Back from Miriam's kitchen

8.36 am, and just back from Miriam's kitchen (am = morning, not like pm, for the non-english natives). It just hit me by leaving the kitchen that it my my time before last there, as really now our time in DC is counted. Who would think that I would have a big rush of nostalgia for peeling potatoes and cleaning dirty tables? Certainly the nostalgia has to do with the good people there, the great food, and the smiles and humanity of the homeless and hungry we serve, but still... I'm actually thinking in advance about how much I will miss spending two hours doing 'la corvee de pluches'.

Actually, it's really now that we entered November that I am beginning to think about how little time there is left. Next week, I will start the procedures to leave, getting organized for the move, dealing with human resources to close the contract, etc. Next week, I will also know whether the Ministry agrees with my working in Evry, or Gentilly ; whether I actually have to work longer for the Bank, as my boss hopes ; or whether I will have to come back to a temporary position somewhere in the Ministry. I am also beginning to think about how getting the things I am working on to a close, and how to transfer most effectively them to the right person.

And finally some sad and surprising news this morning from a friend - all the more so as nobody was talking about it at the kitchen - or not close to the potato peelers in any case. Miriam's was vandalized two days ago by an arsonist.

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washingtonpost.com > Metro
Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Room Where Homeless Are Fed Is Damaged
An arson in the basement of a Northwest Washington church early yesterday caused minor damage to a room where volunteers serve breakfast to about 250 homeless people a day, authorities and the church's pastor said.
The fire, which caused $10,000 to $20,000 in damage to the multipurpose room of Western Presbyterian Church, was extinguished by sprinklers before it could spread, said the Rev. John W. Wimberly Jr., the church's pastor.
"The arson investigators said that without the sprinklers, the building would have been toast," said Wimberly, who runs Miriam's Kitchen at the church, in the 2400 block of Virginia Avenue NW. "It's a very weird feeling to know someone out there wanted to burn down the church and we don't know who it is."
He said someone broke a heavy plexiglass window, poured gasoline in the room and ignited the fuel with a match. Alan Etter, a spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, said the fire, which set off an alarm at 3:10 a.m., had been mostly extinguished by the sprinklers by the time firefighters arrived.
Wimberly said homeless people who came for food yesterday morning cleared water and debris from the room and were served breakfasts as usual.