Home Again

Our team arrived safely back to the west coast last Wednesday evening, and now after catching up with friends and family, I have a few more videos to post. Here are two of them, at least one more is still to come!

Circle up the wagons of thankfulness

Today, the second 6th grade class was not cooperating and some people were saying some ungrateful things, so Ms. Parker decided to turn it into a teachable moment, telling the class to circle up and be prepared for a class discussion. The students quickly moved their desk and after getting an explaination of the 'cube of respect' (as I named it) - they could only speak when the cube was in their hand - they began to talk about what they were thankful for. Some were a slow to come up with something, but all did find something in the end.

Here is a sample:

They are thankful for

a class discussion (aka no book and board learning :) )

funny friends

food on the table and clothes on my back

learning about the periodic table

great teachers and good education

parents and clothing

family and friends

opportunity to sing at the school's talent show

This discussion made me think - what am I thankful for?

a loving, supportive family

friends to laugh and cry with

God's grace

people willing to invest in my life

a warm house

healthy body, happy soul

under armor

an opportunity to go to grad school

kids who are searching to do the right thing, even though their days are full of drama :)

Friday!

Friday was kind of a crazy day at the Camden Forward School - there was apparently an 'incident' in the morning and half the teachers were in a meeting taking care of it. The remaining teachers couldn't handle holding regular class, so for most of the morning (and all afternoon, as it turned out) the students were in the sanctuary/lunch room basically playing all day. For a short while, the overseeing teachers tried to hold classes in the big room, but there were just too many kids for two teachers. We did have about two normal class periods, but they were brief. As you'll see in the video, the kids are creative with their free time :)

Also on Friday, we had the opportunity to help out with the Boatworks after school program run by Jesus Castro, who started the program last year. This year, the 6th graders are building a canoe and the older kids are building a kayak. It's pretty sweet!

Waterfront South

If you read my post a while back about waterfront south, watch this video - it covers some of what I was discussing, but also introduces Andrea, a woman working to transform the city through gardening and artwork.

New Video!

A video update about last Wednesday, December 15th.

Notes and Thoughts

Why do you report to work each day? What is the motivation for your job? I was ale to chat a bit more with the science teacher, Ms. Parker, Friday at lunchtime about why she teaches, espicially the kids in Camden. She hails from Philly, and commutes everyday to NJ. She was working at a small Christian school over there, but the school closed and her principal came to Urban Promise and asked her to come with her. She said she was always good with kids and really connected with them. She started an engineering degree in school, but somehow ended up teaching (I'm not sure exactly how) and started with the under elementary grades. Then, she was offered a middle school position and found out that really loves kids in that age range. She was also actively involved in after school programing in Philly, but had to leave those kids when she moved to teaching in NJ. She is now involved in the Boatworks program with Urban, working with the middle schoolers after school as well.

On a semi-related note, volunteering at CamdenForward School and not getting the opportunity to work with the after-school programing, honestly, has kind of made me feel like I'm in a Urban Promise bubble. While many of the kids come from challenging backgrounds, many of them (from what I can glean from short conversations with them) come from moderately affluent families who live outside of Camden and want their kids to go to a private school. I don't know if any of them will go to the high school, Urban Promise Academy when they reach 9th grade. In fact, one of the students I talked with, who lives outside of Camden, and she (an 8th grader) did not think that Camden could become a better place. The feeling I got in the high school was very different - those students definitely come from pretty rough backgrounds. Some of the students (a very limited number) when I asked what they were going to do after-school, mentioned going back home and helping out with the various siblings at home. One girl even had her own child, Serenity, that she was raising. The middle school kids, however, all mentioned hanging out at the Cherry Hill mall and shopping for clothing as their weekend choice activity. The campus of Urban Promise itself is very safe feeling - it is on its own little corner set apart from most other businesses. Granted, they've had their share of scares, but overall, I've definitely felt a 'safe bubble' feeling around there. Don't worry Mom - I'm still careful when I go outside :)

I'm still catching up with the videos - they always take longer than I expect to edit, so stay tuned!

