving down the road and passed a girl who was probably 11 or 12 and she was driving a mini horse and buggy with two other little girls in the buggy with her. I don't think I could drive a horse and buggy. I think the Amish children are given responsibility much younger than most kids. At one of the Amish farms, we bought whoopie pies. They are pretty incredible. It is more or less two pieces of cake with some sort of frosting in the middle. That could be a bad thing to become addicted to while out here in Lancaster. Seeing horse and buggies driving down the road on my first night in Lancaster was a pretty shocking yet incredible experience. Unfortunately, I have become numb to seeing the Amish around the area. It is just another way of life in Lancaster County.

Philadelphia is a great city, that is if you are in the right part of town. Below is a picture of the Philly group atop the Rocky steps, with the skyline in the background. I've been to Philadelphia three times now and each time I go there, we try a different philly cheesesteak joint.

It is incredible how popular these cheese steak restaurants can be. The lines can be a couple blocks long and take longer than an hour to get your food. It's a great experience but I would trade quality for quicker service. Below is Geno's Steaks, a really popular place to get steaks. Yesterday, we made a day trip to Philly and got cheese steaks at Jim's, another popular restaurant on South Street. South Street is supposed to be like Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I could never live in an area like this because it is crowded, touristy, and dirty. As I've said, there are some great places in Philly and some places that are not so great. I didn't like South Street too much and once we finished our steaks, we went straight to the car and left.


This summer has been an incredible experience on many different levels. After accepting my internship with HOPE, I began to question if this was the right direction for me to go after graduation. Now over 2 months into my stay out in Lancaster, I can say I made the right decision. It has spurred spiritual growth with me as a result of me being out of my element. Working for HOPE has developed invaluable relationships with people from all over the United States. I have been praying for increased patience and I think my patience has been challenged this summer. Graduating from Point Loma and then immediately coming out to Lancaster to volunteer during the week and then mow lawns on the weekend wouldn't have been my first choice in post college plans a couple years ago. I've always thought that after graduation, the pay checks would begin to roll in. This economic climate has redirected my journey. I am thankful for my patience being challenged. I don't think there are many people who go get a degree from a private university and then subsequently start mowing lawns for income. My prayer for this summer and my subsequent journey lies around, "Not my will, but yours be done O Lord."

Each phone call with friends and family back home, the same question is asked of me, What are you doing next? I don't have a definitive plan today, but a blurry image of what the future may hold. I have committed to volunteer with HOPE until the end of October and there isn't necessarily an open position for me at HOPE. I've asked advice from many individuals at HOPE and have struggled to make the decision to leave such a great organization where I love the work I am doing and the people I'm working with. Over and over, I have been told of how important for-profit experience can be. Just because I leave HOPE and start working in the for-profit world, doesn't mean I can't come back to work for a non-profit in the future. I am hoping to go back to San Diego in the late fall for a couple of different reasons. It is where my business network is, I have a couple great friends that are still out there, and I really enjoyed living there during college. I am taking my decisions day by day, so my plans could change next week, but today this is what the future looks like in my mind.

The intricacies of Microfinance

Day by day I have been unknowingly piecing together my understanding of microfinance (MF). I've come to realize that MF isn't as simple as Muhammed Yunus makes it out to be in his immensely popular book, Banker to the Poor. Here is a Banker to the Poor in a nutshell...

In Yunus' book, he describes how micro loans can be a solution to solving poverty around the globe. Yunus' explains how these loans can be given to the riskiest segment of the world's population, without collateral, and how the loans will pull these people out of poverty. The loans are given out in groups, so if one borrower doesn't pay his or her monthly interest payment, the group must come up with that sum before subsequent loans may be given out. One reason why people pay back their loans is because of the social pressure that is inflicted by the group. The repayment rate for these micro loans given out by Grameen Bank (Yunus' bank), has historically been over 99%. It seems so simple. Give a poor person a loan, collateralize it in a group, poor person pays back their loan, and poof, the person is released from the grip of poverty. I know that is a very quick and insufficient explanation of MF, but it will do to illustrate my point.

Since being at HOPE, I have seen many different side's of MF that weren't mentioned in Muhammed Yunus' book. It isn't all about passing out money to the poor and then collecting it with a little interest. There are many departments or segments that make up a nonprofit like HOPE. Not everyone working for HOPE lives in a third world country and passes out loans. Some people deal with the finances, others raise money, plan events, deal with spiritual integration, or market HOPE to the world. I've been working a lot on the development side of HOPE and that is very far from first hand passing out loans overseas. In the next few paragraphs I'll go through the logic of why development is so important, especially today. What does it take to give out loans???

Money!

Where does that money come from? Many different places, but someone (or many people) need to be seeking this money out through the form of donations, grants, etc. It takes an immense amount of effort to bring in money and in turn loan that money to entrepreneurs in developing nations. This summer I've realized how much I love to talk about the work HOPE is doing around the world, but it takes a strong strategy and a lot of persistence to effectively raise capital.

The next important question isn't a personal question, but is very broad and complicated question that affects HOPE and other nonprofits greatly...

What is the current state of the economy (both here is the States and around the world)? Let's take the current state of our economy and use this example...Say someone had $10 in their retirement account 2 years ago, today they now have $6. They still have their money, they haven't technically lost anything, it is just a loss on paper. Because of the psychological response to the downturn in the economy, people allowed fear to control their financial decisions and they sold shares in their retirement accounts, thus leading to a realized loss. Now that they have lost their money, they are afraid to continue with their philanthropic giving to organizations like HOPE. The fears that the downturn in the economy has produced, has made it extremely difficult to raise money because of the security in which people find in their money (or for this hypothetical example, retirement accounts).

Microfinance isn't as simple as I read a couple years ago in Banker to the Poor. There are many external variables that affect MF and many different roles within organizations like HOPE that are integral to loan out money and ultimately help the poor pull their families out of poverty.

Moving away from MF, I have been all over the Northeast the past three weeks. Three weeks ago, I was up Western New York and Canada. Last weekend, I was in New York City and yesterday I was in Philadelphia. It almost feels like I am studying abroad (domestically) all over again because of the many new places I'm visiting. I wasn't a big fan of New York City. Too many people, tall buildings, crowded sidewalks, and stinky streets. I did love the food we had while we were there. We went to a really nice Italian restaurant, a French cafe, and had a Chinese lunch called Dim Sum. The highlight of the weekend was definitely going to Monk's Restaurant from Seinfeld. It was a relief to head back to Lancaster after a busy weekend in New York. The city life isn't for me.

This was my first trip back to Philly since my frightening experience of being lost on the city bus system after flying into PA back in June. I enjoyed this trip much more than I was expecting. Lauren, Mike, Michael and I had Philly Cheese steaks at Geno's. After we dropped Michael off at the airport, the rest of us toured some of the sights. The City of Brotherly Love felt much more manageable to me than New York. Traffic, parking, and overall congestion in the city wasn't too bad. The highlight of this trip was running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (the steps Rocky ran up).

The past couple weekends have been a blast traveling around the Northeast with the other HOPE interns and I think it's about time to take a break from traveling for a few weeks. We'll see about that...