Wow, didn't realize how long it's been since I last posted...my apologies to anyone who cares :)
I was responding to an email from Elyse when my email somehow turned into a pretty nice blog entry so I'm gonna just paste that in here for now... she asked me to tell her one thing i learned about myself this past week and this is how it turned out:
I learned that i am not automatically good with kids...b/c some kids just don't care about what i have to say and won't listen. i've never worked with kids who challenge me this much or (most of whom) who aren't super excited to see me everyday (or at least don't show it). at the same time, while this was a little disheartening to realize, it made me work harder and be more creative in how i do my job. b/c of this, i also learned that i can rise to a challenge. i think i am getting better already at controlling the kids and i think i've had maybe a few successful ideas that they've liked. pretty much, i realized i don't have a choice b/c i'm here all year so i better make it work haha.
this is just a side note, but i'm sitting in my office at work right now (or i was when i was writing this email) and i'm right off of the main room/entrance to the cyo (it used to be a warehouse of some sort so its a big huge room w/3 tables and chairs, a couple foosball tables, air hockey, and ping pong - all of which are pretty beat up and/or broken). every morning when i come in there are refugees sitting on the benches and standing around the room waiting to talk to anyone who can help them. this morning for some reason there was a huge crowd of them and the room was pretty much full of people a few mins ago. the greatest part is that they're all speaking different languages and i hear "caseworkers" speaking loud and slow to them and asking if they speak english. i love this part of the day b/c the cyo offers so much to the refugees even if they don't have alot of resources to work with. when they don't have a translator, they make it work. my boss always says this is one of about 3 "safe" places for refugees in the whole city. they don't have to worry about being attacked or made fun of or not receiving help b/c people here will do everything in their power to get things done for them. i have never worked with refugees or known much about them, but this year is already making me want to learn so much more. donations of clothes, furniture, etc. come in everyday...people just leave them in the front entryway and today when i came in it was all over the room. it makes me so happy that somehow this stuff just keeps coming and it's always gone by the end of the day to homes where it can be put to good use. my housemate john just stopped in my office b/c he works upstairs and we were just agreeing that this place is amazing but you can't really get the full effect without being here. so basically, despite its challenges i love my workplace and i will continue to face its challenges head on.
i'd like to add a bit more to make this nice and lengthy to make up for lack of posts. i was talking to my housemate matt briefly about this whole thing with the kids not always being excited to see me like most kids i've worked with. he noted that that just gives me a glimpse of what their life has been/is like. they haven't grown up trusting people b/c people haven't given them a reason to trust in humanity. so when i tell them to do stuff, they have to gradually come to trust that i'm doing it b/c i care and b/c it's for their own good and that i'm not lying to them. he pointed out that the reason suburban kids (like those i typically work with) have most of the time grown up around caring adults and so they have no reason not to trust me and love me and be excited to see me. i think this is an interesting point and maybe holds a bit of truth, if not in every situation. i do think the kids are getting better and i'm making more of a connection with some of them rather than just being seen as the disciplinarian, which makes me happy.
just to fill you in on a few more things, this weekend i went to philly to surprise my sister for parents weekend (she thought only my parents and bro were going, not me, my other sister and my grandma) so that was fun and it was nice to be "pampered" for a weekend (meaning having my parents pay for things and not have to worry about it)...not that i usually do worry, it was just nice. it was also good to have a bit of time all together. finally, this weekend is the 10th reunion for franciscorps. since FC is 10 years old bro jim invited all the alumni back (along w/spouses and kids) for a huge reunion/celebration which i'm super excited for but which also means a lot of work for us to get done to prepare this week.
i'll try to be better about updating more often, but no guarantees. feel free to fill me in on your lives as well, especially if i haven't been doing as a good a job as i should with keeping in touch!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
A Day of Ups and Downs
Today definitely had its highs and lows and so I felt it was worthy of an update. First off, I got to work at 10am (actually 9:45 or so b/c the bus gets me there early) and I was wondering why my JVC co-worker Sarah wasn't there, but figured there must be a reason. At 11:30 my boss came in and told me that he forgot to tell me about a Catholic Charities orientation that I was supposed to attend and that my co-workers Sarah and Brandi were both there all morning b/c they each found out about it through other people who work for Catholic Charities. He said it was no big deal b/c I could just go to the next one but I was just a little annoyed b/c I know I'll have no way to get there b/c it's on the other side of town and I usually take the bus to work. I know I need to be flexible, especially working with a nonprofit b/c they tend to be disorganized in general, but I often feel like I'm uninformed in my position b/c I got there a week after my JV co-worker to start with and I never got the full introduction that she did. I got over it relatively quickly though and my day got better during the afterschool program b/c the kids were relatively good and enjoyed the cooking project I had planned. I also love when the group of Burundian refugee girls I have start doing one of the songs/dances from their culture b/c they just start singing in their native language and doing all the same movements and today they even did one that was a call and response type thing. I really hope I get to learn more about their culture from them b/c I feel that this is a pretty unique experience, being able to work with kids from a country I didn't know existed a few weeks ago.
