Rush Week

A month passed surprisingly quickly at the SLI. Roby and I settled into the tiny house loft awaiting the arrival of the interns. A group of us were hanging out in the yurt preparing dinner when a stranger walked in unexpectedly. He looked a bit disheveled from the road. Our first "freshman rushee" Paul had arrived:

Paul-27 years old, from a small town outside of Washington DC in Maryland. He grew up on a farm and our resident "mushroom" expert. Currently living in Adams Morgan. He is a computer information systems "geek" looking for a new adventure and home, maybe Portland. This is all we were able to get out of him before he gave us the look that he needed to wander off to his warm bed and pillow.

The interns were going to wander in sporadically the balance of the week. Two more were expected on Monday but only Chris arrived. Emily who was to fly in from Toronto but got denied at customs at the airport.

2nd Rushee- Chris-33 years old from Pittsburgh but has been wandering around the country for the past 14 years living in Colorado, Washington, and Northern California. He actually arrived at the SLI after a 3 month river kayaking trip to Chile. His latest stint was 2 years living in a tent working on an organic farm in Arcadia California. His goal is to move to Salida Colorado to kayak and start a "green" hostel.

Tuesday late afternoon Gilly was dropped off at the SLI after a 26 hour flight from Geneva Switzerland.

3rd Rushee- Gilly-25 years old from Geneva. She was coming to the SLI after a year of traveling around the world experiencing different types of intentional villages in India, Southeast Asia, Egypt and Israel. Her goal to start an intentional village in Switzerland.

After Gilly arrived, Roby and I took the interns into town to grocery shop. On the way we needed to pick up our 4th intern at the bus station. Sarah gave us directions for the Greyhound Bus Station so we put them into the GPS which led us to no man's land. We wondered around looking for a marked bus station but finally realized in a small town a bus stop along the main road is considered a bus station. All we knew to look for was a guy carrying a pillow. After several people disembarked a 6'5" guy with a small pillow stepped off the bus.

4th Rushee-Cuatro-25 years old from Durango, Colorado. He had the most enduring trip trying to get to the SLI. He left Durango and after 3 hours of driving his transmission blew in his car. His parents had to drive to Moab to pick up him and his belongings and drive back to Durango. From there he got on a Greyhound for a fun filled 44 hour bus ride. Cuatro owned a glass-blowing business but wants to become more involved in the solar field. He is also a musician and has played in several bands.

We heard from Emily and she was going to drive to the border and cross in Buffalo, NY hoping this guard would be more reasonable. After some persuasion and batting of her eyes, they let her through. She picked up a plane in Buffalo and arrived on Thursday.

5th Rushee-Emily-27 years old from Toronto Canada. She is taking a leave of absence from her position with the Canadian Ministry where she was responsible for sustainability and solar initiatives. She is not sure if she wants to return to the position but it is there if she wants.


Our other two interns are from Kenya but we are unsure if they are going to make it because of visa issues and the SLI having to be approved by Homeland Security.

Life at the SLI is feeling more and more like MTV's The Real World!!