Also, I'm not entirely sure why blogger likes to double-space the first paragraph of each post....

Walk it Out

Time for a wordy post: (to be complemented later with a video)

Today our morning devotional was lead by Pam, the intern director. She spoke on the passage in Luke about Jesus' visit to Mary and Martha and their different reactions to his presence. She challenged us to live in the moment, 'walking out' our faith here in Urban Promise on the working ground level, not just remaining in the land of wishing and dreaming that things could change.

She also mentioned that we may not know exactly how coming to Camden will impact us until later - which is a good thing for me to continue to keep in mind as I return to Seattle next week.

Yesterday, we were able to meet a number of people from other organizations that are also working to rebuild Camden. We were taken down to the historic Waterfront South area - we had been there on the initial tour, but did not get out of the car. We first met with a woman named Helene, who runs the Heart of Camden Housing organization. This organization seeks to revitalize this area of Camden by rebuilding the row homes and placing families in them that will raise the level of community in the neighborhood. Over the course of one year, with the close of the some of the industry plants at the end of the second world war, especially the New York Shipbuilding company, the employment opportunities went from 30,000 to 1,700 jobs. People left south Camden in droves, eventually leaving behind 4,000 abandoned homes. One of the largest post-war industries is scrap collection. All the scrap you can imagine is piled high and then shipped to China for processing and disposal. Because one can get money for scrap, all of the abandoned homes have been scavenged and stripped of everything but the outside walls. Appliances, windows, flooring, pipes, and doors have been ripped out and sold to the scrap collections. Many of the roofs have collapsed and frequently, one can see the sky through the open second story windows. The majority of doors and windows of the abandoned homes are boarded up, to keep out squatters and new scrap scavengers.

The Heart of Camden Housing project buys these abandoned homes and then renovates them. They rarely tear down the whole structure, partially because they don't own all the titles to an entire block of row houses. Apparently, they also want to keep the historic aspects of the community intact and seek to keep the exterior of their housing units true to their historic past. The inside is quite modern, but the outside still fits with the feel of Camden.

They operate out of an old theatre - the "Star" theatre that showed silent films, and are renovating the main screening area to be a gym for a nearby elementary school. After the roof collapsed, they basically gutted the whole building and are building from the inside out. While the inside of the gym will look new, the outside will look like the old theatre. The organization has discovered over the years that they can't fix Waterfront South without being involved in politics. Apparently, four out of the last five mayors have gone to jail for corruption; the only one that didn't was 80 years old and really just a puppet during the state take-over of Camden. Well, now the state has pulled out, but the non-profits are still there and still working hard to change Camden.

We also watched this movie called "Poet of Poverty" about Michael Doyle, a priest at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in this area of Camden. He has been there for a long while, when he was placed in this area after trying to destroy Camden draft records with a group during the Vietnam war. (He was not in favor of the war…) He is, however, a great writer and consistently wrote letters and poems about his experiences and the people of Camden. Sadly, at the end of this video, he comes to the conclusion that not much has changed over the past 25 years. He is still saying the same things about the issues in Camden that he was when he first showed up to serve.

You can watch this clip from the film "Poet of Poverty" to get a feel for what this neighborhood looked like just a few years ago (2007-8 ish)

It was really good to talk with the organizations before seeing this film, as there has been change and improvement in the neighborhood that the movie does not capture. About 200 homes have been renovated and filled with lively people and there are another 44 to be completed in the next few years. They have built a live theatre, a parking lot, an extensive garden with a greenhouse, and a 24 bedroom retreat center in the Center for Transformation run by the Sacred Heart Church. Beautiful art now covers many of the ugly pieces of wood that board up the abandoned homes, bringing warmth and vitality to the community. There is now a park with a tree-line blocking the view and smell from the sewage plant and licorice plant next-door, all playground equipment colorfully painted and fun to use. There is hope, Camden will succeed.

