Hello everyone! It has been a pretty eventful week since the last time I posted anything.
I will start out with spirituality night that we had the week before this past one. It was Cara's turn and she decided to do an activity that dealt with Native American spirituality. There was a wheel that contained 4 different animals and personality traits that identify a person as one of the animals. We discovered that Carolyn and Cara were deers, John and I were eagles, and Julie was a Bison. It was a really cool activity and a good change of pace to normal spirituality night.
Thursday we all made a return to the Los Angeles artwalk that they have once a month. The city almost decided to scrap the event because of the cost but the vendors downtown were able to come together to raise the required funds to make the event possible. It is such a cool and eclectic way to spend an evening, even better it is free!
Friday was the finale celebration for Latino Heritage Month at Verb. Greater than 50% of our students are of Latino heritage, so it makes these type of events much more special than they ever were when I was in school. The celebration centered around a Mass which was performed by the pastor of Dolores Mission ( a very Latino Jesuit parish in East LA). During the Mass my boss Cristina( who is Mexican) called out all of the countries in Latin America and the students who were from these countries stood up when it was called. Te majority were from Mexico, but there was also a large contingent from alot of the Central American countries. It was so cool seeing how proud all the students were of their perspective country's. All of their families came to the US looking for a better life for their families and hopefully Verb is helping to provide that. Following the Mass there was a delicious lunch of homemade tamales, rice, and salsa provided by the parents of the Latino students. To make the lunch even better, we were serenaded by a live mariachi band. Overall it was such an awesome day at work.
That weekend was Verbum Dei's first ever "Urban Plunge" service weekend to downtown LA. Julie was one of the people that helped to plan it and since they needed a male chaperon, I decided to tag along. After school that Friday we loaded up the vans with 10 students and headed down to skid row. John works down on skid row, so I was excited to finally see/learn more about this area of the city. Skid row is essentially a section of blocks near downtown LA where a large number of the homeless population is concentrated. It is that largest concentration of homeless people west of the Mississippi.
When we arrived at skid row, one of the directors of one of the missions took us on a walking tour of the area. It was crazy to see how such an immense concentration of poverty and despair could occur so close to the large concentration of wealth that exists in the beautiful high rises of downtown LA. The majority of the kids had never been to this area. Even though they all come from lower level income families, I don't think they were used to the large concentration of problems that we encountered.
Following the tour we headed to Union Rescue Mission, which is one of the largest missions in the area, to serve a meal. I have served food at homeless shelters back home before, but never on such a large scale. For over two hours we found ourselves serving countless numbers of trays full of meatloaf and rice to people. The way the mission was set up felt as if it was a prison rather than a homeless shelter. Armed guards watched over every activity and people were ushered in and out of the massive cafeteria as quickly as possible. There were four waves of people: Families, women, handicapped men, and men. This mission is one of 2 downtown that accepts families, and that was the most disheartening to see. What kind of childhood is that, growing up in homeless shelters in down town LA? Following serving a meal we went to dinner as a group. One of the funnest parts of the trip is when we would drive the kids around in the van. Within a few second of getting into the car I would hear the request: "Bump it Mr Petersen"! This essentially means: turn the radio to something good and make it really loud. I cant honestly say that I ever thought I would be driving around downtown LA with a van full of high school students who were all rapping in the back. It is just great.
