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?