Raking More Leaves

School Day #2 was much the same as the first day of school this week, so this video is a smidge shorter. In the beginning of the clip, Chris is talking about our morning devotionals, which happen every day with different members of the Urban Promise staff.

First Day of School!

(Yes, I'm a bit behind with the videos....they just take so long to edit!)

Two new videos today - I had to split them up or else you'd be watching one video for over 10 minutes!

This details the first Sunday and Monday of our trip, including church, school, errands, and talking with Bruce Main, the founder of Urban Promise.

The first Day of school:

Our talk with Bruce Main:

Catching Up

Here is a video about our afternoon in Philly last Saturday! Shout out to the two great interns who showed us around - we would have been lost without you!

And one more today...

Here is the second video I made about our trip!

Smoking

The 8th graders today were talking about smoking and it's ill health effects. Everyone raised their hand when they were asked if they knew someone who smoked. Many stated that it bothered them, both how it made them cough and how the smell hung around. It didn't sound like any of them smoked themselves and most of them were very vocal in their dislike of cigarettes.

One student shared a story about how their Aunt, who is only 28, has smoked since she was 12 and won't let the kids be on the same level of the house as her when she is smoking. It is an interesting double standard that a majority of the students have to deal with their entire lives.

My favorite random story from kids in class during this smoking discussion: "I went to a church once where the pastor was smoking while he was preaching and then for communion we had bread and beer."

They also got to see the fantastic Blood Mobile video today, courtesy of Dr. McFarland's Biochem class I took last quarter. They were talking about how smoking causes CO to bind to your hemoglobin and not allow O2 to get to your body and I just had to share some of my newfound biochem information about blood. Hemoglobin is pretty hard to visualize as an 8th grader, so I showed them that video and a 3D model of hemoglobin in PyMol (a biochem program), so hopefully they remember it more clearly and correctly!

This post is short, mainly because I am working on another video and because I've been feeling sick and my head is not super clear :(

Groceries

Grocery shopping has been an interesting experience here in Camden, NJ

We've been to PathMart, Walmart, and Save A Lot. Walmart was pretty usual, but it wasn't a super Walmart, so the grocery part was kind of slim. We grabbed toiletries there, but we went to PathMart for food. What an interesting grocery store - the layout made no sense to me. Also, they didn't sell frozen chicken, we could only find chicken breasts in the refrigerated section. Hamburger was also interesting, apparently you can find high fat content (>20%) pretty easily! I guess I am just so spoiled by my fam - I just have to go to our freezer and get a package out :)

Save A Lot = no traditional brands, except maybe a few boxes of cereal. There were some fresh fruits and veggies, but otherwise it was all dry packaged food. I'm not sure if there was a real freezer section - I didn't look to closely. I just wanted some cold medicine and had to just get what they had, which was not much. I will say, however, that the prices were cheap there!

Interesting Camden tidbit - there are no grocery stores within the Camden city limits. There is one right outside, on the South side (I think) and there are some in neighboring cities, but getting fresh fruit and veggies can be a challenge. There is a plethora of corner market connivence stores, so many families only eat prepared foods that are full of preservatives and not super healthy. Apparently this is a pretty big issue in Camden, and the high school is trying to combat it by providing their own kind of lunch and breakfast food store. We met the principal last night and he explained that many students were coming to school with non-nutrious lunches, if they brought a lunch at all. If students don't eat, they can't perform well in school, so the school is trying to foster a good learning environment through what food they offer. Apparently, the best seller is your traditional PB & J, which is definitely better than the other food they were eating.

Speaking of food - can you believe that lunch time for the middle school doesn't begin until 12:47pm?? Those poor kids (and teachers and us!) have to go without food from 8 am to then! And after lunch and recess, they only have like 1.5 hours of school left! I would not last here very long....I already sneak food during class....