We spent the night at the St. Francis center, which is a mission located in between our house and downtown. There are no beds here, so the night was spent on a linoleum floor. That Saturday we woke up at 5 am, which is not easy for me and even harder for high school boys. From essentially 6am on we were working at the center. I found myself sorting cans of food, bagging potatoes (many rotten...), motivating students, and setting up tables for breakfast. When people began arriving for a free breakfast we took shifts eating with them. I was slightly hesitant when I sat down at my table, but soon enough those fears were alleviated. I found myself in discussion with 6 homeless men about topics such as: what is the best college major?, Do the Lakers suck, and Whether salt is good on everything?. It was incredible. Every time I meet a homeless person it seems that my previous perceptions are wrong. One of the men I ate with grew up in the Nickerson Gardens project that is adjacent to verb. He talked about his friends dying in the neighborhood because ambulances would not come in at night to help them. He actually made it out of the projects and started attending college in Compton wanting be a lawyer, unfortunately he never finished. After spending 11 years in Seattle he decided to come back to LA hoping to find a job down here because there was nothing in Seattle. He was just offered a position, pending a drug test and background check he will be hired. I am praying that everything turned out well for him.
Following breakfast we cleared everything out and set up a food market in the entrance of this building. We each had a food item that we were in charge of and were told how much we were able to distribute to the families coming through. I was in charge of the apples stand. My Spanish is not great since I have never actually taken a class (have been regretting that decision for awhile), which was not great for me because the majority of the families that came through spoke only this language. I spent about 2 hours saying roughly three or four words: manzanas?, cuantos?, mas?, and de nada. I am now committing myself to learning the language, I was everyone to hold me accountable for that statement! The experience as a whole was incredible and heartbreaking. Putting apples into a grocery sack being held by a 5 year old girl was both rewarding and of course made me ask the ever important question: why?. Why does she have to do something I never had to do, it never will make sense.
After we left St. Francis center at 2 we went to lunch and everyone began hitting a wall. Luckily the students (and myself!) we able to rebound for a few hours once we arrived at the downtown women's shelter that we were going to be volunteering at from 4 until 6. Little did I know, our service would be making "hygiene" kits that were going to be distributed to needy women. Seeing 5 high school boys handling (and asking questions..) tampons was quite entertaining. They were actually much more mature about it than I was expecting and we made enough kits to last the shelter several weeks. It was behind the scenes work but very rewarding as always. Thinking about how needed such commonplace items like shampoo and tampons are really puts things in perspective.
The women's shelter essentially ended our weekend of service. The rest of the night was spent reflecting, eating, and playing games. The nest morning we went to Mass at Dolores mission and I realized what it felt like for teachers when students would fall asleep in church. I only had to wake up one kid, so it was better than it could have been. Overall, it was one of my favorite weekends that I have had at verb so far. It was fun getting to connect with the students and having an opportunity to directly serve members of the LA community.
This past week at work consisted primarily of us trying to collect mid-quarter evaluations from all 66 corporate partners that we have. For some odd reason many supervisors just wont complete the evaluations. It doesn't really make sense considering it is literally a 2 minute survey monkey evaluation, but it is something that we just had to deal with. By the time the week was over we had collected all but one, so that is pretty much the best that we could do. Tuesday I got to drive one of the routes again because a driver could not make it. I only got lost twice, so I guess I did alright....
There was a ceremony that week in which the honor roll was announced. The school set a recent record for the largest percentage of students above a 3.0 (roughly 30 some percent). It is clear to see that Verb is on the upswing, and it is really exciting to be there while it is happening.
Thursday was a day that I had been waiting for all semester: the Souders came! It was exciting to get to show them where I work on Thursday and have Michelle and everyone get a little glimpse of what my life looks like out here. My roommates and I made dinner and a birthday cake for Michelle and had dinner over here. It was just great having her meet such important people to me and show her where I live. I took off work on Friday and we were able able to go to Santa Monica pier and Hollywood. Such a fun/chill day!
That night on Friday Carolyn's boss had her 30th birthday party at a bar in Venice, so we decided to go as a house. There were a lot of Verb people there and it was fun just hanging out in a setting that is outside school. Saturday I was back with the Souders at the most magical place on earth: Disneyland! It was an amazing day with amazing people. It was hard saying goodbye that night, but such a good experience seeing her and her family even if it was only just for a few days.
I am always here for more visitors if anyone finds some free time. I miss everyone and would love to hear how yours lives are, update me por favor!
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