I had another low after work when my boss and one of my co-workers told us they wanted to walk with the kids home (they all live in that neighborhood and walk home as a group) b/c there was word that a fight might break out. They later explained to us that something had started between one Burundian kid and one American kid on Friday and it had escalated quickly with each group of kids backing up their side and threatening to fight each other on the way home today. I had never really noticed much tension between the Burundian and American kids in my group, but I guess it is true that they never really associate with each other. We found out that relations between the Burundian refugees and the Americans have been strained since they started arriving 2 years ago and for some reason this group is having more difficulty integrating than groups in the past. The sad part was that when they were discussing what to do about the situation, they said that if they called the American kids' parents, the parents would most likely be proud of the fact that their kids were defending themselves against the refugee kids b/c this is most likely where they learn their prejudices. This all made me really sad that kids can learn to be so cruel to others just b/c they look different. It also makes me want to figure out a way to get our kids to learn more about each other's cultures b/c knowledge replaces ignorance and hopefully overturns these prejudices. But I'll have to get creative b/c they don't care about listening to anything that I have to say as it is and if they're already close-minded about this subject, I'm going to have quite a time convincing them to be more open about it.
So I was pretty down when I left work and I'm waiting for the bus and thinking about how this neighborhood is so unfriendly and divided and all and I get on a super crowded bus where there is literally one place left to stand in the very front. So I'm all set to do some bus-surfing as the bus pulls away from the corner and an African-American teenager sitting in the first seat jumps up and says here sit down. I'm shocked b/c I am not some old woman who needs a seat and also b/c I tend to think teenagers are disrespectful especially in this somewhat tough area of town and I just thought it was such a surprisingly kind gesture. At that moment after being so down, it lifted my spirits incredibly and gave me a renewed faith in humanity and hope for the future. Then as the bus emptied as we went farther down the route, there were probably only 12 people left and we stopped to let a woman off in front of a middle school close to my house. A teenager called out to his friend in the back of the bus "Hey, what school is this?" and a couple people answered that it was Grant middle school and all of a sudden a good portion of the bus was having a brief conversation about how long the school had been around and who's mother had gone there and whatnot. I just thought it was a cool moment shared between a very random mix of strangers of very different ages and racial backgrounds b/c you don't often see anyone interacting whatsoever on public transportation. It was just nice to see a little glimpse of humanity on a city bus which is normally one of those places in this world that completely lacks any trace of human interaction.
So that was my day. Some other good stuff at the end of the day included our first time seeing Brother Jim since he got back from Costa Rica last night, celebrating AJ's birthday with some sweet ice cream cake, and sharing our nightly prayer (which I led) with the Costa Rica volunteers through Skype, which was a really awesome experience. I really think being able to keep in touch with Skype will enable us to stay close with them throughout the year. Technology is really sweet sometimes.
Sorry this post got a bit lengthy and also if any of my sentences didn't make sense. People have been chatting around me while I type and usually I'm not so good at focusing my attention and sometimes start typing what I hear instead of what I'm thinking...hah. I'm looking forward to my 2nd trip to the park with the kids tomorrow and my 2nd night with the teens. Hopefully the ups and downs will continue to balance themselves out :)
I had another low after work when my boss and one of my co-workers told us they wanted to walk with the kids home (they all live in that neighborhood and walk home as a group) b/c there was word that a fight might break out. They later explained to us that something had started between one Burundian kid and one American kid on Friday and it had escalated quickly with each group of kids backing up their side and threatening to fight each other on the way home today. I had never really noticed much tension between the Burundian and American kids in my group, but I guess it is true that they never really associate with each other. We found out that relations between the Burundian refugees and the Americans have been strained since they started arriving 2 years ago and for some reason this group is having more difficulty integrating than groups in the past. The sad part was that when they were discussing what to do about the situation, they said that if they called the American kids' parents, the parents would most likely be proud of the fact that their kids were defending themselves against the refugee kids b/c this is most likely where they learn their prejudices. This all made me really sad that kids can learn to be so cruel to others just b/c they look different. It also makes me want to figure out a way to get our kids to learn more about each other's cultures b/c knowledge replaces ignorance and hopefully overturns these prejudices. But I'll have to get creative b/c they don't care about listening to anything that I have to say as it is and if they're already close-minded about this subject, I'm going to have quite a time convincing them to be more open about it.