Also - here is a fun video that I found for the 7th graders, who are currently studying the water cycle:



Don't you feel culturally and academically educated? apparently the 'track' and 'beats' for this song were actually from a different rap band, Cross-over (or something like that - they wore all their clothing backwards) and their song "Jump."

I havent' been able to take photos or film of the kids yet, but that is a goal of mine for Friday. Today I got to know the 7th graders a bit more by asking them what they wanted to do when they grow up and where they wanted to go to college - so interesting!

A Tour of Camden

On of my goals in the past month or so has been to utilize the HD video capabilities of my camera. Accordingly, this update is in film form. I'm beginning to realize that digital media may be a good way for me to share my experiences, as I know I'm not the greatest writer and my blog posts tend to be a bit dry....

Here is the first video:

First Impressions

Cold.

Jim sounds like my old boss at Korry, Tim.

Left turn = Right turn = 'Jughandle'

Diner dinner menus can be overwhelming.

Cop cars everywhere.

PathMark doesn't sell individually frozen chicken breasts.

Colorful row houses. All boarded up.

Christmas lights on the porch = evidence someone lives here.

Parts of Camden feel like parts of Yakima. I wonder what Yakima's statistics are?

New Jersey has 566 municipalities and 604 school districts (WA has half as many)

There's a lot of water to cross, but none of its as beautiful as the water in Washington.

Into the Sunrise

In the morning, when I rise,

In the morning, when I rise,
In the morning, when I rise,
Give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
but give me Jesus.

I am reminded of one of my favorite praise songs as we begin our journey to Camden, flying out at 6:15am this morning. For all my professed ease of sleeping on planes, this morning I was captivated by the sunrise and decided to stay awake for a while. I don't often get up early enough (actually, I don't know if I ever have!) to see the sunrise, but I was so enjoying the view that I didn't let myself close my eyes. It helped that I am sipping on a Joy tea and watching the clouds roll by under the wing. (Yes, I am typing this on the plane - who knows when I'll have enough internet to post it!)

My mom asked me last night why I was going on this trip. Honestly, I am not sure, except that I felt a unexplainable desire to go, serve, and learn. I don't know what to expect, but I'm excited to find out why I was supposed to travel to Camden. I don't expect to radically change the lives of the students and teachers that I meet, but hope that I can learn from them. I also go to serve the servants, to give them an extra set of hands and feet as they serve the students of Camden.

Don't we look lovely at 4:15am??

Also, though I think anyone reading this blog probably is friends with both Chris and I, if you haven't read through his blog, you really should. He is going on the trip with me and is an incredible writer - way more creative than my cut and dried descriptions of events and happenings. Check it out here: http://antithesisreigns.wordpress.com/

Where You're At

Recently, our team found out that we will be staying in the "Retreat" house that Urban Promise owns, for the duration of our stay. This house is georgous and was built by the Extreme Makeover Home Edition folks for a family from Camden.

Here's the house tour:



(Courtesy of Hulu)

The Marrero family consists of a dad, who worked for Urban Promise running a father's ministry, and five sons, the oldest of which was in high school during the time of the build. They were living in a cockroach-infested apartment with limited electricity and water; which, unfortunately, doesn't sound like a uncommon occurrence in this area of the US. Compare the house above with the views of Camden below:


(Images of Camden)

This house, apparently sticks out like a sore thumb in Camden - a house that belongs in the affluent suburbs in the middle of the urban poor. The saddest part of this story, however, is that the family was forced to sell the house within three years because they couldn't afford the utilites. The family lived on a fixed income and could not afford to keep with the house, even with the homeowers insurance apparently covered and frozen property taxes. They eventually sold the house back to Urban Promise (who had donated the land it sat on, next to their campus) and moved, possibly all the way to Flordia - but I can't find that article anymore...

