And we finally made it here....

We reached Minneapolis at around 4;30 am CST (5:30 am EST), almost 14 hours after we started from Columbus, Ohio.

Immune to external disturbances - the endless miles of cars and trucks - and internal disturbances - Chitra, Ramki, Komudi, Leena, Sivaguru, Jeeth and Kartic compounded by different tastes in music and food - we made it finally here in one piece, exhausted to the core but filled with enthusiasm. [Ooops missed this..The external disturbances also included Nigamanth, Divya and Chandra (Anil) in their Jetta.]

After barely 3 hours of sleep, we made it to the first day of the conference, which started at 8:30 am with a sumptuous breakfast, with fruits, different breads, including the Kosher Challah and organic milk ;-)

We attended some "break-out sessions" following an introductory welcome speech by Srinath Chidambaram, a really senior AID Volunteer.

Kiran Vissa talks as I type this, giving an update on projects and admin groups. Lots of achievements discussed, even more questions being thrown at Kiran...an example of the instatiable inquisitiveness of AIDers.