So I was pretty down when I left work and I'm waiting for the bus and thinking about how this neighborhood is so unfriendly and divided and all and I get on a super crowded bus where there is literally one place left to stand in the very front. So I'm all set to do some bus-surfing as the bus pulls away from the corner and an African-American teenager sitting in the first seat jumps up and says here sit down. I'm shocked b/c I am not some old woman who needs a seat and also b/c I tend to think teenagers are disrespectful especially in this somewhat tough area of town and I just thought it was such a surprisingly kind gesture. At that moment after being so down, it lifted my spirits incredibly and gave me a renewed faith in humanity and hope for the future. Then as the bus emptied as we went farther down the route, there were probably only 12 people left and we stopped to let a woman off in front of a middle school close to my house. A teenager called out to his friend in the back of the bus "Hey, what school is this?" and a couple people answered that it was Grant middle school and all of a sudden a good portion of the bus was having a brief conversation about how long the school had been around and who's mother had gone there and whatnot. I just thought it was a cool moment shared between a very random mix of strangers of very different ages and racial backgrounds b/c you don't often see anyone interacting whatsoever on public transportation. It was just nice to see a little glimpse of humanity on a city bus which is normally one of those places in this world that completely lacks any trace of human interaction.
So that was my day. Some other good stuff at the end of the day included our first time seeing Brother Jim since he got back from Costa Rica last night, celebrating AJ's birthday with some sweet ice cream cake, and sharing our nightly prayer (which I led) with the Costa Rica volunteers through Skype, which was a really awesome experience. I really think being able to keep in touch with Skype will enable us to stay close with them throughout the year. Technology is really sweet sometimes.
Sorry this post got a bit lengthy and also if any of my sentences didn't make sense. People have been chatting around me while I type and usually I'm not so good at focusing my attention and sometimes start typing what I hear instead of what I'm thinking...hah. I'm looking forward to my 2nd trip to the park with the kids tomorrow and my 2nd night with the teens. Hopefully the ups and downs will continue to balance themselves out :)
Monday, September 8, 2008
I'm officially an afterschool program leader now.
So today was my first day with the kids there. This is how things went down...
i was totally unprepared for the elementary school program. we had no idea how many kids would show up for the first day or how many would speak any english so i didn't know what i'd be able to do with them. the first half hr was chaos with kids running everywhere in the main room and getting themselves into trouble while we waited to see who else would show up. we finally decided to sit them down for snack and that took like 10 minutes even though there was probably only 30-35 kids total. they were just out of control. after that we split up and i brought my kids to the gym. at this point i only had like 8 or 9 but it took me like 5 mins just to get them to sit on the floor and tell me their names...only 2 of which are names i've heard before. since they had too much energy, i decided to just let them run around a bit, thinking i'd get a game together later....bad idea. the only thing they wanted to do the entire time was run around with what used to be a soccer net and drag each other around on it like a sled until it completely fell apart and there were clumps of dust all over the floor which they had swept up. but they were having fun and getting out their energy so i let them go crazy. then we had reading time and i had no idea what reading levels any of them were at so i decided to just let them grab books off the shelf and look through them. i forgot to mention that they all like to speak their native language to each other...which is completely foreign to me...burundi maybe? or burmese? i get confused. so they're just chatting and being relatively good at first but halfway through a bunch of girls decide they want to watch a movie and i tell them we don't have time and that its reading day and they could care less what i say and continue to pull all the movies off the shelf. afterwards, when it was time to clean up, a former jesuit volunteer who now works there had come in and we both tried to get them to clean up the books that were all over the room and they completely ignored us and refused to put anything away. one girl finally put all of them away so that we could leave the room. i felt completely helpless b/c not even this girl who had worked here before could control them.