Regardless, this story asks us - why don't we meet people where they are at? Did the Marrero's need a new house? Yes. Did they need a huge mansion? No. This house was supposed to help pull them out of their current state of poverty, but instead they found themselves even less able to put food on the table. Why do we American's hold on to the notion that bigger is always better? Or try to fit our ideas of happiness, success, and satisfaction on others? Do not take this as condoning poverty, but rather consider how meeting needs has to be done in a way that satisfies their immediate concerns and leave room for growth. Had the Marrero's house been more modest in size, maybe they would have been able to stay in Camden and flourish. On the flip side, maybe selling the house and moving out of Camden is what needed to happen to give them a boost up.

How do I serve people where they are at, yet encourage them to grow, be that academically, spiritually, financially, or emotionally? As we read recently in A Framework for Understanding Poverty, poverty is not caused just by lack of money and can't always be solved by throwing money at a situation. Beyond the financial, there are also factors such as emotions, mental state, spiritual life, physical needs, support systems, and role models that can cause poverty to persist in a situation. How do we meet those needs?

After reading this latest article, I realized even more how entirely unfamilar I am with poverty. I have never lacked one of the resources that contributes to pervading poverty, even as a 'poor' college student. I have a home, a family, friends, a job, a good mind, a Savior Jesus, caring professors, and opportunities for graduate education. I find it amazing that I can just continue to research, learn and gain new knowledge without the overhanging burden of wondering how I will put food on the table.

Jesus met people where they were at - from the woman at the well, to Nicodemus in the dark, to the Zacchaeus in his tree - ministering to each person a way germane to their needs. How can I do anything less but the same?

In preparation for Camden, NJ

What was your high school experience like? Did you go to a big school, little school, affluent school, poor school, private school or public school? I thought I went to a school with limited resources - we quickly outgrew our building, our books were old, and we didn't have a real lab space for experiments. But, after reading a chapter from Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol, I was forced to re-evaluate both the level of my education and that of my community.

I come from a 80% white community (according to the latest Wikipedia data) in Ellensburg, but I attended a private school in Yakima. Yakima is 42% Hispanic (at least from the best data I could find, number is from 2009), however my school was almost 100% white. So, I can't speak exactly to the level of public education in my community, but after reading Savage Inequalities, I can safely say that we can and do support our students more in Ellensburg than they are able to in Camden, NJ.

This Christmas break, I'll be traveling to Camden to work with a group called Urban Promise. Camden is one of the poorest areas of the country - 80,000 people live in 9 sq miles. The community is close to 98% non-white and a large portion of their community lives below the poverty line. 50% of Camden is under the age of 25 and something close to 85% of births are to unwed (presumably young) mothers. With this much stacked against them, who would expect a stellar school system? Even so, reading about their education system was devastating. Though the community taxes themselves a higher percentage of their income than the neighboring suburban areas do, they still can't provide the same resources for their students.

I haven't had to deal with much racial reconciliation in my everyday life, even at SPU, we're 80% white. While there is nothing wrong with investing in a quality high school education, there is something wrong with allowing some school systems to fail their students, just from lack of resources. I don't think the cycle of poverty can't be broken without raising the level of eduction of a community, but raising the level of education takes funding - so how can it be done in a poor community? Honestly, I don't know, and Savage Inequalities doesn't offer a solution. I think, however, any solution a book like this may offer would turn into a 'cookie cutter' solution that would probably only fit 1% of the real-world situations. There are multiple factors that need to be addressed to change a system and each situation differs from the next. I am interested in learning how Urban Promise is working towards breaking the cycle of poverty by providing a higher level of education for students, for it sounds like they have a very holistic mission that seeks to better all aspects of their students' lives. I am also interested in learning if the presence of Urban Promise has affected the education in the public school system in Camden.

There will be more thoughts on this book coming soon, possibly along with other articles and group discussions that happen. In the meantime - click on the link below and watch the clip entitled "I am not a statistic" to learn some about what Urban Promise is doing in Camden, NJ.

http://www.urbanpromiseusa.org/media