Yankton, SD

So the holiday break is on! I'm travelling with Thomas for much of the break.

We drove across Iowa in a snowstorm, where I counted at least 20 cars which had spun off the road, some on their sides, some on their roof. My amazement at this was countered by Thomas' nonchalance - oh yeah, there's been a storm. This is just normal for the midwest. But we arrived safely in a little town called Yankton in the south east corner of South Dakota.

This is Thomas' old college town, and he is catching up with friends, so I'm taking some time out on my own to read, think and pray, and breathe in the cleanest, purest air I've yet found in the US. The town is beautiful. Today I went jogging along the Missouri River on a cloudless sunny day, with snow on the ground, and a relatively balmy 35 degrees F.

We're staying with the Catholic Worker community, which Thomas used to volunteer with, who are just amazing, inspiring people. On weekends they host the families of prisoners, inevitably poor, as they come to visit a family member in jail. In between they're involved with prison visits, the local soup kitchen, and radical resistance activities, such as pouring blood on the floor of the pentagon, and marching through around a nearby airforce base carrying crosses bearing the names of people killed by US forces overseas. They've all been arrested several times.

We went for Mass at Mt Marty, Thomas' college and then had lunch with the Benedictine sisters who run the college. It was wonderful to see a strong and vibrant religious community, with over 100 nuns, many highly educated, including an 87 year old sister with a PhD in chemistry who used to consult for NASA, who knocked back a job with them, because she wanted to keep on teaching at her community's college. So I continue to meet great people.

After just two days here of midwest hospitality, good sleep and time to think, journal and pray through much of the excitement of the past few months I feel utterly refreshed. It's like an oasis in the midst of the oasis which this year has been for me.