Part 1: 62nd National Prayer Breakfast
As part of the fellow program, Mary Nell, Katie and I had the opportunity to serve at the 62nd Annual National Prayer Breakfast this week in Washington, D.C. I will confess, while I was excited about visiting our capital for the first time, I was skeptical about the prayer breakfast. It was going to be a lot of wishy-washy, liberal mumbo jumbo I thought. Well, as it turns out, I was mostly wrong. We arrived late Monday night at our host couple's apartment in Falls Church. Since they had to work the next morning, they had gone on to bed- in fact, we only met the wife- and I didn't meet her till we were leaving on Thursday. They were very kind to let three strangers stay for three days without seeing them. We headed to the metro about eleven Tuesday morning. Since we didn't have to be at the Washington Hilton until that evening, we figured we'd sight see a bit first. The metro in DC is more expensive than in NYC- they have "peak hours" which double the price of a ticket. We spent a good bit of time trying to figure out how much we needed on our card with the help of the kind metro worker, the metro stole $20 from me (which I need to call about) and eventually we got ourselves straightened out. I will say, that thanks to our previous experience in NYC last semester, the metro this time was a breeze. We had one near-miss moment of panic when we realized that this was our stop just before the doors closed, but we made it. i am glad we could provide some humor to those we left on the metro. And we had one true miss, when on Thursday night, out of sheer exhaustion we misread the line and got on the wrong train. This was soon remedied a couple of stops down and we were none the worse for it. So, Tuesday afternoon. It was bitterly cold, and Katie and I had layered as much as possible while at the same time trying to look respectable since we would not have a chance to change before we were greeting important people at the hotel later. I'm pretty sure I would have bounced if I had fallen down- which MN did at one point, on purpose. I still have no idea what happened. We exited the metro at the smithsonian, and walked towards the memorials, where I found Mississippi in the WWII monument, and the girls found North Carolina. Then we trekked along what I assume was the reflecting pool, but because of, I also assume, the frigid temperatures, there was naught but one depressing puddle in one corner. I tried not to take it personally. At the far end of the reflecting pool sits the Lincoln memorial. The walk from the smithsonian to Lincoln is much further than I had expected, and by the time we reached him, the endless flights of stairs seemed, well endless.. Which they really aren't- Lincoln has to sit somewhere, which happens to be at the end of the stairs. The steps were also icy, which made the journey that much more perilous. However, I am happy to report that the three of us made it to his feet with no mishap. Lincoln was the main memorial I had wanted to visit. There is truly an air of respect in about him, most people seemed subdued as they paid their respects. After Lincoln, we embarked on a long quest to find food, which we eventually found, ever so many blocks north. After lunch, we walked several blocks over to the White House, listened to a protester until we decided the reason we weren't sure what he was protesting wasn't our fault, and made our way back to the smithsonian. We toured the space and air museum briefly- unfortunately briefly, we were all three rather uncomfortable about how a certain shady trio kept popping up wherever we were. It was probably nothing, but it was enough to make it impossible to enjoy the displays properly. We then found Starbucks and recaffinated in preparation of a busy, late night ahead. We headed to DuPont circle to make our way up Connecticut avenue to the hotel. One of my favorite things about DC are the historic buildings you see every where. The architecture is beautiful, and the older buildings give a sense of historical grandeur. They are also, by modern standards, not very tall, so one can see the sky and breathe properly. Unlike in NYC. We found the hotel, the Washington Hilton, which until last year, had the largest ballroom in the city. Which is part of why it was chosen for the NPB. MN and I registered and found our respective stations and promptly got to work. I worked the international registration desk, which was quite fun once I got the hang of it and figured out how not to throw away tickets. The other volunteers were very kind and patient as I tried to figure out how everything worked. MN was a greeter, at which you know she excelled. We got off earlier then expected and had a chance to hang out a bit in the downstairs lobby. Katie came along to drive us and make sure we didn't start a riot, but mostly so she could network with people for the Toloha Water Project. She and MN are extroverts, which I am exceedingly thankful for as it would have been more difficult to meet people without them. I'm not used to introducing myself out of the blue to others, especially if they look important. That night we met members of the Indonesian parliament and a two-star general, who was very happy to have his picture taken with three American ladies, multiple times. We also met a member of the German parliament, who was very kind but quiet, and I think we blessed him by befriending him. We also met the director of Young Life from Armenia and a pastor with him. They were very excited to discover MN and Katie are YL leaders in Kinston, and gave them the highest compliment: "we saw you over there, and I thought, they are not normal. Now I know why- you are with young life!" At least, I am pretty sure it was supposed to be a compliment. Wednesday and Thursday we both served as ushers while Katie made friends and got tickets to various events. I realize I did not get to my skepticism about the whole event, but as I have taken such a long time just giving you a breakdown of our itinerary, I will go more in dept into that in part two.