Rainy Saturday

I returned from my NCBI conference late last night, and I was exhausted. The National Coalition Building Institute teaches specific techniques for helping people see what they have in common. They can be used to decrease racism and help resolve controversial issues. But to learn to be a trainer is an emotionally draining experience. I learned a lot, but I feel like I have been beaten up emotionally. We spent three days looking deeply at the pain caused by racism, discrimination and hatred. Whew!

I read that Blogs should have lots of links, so here is a link to the NCBI Web site:
http://www.ncbi.org/

I also learned something about Internet communication. I learned that being cut off from it drove me crazy! I have become dependent on being able to access my e-mail and Web sites. I have four different e-mail accounts I check every day, and not being able to do that was frustrating. The hotel where we stayed offered Internet connections for an additional $9.99 per day. In retrospect, I wish I had done that, but it just seemed outrageously expensive. Most hotels where I have stayed in the last year offer it for free.

I did get some limited use of the Internet through a student computer lab at te campus where the conference was held, the Haverhill campus of Northern Essex Community College. I was part of a small group who were tasked with teaching a song to the whole conference -- about 100 people. We re-wrote the chorus to "We Are the World." In order to do that, I got permission to go to a computer lab and download the original lyrics. Later another member of our group downloaded the song itself, so we could play the original recording for the group and then substitute out alternate chorus about NCBI. Thanks to the Internet, the project was a big success.