“in which horses are castrated… 7 hours later.”

This first entry marks the beginning of my detailing of what shall be epic LEAP & VNCOC adventures and mishaps. How epic can internships in the non-profit sector be? Well, let’s start with the retreat. We arrived bright and early at the LEAP offices, greeted by spam musubis and donuts. I contemplated the benefits of eating either one and finally decided on the musubi. I knew when I took my bite of my tasty and nutritious nori-wrapped spam and rice that we were in good hands!

It’s fascinating how many passions I suddenly had once I was surrounded by the “progressive Asians” in the LIA program. Seriously, I am forever indebted to LEAP for awakening my passion for mysterious meat & seaweed combinations (I had a musubi in the morning, and another one after four gloriously greasy slices of pizza, later on for lunch). *Snickers. What I’m really getting at, though, is that when you are retreat-ing with people who are ridiculously smart and have actually put their beliefs into action, the energy is infectious! Even if you’ve never touched a book in your life you’ll feel like you can speed through scientology books and even found your own religion, a la Hubbard. After being with the LEAP crew for three days I felt like my mind power was growing exponentially and I could do anything.

Now this all sounds very exaggerated, but I really think this energy-awakening was probably the most valuable part of the retreat experience for me. I believe we all have causes for which we care about but it sometimes just takes a little push. So, thanks to all the LEAP interns & staff for being intellectually promiscuous and sharing a little of yourselves with me.

Paz amor,
Vi