I'm going to live in Baltimore!

I got a call from the D** M****** House and they offered me the position. I have two days to decide, so I thought I would call the Jesuit Volunteer who has it this year and ask her how she liked it. I had a very nice conversation with her. Barbara has a very bubbly personality and she got a job teaching in Baltimore so she's going to be living a block away from us next year and showing us around. After talking to her I decided to take it.

So, a little more information about what I'm doing. There are actually two houses next to each other that make up the Miller house, with a total of 10 people with the HIV virus living in them. With today's medicine, people with HIV are living a lot longer. My boss said that when she started 7 years ago someone would die about every three months, but now you can live for years. One guy has a better immune system than most people without HIV. But there are still some bad side effects, like kidney failure, blindness, etc. We have 8 hour shifts and it's possible to bike or ride there from the JV house, but not a night because it's too dangerous. They have two people who do the overnight shift, so I'd only have to do that one every other weekend. Overall, it looks like I have a lot of flexibility. I'd be doing things like cleaning their rooms, making meals, gardening, and socializing. The assistant manager (who does scheduling) is a former Jesuit volunteer, so he's understanding about retreats and things like that.

I'll be sharing a house with three other Jesuit volunteers, and we'll be living in Charles Village, next to Johns Hopkins University. I'll be able to get online at the university, so I'll be able to update my diary. We get $280 a month to spend on food ($70 a person), as well as enough money to buy a bus pass. A group of Jesuit priests lives two blocks away, and they're the spiritual support.

So it sounds really awesome, and I can't wait!