Heartbreaking Story

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/25/141672992/native-foster-care-lost-children-shattered-families

LISTEN TO THIS STORY! It is a little long but worth it. A heartbreaking story about institutionalized racism against Native Americans. Makes me sad to be a part of a country where we still can't manage to learn our lessons after hundreds of years.

Service learning update 10/17- 10/21

This past week of service learning was by far the most enjoyable yet. It gets easier each day. I now feel completely a part of the Anna’s Arts program; the kids expect to see me on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the directors and teachers of the program rely on me those days. I feel like I really am contributing, and it feels awesome.

On Thursday I had an experience with one of the students that I will never forget. I had been working with this particular third grade boy on his homework since he got to our program directly after school that day. At his school the teachers give out packets every Monday and the entire packet is due by that Friday, so we were working our way through, as usual, trying to finish everything up. The last thing we do is to go over spelling words, his least favorite area of study. It was about 6:40 by that time, and the kids leave at 7. I called out his first word, and he was very hesitant to spell it, as usual; however, that day was worse than most, and he actually started crying. I asked what was wrong and he told me, “What about my project?” It was then I found out that he had a major project due the next day that counted as 25% of his reading grade; it required him to make a display board of a favorite family recipe and write a paragraph of why it was his favorite. With his current grades, failure to complete the assignment would lead to him failing reading. I had to get the director of the program, and together we walked the student home, and talked with him and his grandmother (his primary caretaker). He was hysterical by this point, and we found out that he couldn’t do the project because his grandmother not only could not afford the materials required to make it, but also could not read; therefore, she was unable to help him with his “family recipe” project. The grandmother did not seem phased by this at all as she stood there with a 40 oz. in her hand; it was really heartbreaking. Luckily, the director of our program was able to contact his school, get him an extension, and he will finish the project with us at Anna’s Arts next week. So many of these kids are so victimized by their circumstances, and at Anna’s Arts we are trying to teach them to break the cycle.

Week of Oct 19th

Over the fall break my roommate and I went to Wendy's to have a quick dinner before going out. We drove over from school and parked in the parking lot around 7:30pm. Starving, we raced to get inside Wendy's to order first. We walked in, got right in to the queue, which was empty, ordered and proceeded to wait for our food. I noticed two guys coming in (black guys) through the front door. They weren't particularly intimidating, nor threatening but something very odd happened. We heard a voice come across their microphone system:

"WE ARE RECORDING AUDIO AND VIDEO FROM THIS WENDY'S AT ALL TIMES. ACTIVE MONITORING OF THIS WENDY'S LOCATION IS 24/7." Or something to that effect...

Having heard the announcement, the girl at the cash register hit a button and responded, "No baby, we good."

The two guys looked at each other and responded "What the f*ck? I guess we some real gangsta ass (n bomb)'s"

The two guys ordered their food, at which time one of them got a call from a girlfriend/girl who seemed upset that he had to work late tonight. They ate their food, and left.

This was easily one of the most racist things I've ever seen, my roommate and I could have walked in with the intention of suicide bombing Wendy's and there would've been no announcement. The two guys walk in and INSTANTLY, as if a panic button was pressed, there was an alert from the security company.

Update on SL

Hey guys!

My service learning is going pretty well, though it's not exactly what I expected. I truly enjoy being one of the computer literacy coordinators and love working with the people I help regularly. Going into this service learning project I kind of had assumed what I was going to expect: I thought that I would be working with middle-aged African Americans who are wanting to learn how to use a computer for leisure purposes and to have that back them up professionally (The reason I assumed African Americans is because of the New Orleans population and I viewed data that included drop out rates and what not.

This, by far, is not the turn out. Thus far I have 4 white students (3 of which are over the age of 70 and 1 of which is in between 60-70 years old), 3 African Americans (1 of which is in his 50s and two of which are above 65 years of age) and one Latina who is in her late 30s. Each of these individuals have their own specific reasons as to why they are taking computer literacy courses. Some are in the class to gain more knowledge on the use of internet, some are wanting to learn everything from using a mouse to navigating the internet, and others (like two of my older white ladies) use this time to interact with others, well because they don't have much to do. (They seem to not necessarily have a keen interest on ACTUALLY using a computer-- they enjoy talking to me! Haha!)

It's crazy that I assumed that I would be interacting with people who have had little to no educational background, and again, that isn't the case. 7 of the 8 students have college degrees, some including master's degrees.

I am actually really excited to continue working with them and learning why, in fact, they're participating in the classes (besides learning to use a computer). It seems to me that many of them are here to socialize with others who might have had the same learning experiences as them when younger. I don't know... I guess we'll see what happens! There's always something new at Incarnate Word Community Center!

Until next time,

J.C.

PS - This is my update for last week. I won't be doing SL this week since I'll be going out of town.

Peace.

10/12

Yesterday, the US government thwarted a plan by a group of Iranian special forces in conjunction with Mexican gangs to assassinate the ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The terrorist had plotted to use a "WMD" to blow up the Saudi embassy in Washington, thus killing the Ambassador and all in the building.

If it comes out that the Iranian government, in particular the higher ups, planned this assassination, what do you think will happen in the coming months? What will the US do in response is there is conclusive evidence of this? Had the plot been successful would that (like 9/11) be grounds for a Just War, in regard to that theory?

Class and Race: Video in New Orleans post-Katrina

I happened to find this sequence of videos today that correlates with our reading on Class, Race, and Hurricane Katrina. Here's the link if you guys would like to check it out.

http://www.vice.com/vice-news/new-orleans-totally-fixed-1

http://www.vice.com/vice-news/new-orleans-totally-fixed-2

Children with troubled pasts, and the adults in their lives

After a few weeks working with Girls Hope, I have gotten to know a little bit about the children, their families, and the women living in the home with these girls. The 8 girls living in the home are being raised and taken care of by just a handful of 20 something year old women, not very unlike myself. It has lead me to take a step back and wonder what kind of impact that has on these girls who are in a vital stage of their lives for growing and maturing. I was able to talk to one of the "house moms" about this and was really a great help for me to understand this odd and unconventional home life. The children accepted into Boys Hope Girls Hope go through a rigorous application period, lasting months, which prepares them mentally for what they are about to take part in. She explained to me that, although there are definfetly sometime problems within the home, the children and young adults in the program all understand that they were chosen to be here because they have something special about them. These boys and girls were chosen because their situations at home were not permitting them to fully exercise their intellectual abilities.

Being a part of Boys Hope Girls Hope calls for a lot of committment from the children and young adults in the program. They are away from their families for the majority of their week and are living with people who were once strangers to them, but in an odd way, now their family. This family model of the organization is what makes it so special. The house moms have expressed to me how hard it sometimes to be the authority figure when they are not so far passed childhood themselves, but that it is a challenging and rewarding role.