This is just the beginning...

Everyone in the office is very friendly but it has been Annie who has taken me under her wing, and for that I am very grateful. In just a few minutes, she is picking me up to bring me along with her to her church where there is a guest speaker from Cairo who, she told me, converted to Christianity but was pursecuted for it before he escaped across the Red Sea into Israel. Since then, he has helped other people throughout the Middle East who suffer from an unrighteousness of their governments to escape and live better lives elsewhere. I appreciate Annie's interest in offering me opportunities that appeal especially to me, as this event does. Furthermore, I hope that she will invite me in the following Wednesdays to assist her and her husband in feeding needy people at a coffee shop just down the street from me, as she told me she typically does every Wednesday evening.

Next Wednesday, however, I will be in Montreal and I am looking forward to this trip already (but I will save the details for a later blog...). This morning started off nicely, with me doing typical secretary work and then I attended a caucus meeting with the rest of the staff. Following a lovely catered lunch, I was asked to return to the office and answer the phone when necessary, which I did alot of (I was soooo nervous at first but then lost all of my jitters by the second message I took--yay!). I then attended a committee meeting with Jeff, and had a bunch of questions afterwards, but we went straight into another meeting after that, and by 6 o'clock, I had loads of questions and none of them answered! My MP is a very busy guy! So, I will save them for tomorrow and I hope someone in the office can answer them for me... I am not clear on how everything runs in the U.S. government, but it sure seems that there are a few differences when it comes to Canadaian parliamentary procedures. Just today, Marnie was extremely helpful in helping me understand the differences and I'm thinking maybe she's the person to go to again.

I was invited to attend a Karaoke event hosted by the Conservative Caucus but I declined, as I already had made plans with Annie. Oh! There's my phone call letting me know she's on her way now! I'll let you know how it goes! :)