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/
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:
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?
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.
Okay, so I apologize to the few people who may watch my blog (aka Kali and Charis) about not being very good about posting. I basically don't get internet at my apartment area and when I am out at coffee shops, I am generally studying for the GRE (yuck)...which by the way, is the weirdest test. It tests basic algebra and geometry and graph interpretation, but then it test ridiculously challenging vocabulary that nobody uses in everyday life! I don't get the rationale behind the test, how it is supposed to tell if we are ready for graduate school, but I have to take it, so I will study about how to beat the test b/c there is no way I can memorize 5000 new words by September!
Besides just studying and sewing (I finished my dress and made another skirt and now am working on a pair of pants!), I have been biking...a lot. Te week before last, I biked a total of about 50 miles (!) and then hiked about 5 miles, uphill the following Saturday.
We hiked back in Big Basin, but we took the 'Buzzard's Roost' trail. It was a 2.5 mile loop trail and included at 1100ft elevation change....needless to say, it was uphill the whole way. But the view from the top was beautiful - I felt like I was back in the great northwest because all the hills were covered in dense green foliage.
Part of the trail.
The group who went hiking.
The view from the top
[Also, just an fyi, I can't seem to keep a straight timeline on all the events I want to share, so I make no claim to chronological order]
Not sure if I mentioned a new friend Hannah and I made while in the kitchen one evening, but we met a guy from Georgia Tech, named Mike, who likes to bike. He loves to bike. And somehow convinced us to go on a bike ride after work. We bike for a total of 20 miles, moving constantly. While I'd biked that much before, Hannah and I always stopped along the way, which made it not quite as challenging.
Then, later that week, we biked again to Stanford, this time to try out the first cupcake store. (this was not their first location, but they claim to be the brand that started the cupcake store trend) It is called Sprinkles and I had heard rave reviews from coworkers about their treats. I wanted to see if I could compare it to Cupcake Royale in Seattle, and I must admit, they seem pretty similar, but then, a cupcake's a cupcake, right? Sprinkles did not have anything like my favorite kind at Cupcake Royale, Dance Party (it tastes like those delicious white cookies with oodles of pink frosting and sprinkles that you buy at the grocery store) but the Dark Chocolate one that I tried was pretty good. I love sprinkles on just about anything, so this one was great!
My cupcake.
While we were there, the shopping center was hosting a summer jazz evening, so we stayed to listen to some great music and watch all the little kids running around.
One of the cute kids. I almost got one of her laughing, looking at me, but I just missed it!
And to finish this post off, here is a thought that could be one of my GRE essay questions and one that I have thought about when I walk down the halls of NASA:
"It is more important to allocate money for immediate, existing social problems than to spend it on long-term research that might help future generations."
A few weeks ago, I found out that Ames has a ballroom dancing club (actually, Ames a large number of clubs, including a cat rescue club...) Every Tuesday night the get together and learn some form of dance, a new one every month. They also have Casino Rueda lessons every week. The beginner lessons are free, so Hannah and I decided to try one out. And it was a lot of fun! I haven't had too many ballroom classes, so this was definitely a challenge for me. The style of dance is sort of a cross between salsa and country four-square dancing, I think - is that where they change partners? Anyways, the basics moves are salsa moves, but it is done in a circle and you swich partners during the dance. There is also a caller, who calls out the next move. Unfortunately for me, they're all in Spanish....eh, at least I'm not quizzed on their meaning and have to learn to spell them....
I have learned some of the moves as a lead and some as a follow, and let me tell you, it is much eaiser being a follow! Here is a video to give you a taste for what it looks like:
The other new art-related thing I have been introduced to is an artist named Zoe Keating. She plays really sweet cello music by live layering of loops she creates via a foot pedle and computer. You should listen to the link below before watch the music video - you will never believe one woman makes the track until you watch her create it!
So, I have still not caught up to the current date, so I'll keep writing, but in small bits and pieces.
One of my goals this summer was to sew a dress every week. Well, then I changed it to every other week. And now, if I get three items done this summer, I'll be a happy camper. I challenged my sister to a dress contest, so I'm not going to post pictures now, but I will say that mine is a lovely red dress with hand-rolled roses on the shoulder...
One of the most fun Saturday mornings I've had in a while was just last weekend when Hannah and I decided to volunteer our time at the model rocket launch being hosted at Ames. We showed up early in the morning and right away began helping set up the launch pads. There are twenty four launch pads, set up in groups of six. Each group had a box that had six wires going out and one wire going in. The one wire going in was connected to a master control box set apart from all the launch pads, where all the actual launching took place. Each of the six clips going out had two alligator clips on them, which were connected to the ignitors on each rocket.
Look at all the people! (This was early in the day...many more people came) They are all lining up at the tables there to get their rockets checked for safety.
