VARIETY AND VOLUNTEERING. Evidence of my change in lifestyle from Morocco. Last night I attended Artwalk in downtown Billings with several women friends. Today I am covering a booth all day for homeWORD (for whom I am the AmeriCorp volunteer) at the Sustainability Expo. homeWORD builds green housing for low-income people; most properties are in Missoula but they have two in Billings. Next week I will spend a morning assisting with packet pickups for the Women's Run (which I will walk in on May 9th) and an afternoon on the Women's Build Day for Habitat for Humanity, putting siding on a house. It's good that I can experience some degree of satisfaction from those activities because...

My first Financial Fitness class will be delayed as we don't have registrants. It's very hard to market this class, so my supervisor and I have appointments with several social service agencies to try to get some of their clients, who so desparately need the information/skills, to attend. Many lending institutions require people to attend the First Time Homebuyer class, so my co-worker is very busy with that, but no one, at this time, requires the more basic class, which most/all of the low-income first time homebeuyers really do need. I think one of the big problems now will be the time of year...who wants to sit in an evening class in the summer, especially this year, when good weather has been so delayed?! So, it is a bit discouraging but we'll continue to pursue it and hopefully can begin classes in a few weeks.