Ronald McDonald

Tonight I went for my introduction meeting at Ronald McDonald House. I met the two staff people, got a tour of the house, and ate dinner with three families staying there.

It was very interesting, and different from the rest of my life. The house is three stories, with ten guest rooms. Most of the families are young parents with premature newborns.

One American family was acting perfectly normally -- joking with each other, talking loudly. Two Hispanic families sat and ate quietly. Elizabeth, the staff person who gave me the tour, spoke to them in Spanish about their baby girl who was born weighing only two pounds.

It had the sense of community that I feel is missing from the rest of the US. People were thrown there by circumstance, and they were each doing their own thing, but also wanted to be congenial to each other. It felt more real somehow, because people were dealing with crisis rather than trying to promote some goal or get ahead in their careers or something. Everyone was fighting for their baby to get well, and not competing against each other in any way.

I learned that 90+% of babies who are born very premature actually end up fine. This is surprising, because when a coworker's baby was born three months premature, I looked up the stats, and the survival rate was below 25%.

I am starting my first official volunteer shift in two weeks. I'm really looking forward to it. I want to learn basic Spanish so that I can speak with the Hispanic families (20% of the families).

I feel really inspired.

I'm going to be working two shifts per month. My duties are to help tidy up the rooms, generally clean up the house, and run other errands such as pick up a basket of donated pastries from Starbucks. I was very happy about that last -- it combines my love for Starbucks, baked goods, and FREE food.