Greetings from Boston!

Hello All,

This is our virgin posting, from Medford, Massachusetts. Mark is getting ready for bed, and I just wanted to write a quick note to let you know we've finally created a blog! We will post more in future days about our adventures, big and small, on the Road to Community!

We arrived Thursday evening, and were met by our dear friend Ben Scribner. He and his gorgeously smart mate Corinna shared their warm hospitality, generous friendship, cool and interesting friends and exceedingly yummy food with us for three days. Corinna could rival Mark's sister Jen in an Iron Chef U.S. competition. We had good adventures with them which we will share in future posts. Now we're cosily ensconced in the home of Hilary Rantisi and Paul Beran. Hilary is my beloved Palestinian "little sister". We first met in her parents' home in Ramallah when she was 15 and I was 19; we've now known each other half my life! She has grown into an older and (slightly) more mature of the wondrous girl she was when we first met, but she has always been really old and really funny and young. Not so mature as to be boring. She is feeding us very well though she refuses to believe it. Paul, her charming and equally brilliant hubbie of four years, is, alas, in Cairo. We had a good but all too brief visit with him Friday night before he left to take 35 students to Egypt for an intro to the Arab world.

Mark is tired and wondering when I'm coming to bed, so I shall sign off now. More soon...Love, Val