There were hundreds of people that came out for this launch. Hannah and I were 'pad mothers', which meant that we helped each parent and/or child that came out to a pad set up their rocket. We had to slide it on the rail, attach the clips to the ignighters, and then have them check the continuity (indicated by a red light on the big box) which meant their rocket should be good to go. After each group launched, we swooped in to collect the spent ignighters so that they would not fly all over the airstrip and then help the next group set up. However, there were so many rockets and they went so fast with the launches that we moved from pad to pad constantly, helping one group set up while the last one we had helped was being launched. It was none stop all day, but great fun!
Personal favorite - I think the kid called it his 'droid-mobile'
This is what a pad looks like. With a rocket on it.
There were two groups there that built two different kind of rockets that held fresh eggs in the nose cone. They wanted to see if they would break upon descent. What do you think happened?
Six of the egg rockets taking off at once!
Surprisingly, many of the eggs did not break, however I did see on that had broken and was sloshing all around inside the nose cone. Over all we launched 209 rockets!
One day this last weekend Hannah and I also decided to ride into Mountain View and check out the goodwill and to just get outside on our bikes. Round trip, it was a little under 10 miles, but we got to come back from the goodwill via the Stevens Creek trail. It took us quite a while to find an entrance to the trail...we turned around about three times before we actually got on it. It is a wonderful trail, with paved pathways through a forest-y area and no cars in sight! It took us all the way from El Camino to Moffett Blvd. without once having to go on a regular road. It apparently is a very long trail that goes other places, but we haven't explored it very far.
Probably my new favorite part of living in California is the access to fresh fruit. I love eating my pluot or nectarine at lunch and then snacking on fresh peaches and strawberries after dinner. The farmers market is such a great place to get fruit every week. I stock up every Sunday with my favorite vendors. I'm sure I probably pay a smidgen too much per pound, but the fruit is super delicious!
This is where I buy my peaches. I like the snow and yellow peaches.
I don't buy peppers, but the colors were so vibrant, I couldn't pass up the picture.
Much time has past since I last blogged, mainly because I have been trying to stay busy. I have been working decently long hours, but have also been biking and hiking and reading and sewing. Two weekends ago, my roommate, a few of my co-workers, and a couple of other interns went hiking in the Santa Cruz area on a Saturday, in a place called Big Basin. It was a lovely forest of large redwood trees. No, these were not the famous giant redwoods, but they were pretty darn big! And it smelled so lovely there, like I was back at Rimrock at my family's cabin. We took one short, flat, easy trail that took us to see the 'Mother' and 'Father' of the forest and then took another pretty easy trail to a small waterfall. Overall we hiked about 5 miles. I will say though that the drive to the area and back was pretty terrible. We didn't realize that part of route 239 is virtually a one lane windy road down the side of the mountain with many blind corners and steep drop offs. Everyone in the car breathed a great sigh of relief when we made it safely to Big Basin. I, fortunately was not driving, but we did take a better road out of the mountains.
Yay! We found the waterfall!
The trail to the waterfall.
The 'Mother' of the forest tree
Friday, the day before our hike, Hannah and I took a trip out to Standford. On our bikes. We stopped along the way there, but I must admit, 10 miles is not all that far away. We meandered through the campus, which is quite lovely, and took a bunch of pictures. I'm posting a few here, but I will have an album up on Facebook sometime soon. Overall, we rode about 20 miles that day, and surprisingly I wasn't very sore! We did take the time to walk through the Palo Alto main drag and today we are headed back to the area to try out a cupcake place called Sprinkles. We'll see if it is as good as Cupcake Royale in Seattle...
At the entrance to Stanford off El Camino Real
(and yes, Kali, this is evidence that I wore my yoga pants in public)
Two of the statue men at Stanford...I can't remember what they represent.
Moving forward to Sunday, Hannah and I went to military church and then to the farmer's market. I had wanted to go to the chapel on base last year, but it was always so out of the way from where I was at in San Jose that I never went. Well, we went this summer and I must admit it was slightly awkward. I think we walked in on a Sunday School class that was in the main chapel right before service, but there was only four people in pews, so I am not sure. They also had the church all set up for VBS the coming week, so it looked like we should be in Egypt. Also, the stained glass windows of the church had a general military symbol at the top of each one, a Biblical symbol in the middle and a symbol for a branch of the military at the bottom. They also didn't have any sort of a worship team, the pastor just played a video with the words and vocals for the congregation to sing along with. We also kind of stood out because we were the only new faces in a crowd of about 30 people and were referred as the 'new ladies in the back' more than once during the service. He preached on a passage in Luke, discussing truth. I don't remember all the details now, but it will be interesting to hear Pastor Mark from back in Seattle preach on the same passage in the coming weeks.
