Raleigh International's January 2007 Monthly Meeting

And so I went. And I was the only brand spanking new participant there (but there are 36 people that have purportedly registered for Introduction Week), and I got applauded 4 times. For just being there. Don’t ask.

The reason I went to the Monthly Meeting was to know a little more about the upcoming expeditions, which I did get to do. I also met a whole host of Raleigh people/committee members, some of the ones from Reaching Out were there, there were also others. I spoke to Adrian for a bit and later on wondered why the hell this particular dude was the president, seeing that I expected someone a whole lot more serious and mature. He’s funny, a crazy joker, never serious but importantly, very warm and encouraging. His friendliness is apparent through his never ending jokes and his crazy facial expressions. I get exactly why he’s the President now.

I met Shirleen, who is so sweet you just want to grab and hug until she explodes, Nathirah, who laughs and laughs and laughs (she sat next to me) and a whole host of other lovely people. And Yen! What was just awkwardly stupid was that ‘newbies’ are not supposed to know what goes on during Introduction Week and a whole junk load of other things, so there were several moments people just went “By the way, when we do the at-oh wait, shit, she’s not supposed to know”. At one point Adrian jokingly asked me to cover my ears for a while. Uh...yeah. I got the feeling maybe newbies didn’t usually come to Monthly Meetings, but at one point Shirleen told me it was really good that I did. Not to mention the quizillion times I got applauded even though I just sat there.

I’m really happy that I did go to Reaching Out! and tonight’s Monthly Meeting. Even though I have no problem being social with strangers, it will be really great to walk to our meeting point on Friday and see some familiar faces that know me. It’s sure to be fun, and no, I’m not afraid at all at the thought of what those crazy Raleigh people might throw at me.

To know more about Raleigh, their projects and expeditions, I’ve put a few links below for you guys to explore. Of all youth development, adventure and/or community organisations, they should appeal to young people the most simply because its run by young crazy fun people and not a bunch of governmental geezers. Check it out, and even if you don’t go for an expedition, they have plenty of projects all year long.

Raleigh's Official Website
Everything you need to know is right here, although the navigation is a bit confusing. Check out the right sidebar for additional links on every page

Raleigh's blogspot blog
Updates on activities, articles by members and announcements

Committee and Support Group
Committee members and an idea of what Raleigh does. And yes, those people are real, and I have met most of them.

Expedition Information and more an Raleigh and its purpose
You can know more about what Raleigh's 10 weeks expeditions are all about here.

That’s it for now, I’m sure I’ll have bucketloads to report after IW. Who knows, maybe you’ll be there too?