after that madness, the teen program was a super huge piece of cake. i found out i don't really ever have to plan anything b/c their program pretty much just involves coming and hanging out and me making sure they don't do anything crazy. and only 5 of them showed up b/c it was the first night. i played ping pong for a half hr then helped a girl with a huge review sheet of everything she had learned in algebra the previous yr and then got to leave a half hr early b/c they all went home. i think that whole program is gonna be pretty chill except when i freak out about having to teach those APPS classes. but i don't have to worry about that yet so whatever. so basically even though the little kids were insane it was a relatively unstressful day b/c they all were pretty cute and i expected them to be crazy anyways. my goal is just to come up with some type of "punishment" system where they lose privileges and to actually go over rules and stuff with them if i can ever get them to sit still for more than 2 minutes. other than that, i'm psyched for work to continue.
that's all for now folks...
i was totally unprepared for the elementary school program. we had no idea how many kids would show up for the first day or how many would speak any english so i didn't know what i'd be able to do with them. the first half hr was chaos with kids running everywhere in the main room and getting themselves into trouble while we waited to see who else would show up. we finally decided to sit them down for snack and that took like 10 minutes even though there was probably only 30-35 kids total. they were just out of control. after that we split up and i brought my kids to the gym. at this point i only had like 8 or 9 but it took me like 5 mins just to get them to sit on the floor and tell me their names...only 2 of which are names i've heard before. since they had too much energy, i decided to just let them run around a bit, thinking i'd get a game together later....bad idea. the only thing they wanted to do the entire time was run around with what used to be a soccer net and drag each other around on it like a sled until it completely fell apart and there were clumps of dust all over the floor which they had swept up. but they were having fun and getting out their energy so i let them go crazy. then we had reading time and i had no idea what reading levels any of them were at so i decided to just let them grab books off the shelf and look through them. i forgot to mention that they all like to speak their native language to each other...which is completely foreign to me...burundi maybe? or burmese? i get confused. so they're just chatting and being relatively good at first but halfway through a bunch of girls decide they want to watch a movie and i tell them we don't have time and that its reading day and they could care less what i say and continue to pull all the movies off the shelf. afterwards, when it was time to clean up, a former jesuit volunteer who now works there had come in and we both tried to get them to clean up the books that were all over the room and they completely ignored us and refused to put anything away. one girl finally put all of them away so that we could leave the room. i felt completely helpless b/c not even this girl who had worked here before could control them.
after that madness, the teen program was a super huge piece of cake. i found out i don't really ever have to plan anything b/c their program pretty much just involves coming and hanging out and me making sure they don't do anything crazy. and only 5 of them showed up b/c it was the first night. i played ping pong for a half hr then helped a girl with a huge review sheet of everything she had learned in algebra the previous yr and then got to leave a half hr early b/c they all went home. i think that whole program is gonna be pretty chill except when i freak out about having to teach those APPS classes. but i don't have to worry about that yet so whatever. so basically even though the little kids were insane it was a relatively unstressful day b/c they all were pretty cute and i expected them to be crazy anyways. my goal is just to come up with some type of "punishment" system where they lose privileges and to actually go over rules and stuff with them if i can ever get them to sit still for more than 2 minutes. other than that, i'm psyched for work to continue.
that's all for now folks...
Saturday, September 6, 2008
So I've Decided to Create a Blog...
yeah, its just easier to keep in touch this way b/c i'm getting overwhelmed with all the people i want to tell about my year. so i'll try to update this relatively often, but no promises. feel free to share the link with anyone else!
so i started here in syracuse, ny with franciscorps 2 weeks ago. our first week we went to a retreat center nearby for 2 days then we went to the jersey shore for 5 days to talk about important topics like social justice, simple living, and living in community and also just hang out on the boardwalk and at the beach. we also visited the poor clares monastery in chesterfield, nj and they were so cool! the whole week was awesome. for the past 2 weeks, the FC volunteers going to costa rica did everything with us and were living in our home. it was great getting the chance to get to know them but they left yesterday and its strange not having them here anymore. it's as though we just got to know them and then they left for the year. i'll miss them but i'm looking forward to hearing about their year and keeping them in touch with ours.
