J.C. Romero - Week of Sept. 26-30, 2011

Things are moving right along at my service learning site. On Tuesday, we finally started registering students for our computer classes. As of now, because I am the only volunteer working in the lab, we will be offering the classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30am-12:30pm (those are the hours that I work).

When I was registering students yesterday, I came across some really interesting people. I was able to speak to two folks that really stood out to me. The first one was an 80-something year old Irish Roman Catholic priest who spoke nonstop about his transition from Ireland to the United States in the 1940s. The other was 70-something year old African American New Orleans native. I would consider her a middle-class citizen.

She and I sat and discussed SO much concerning the changes that there have been in society (in the New Orleans community in particular) over the years. She amazed me with some of the things she said. We started off speaking about education. She couldn’t believe that penmanship is no longer taught in the schools. She was disappointed, as was I, that children in the 8^th grade do not know how to write in cursive nowadays.

Then we went on to discuss how we have become an “informal” society. I wrote down something she said to me—“I remember that going to Canal Street was a big deal! Everyone dressed up to go and walk on Canal Street back in my day. I don’t know what has happened,” she told me.

We then spoke about race and laughed at those that say that we are now a “colorblind society.” She spent a significant amount of time telling me how hard it was for her to be a member of society because she’s a black woman. The one thing that I can remember her telling me is that she applied for a secretary position (I don’t remember if it was in the 50s or 60s) and that the manager told her that she was EXTREMELY qualified for the position; however, she (the manager) had to wait to get permission from the Dallas corporate office because she was a black woman, so they would keep her information and get in touch with her eventually. As she (Mrs. “D”) was walking out, she noticed them throwing her application away. She said she was distraught by the fact that she was more qualified than many other applicants, but because of her color she wasn’t given the opportunity to fulfill the duties.

I know that none of this is new to us, but it’s just really nice to actually sit down with someone who has experienced the things we have read in books firsthand.

I am even more excited to work with this program because not only will I be helping individuals learn how to use computers and such, but I am certain that I will meet people from all walks of life that will teach ME things that I may not know and/or allow me to listen to some of their stories.

Happy posting,

J.C.

PS – Excuse my grammar! I wanted to make sure this was in before class!