Some Congratulations

A surprising number of my friends have either just started or are about to start exciting new jobs.
Megan, for example, having spent the past year doing an Americorps stint at Habitat for Humanity, is now an actual Habitat employee. I tried to get her to explain what the new job will entail, and she tried to tell me, but all I really comprehended was that it will involve policy, housing, land, and volunteers. It sounded like a good thing, though. Affordable housing is more and more difficult to find in much of the US.
Dawn, who spent last year teaching in Toronto, has gotten a job teaching German and, I believe, beginning Spanish and flute in Indiana. She's also bought what looks like a very fine house. We hope that this job, which makes use of several of her skills, will be really interesting and satisfying.
Cesar recently began a brand-new social services job. I gather he was applying for a job the organization had advertised, but was told that his qualifications were perfect for a new job they were in the process of creating. As with Megan's job, I am not sure quite what it entails, but I have heard a lot about it. In part, Cesar will be putting together a newsletter for and presumably by the clients, and/or a more literary effort. And in part he's supposed to teach (or find teachers for) the clients, who are, as they say, "at-risk." I am extremely curious what he ends up teaching. I grasp that elementary time-management skills would indeed benefit a population that tends not to wear watches or get to appointments, but Cesar is also pondering something about bird calls, although this is not at all one of his areas of expertise. He did say that the other night he persuaded a homeless Apache met on the street to demonstrate the call of an eagle. We'd like to know whether the recall of a tribal teaching turns the guy's life around, but it seems unlikely that we would find out.
Denise, one of the founders of my writing group, has finished her PhD and is starting a job at Cal State Chico, where apparently she'll start off teaching Spanish Phonology. Luckily Chico is not hundreds or thousands of miles from where she currently lives, so she can commute while she and her husband figure out their housing situation and what to do about their kids' schooling. Or perhaps they have already figured this out, being an impressively decisive pair.
April, who just graduated from my own PhD program, has found a teaching job in Iowa, while Naoko, who I believe will be graduating next year, was offered a tenure-track job and also two or three well-deserved fellowships.
I hope I have not forgotten to mention anyone...