in syracuse, i'm living with 5 other people: Ashlee, Mary, Matt, John, and AJ. they are all awesome and we're really getting along well so far. i can't wait to get to know them more as the year goes on. our house is awesome - its a 2 family house in a pretty nice area. each floor has 4 bedrooms so we each have our own with 2 extras for guests. the house is huge and has a special area for prayer upstairs. we also have porches on both floors which i love!
on wed we started work at our sites. i'm at the northside cyo. i do the elementary afterschool program everyday - i have 2nd & 3rd graders which i'm psyched about. we have 2 activities each day on a 4 day rotation - reading & gym, arts&crafts & table games, cooking & computers, and field trip/special activity. i plan whatever i want in that activity for each day. i work with a jesuit volunteer, sarah, who will have the K & 1st graders and we are still waiting to get an Americorps volunteer for the 4th-6th graders. i will also be in charge of a teen group 2 nights a week. they will mostly be middle schoolers but i'm nervous about what the heck i'm supposed to do with them. i have the neighborhood group which means they'll mostly be american but in the afterschool program we primarily serve refugees from places like burundi and bhutan and some may not speak any english if they just got here. its going to be interesting to try to remember/learn their names and to come up with activities for them. but they're young and i'm sure they will catch on quickly. for the teen group i've also been put in charge of a program called APPS which was new last year and which they have a grant for. not sure what exactly it stands for but it has to do with teaching abstinence-only as far as i can tell which is going to be interesting b/c elyse and i did our group project for social work on how that really doesn't work. additionally, i have NO IDEA how to teach this - but i guess there will be lesson plans. its also about good decision making and drugs and stuff and i think i only need to do it once a month and i don't start for a couple weeks. thats definitely what i'm most worried about though. so far we've just cleaned and planned but monday the kids start which i'm excited and nervous about.
gotta get some groceries for dinner so i'll update more soon. feel free to email, call, write, or visit! i look forward to being good at keeping in touch this year!!
so i started here in syracuse, ny with franciscorps 2 weeks ago. our first week we went to a retreat center nearby for 2 days then we went to the jersey shore for 5 days to talk about important topics like social justice, simple living, and living in community and also just hang out on the boardwalk and at the beach. we also visited the poor clares monastery in chesterfield, nj and they were so cool! the whole week was awesome. for the past 2 weeks, the FC volunteers going to costa rica did everything with us and were living in our home. it was great getting the chance to get to know them but they left yesterday and its strange not having them here anymore. it's as though we just got to know them and then they left for the year. i'll miss them but i'm looking forward to hearing about their year and keeping them in touch with ours.
in syracuse, i'm living with 5 other people: Ashlee, Mary, Matt, John, and AJ. they are all awesome and we're really getting along well so far. i can't wait to get to know them more as the year goes on. our house is awesome - its a 2 family house in a pretty nice area. each floor has 4 bedrooms so we each have our own with 2 extras for guests. the house is huge and has a special area for prayer upstairs. we also have porches on both floors which i love!
on wed we started work at our sites. i'm at the northside cyo. i do the elementary afterschool program everyday - i have 2nd & 3rd graders which i'm psyched about. we have 2 activities each day on a 4 day rotation - reading & gym, arts&crafts & table games, cooking & computers, and field trip/special activity. i plan whatever i want in that activity for each day. i work with a jesuit volunteer, sarah, who will have the K & 1st graders and we are still waiting to get an Americorps volunteer for the 4th-6th graders. i will also be in charge of a teen group 2 nights a week. they will mostly be middle schoolers but i'm nervous about what the heck i'm supposed to do with them. i have the neighborhood group which means they'll mostly be american but in the afterschool program we primarily serve refugees from places like burundi and bhutan and some may not speak any english if they just got here. its going to be interesting to try to remember/learn their names and to come up with activities for them. but they're young and i'm sure they will catch on quickly. for the teen group i've also been put in charge of a program called APPS which was new last year and which they have a grant for. not sure what exactly it stands for but it has to do with teaching abstinence-only as far as i can tell which is going to be interesting b/c elyse and i did our group project for social work on how that really doesn't work. additionally, i have NO IDEA how to teach this - but i guess there will be lesson plans. its also about good decision making and drugs and stuff and i think i only need to do it once a month and i don't start for a couple weeks. thats definitely what i'm most worried about though. so far we've just cleaned and planned but monday the kids start which i'm excited and nervous about.
gotta get some groceries for dinner so i'll update more soon. feel free to email, call, write, or visit! i look forward to being good at keeping in touch this year!!
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