A New York Thanksgiving

This was my first Thanksgiving away from home. It was a good one, even if I didn’t get to hang out with my family.

I got off work early on Tuesday afternoon, and was VERY excited to start my break. I spent the first day of my break volunteering, which you can read more about in my post NAME OF POST.

Thursday was a lazy turkey day :) I think I stayed in my PJs until 1:00. Hurray! Leah made Pringle casserole (green bean casserole with Pringles instead of Frenchies because all the stores were out...), and around 2:00 she and I left for Brooklyn.

We met up with HaQuyen, a former VSer who still lives in the city. She had invited us, some friends from church, some friends from a different church, and her parents. Her family is Vietnamese, so there was a blend of Vietnamese and English buzzing throughout the apartment. Not to mention delicious Vietnamese spring rolls paired with an All-American Thanksgiving turkey. I love the diversity of this city!

In typical Thanksgiving fashion, Leah and I showed up an hour late. We didn’t eat for another 90 minutes because the turkey always takes longer than you expect. Post dinner, we fought off inevitable food induced coma by walking around HaQuyen’s neighborhood. It is so quaint! There are lots of brownstone buildings, a park where children were burning off energy while parents watched, and trees. It was lovely.

We had to make a pitstop at a Chinese bodega (bodega is Spanish for store, and New Yorkers use it to refer to corner stores...sort of like gas stations.) for ice. I suppose the Chinese are some of the few not observing the American holiday!

Through some rousing rounds of Mafia, Leah and I got to know her friends there. They all attend Trinity Grace Community Church which is a non-denominational church. It sounds like they’ve been friends for a couple years. I was excited to meet some new cool people who don’t live at Menno House! I love my housemates, but I also love knowing I have the potential for other friend groups.

This girl did not spend Black Friday shopping. I heard rumors folks were lined up outside of Bestbuy on Monday already gearing up for Black Friday. That was one scene I did not want any part of. Instead, Leah and I went to the Russian and Turkish baths (http://www.russianturkishbaths.com/enter.html). We had a Groupon to save $20 on entrance.

It was an experience. There were five saunas, an ice-cold pool, and a bunch of really hairy men covered in tattoos. Interesting. Despite the bowling alley smell and lack of eye-candy, Leah and I had quite a relaxing time. It was wonderful to just sit and relax. I definitely was not as intense as some men who would sit for hours in the 120 degree room, and when they got too hot, would dump buckets of ice water on themselves. After a few hours, they would go into the ice pool, literally like 40 degrees, and submerge themselves. They would stay there for five minutes. Repeat. No thank you.

Sunday was spent at Riverdale Presbyterian Church to see my housemate Jovon preach. He is studying theology at Union Theological Seminary, and is Director of Youth Ministries at RPC. It was a great time. The church was very welcoming, and warm.

Now I’m getting back into the swing of things. We have five schools we are serving this weekend. It’ll be busy!

Volunteering post Sandy

I had Wednesday off from work, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity, and volunteer in the Rockaways through New York Cares. The Rockaways is a beach in Queens that was hit very hard by superstorm Sandy. New York Cares is an organization that matches volunteer opportunities with fellow New Yorkers.

I was very excited to volunteer. I had never been to the Rockaways before, so I had no way to compare the damage, but I wanted to see if it was really as bad as the media coverage.

Little did I know what was in store.

According to my e-mail, I had to be on site at 8:00 am. It's a 90-1 hr 45 minute train ride, so I left at 6:30 am, and in typically Allie fashion, I got lost. It turns out the A train splits off into two branches, and I was on the wrong branch. I went back, and eventually found my way.

Because of flood damage to the subway from Sandy, the A train can't go to the Rockaways. Instead, shuttle buses run from JFK airport to the Rockaways. It's about a 45 minute bus ride. On the train it would be 15 minutes.

This was my first indication of how isolated this community really is. There is only one subway that goes that far, the A, and it's closed. The bus ride was really long and tedious. No wonder it took so long for first responders to reach the Rockaways; it's so isolated and hard to get to. While riding the bus, I didn't notice storm damage.

I get on site, and find out I didn't have to be there until 9. Great. I'm so glad I woke up an extra hour early. That was only the beginning of the miscommunications to come.

Finally a woman named Maureen shows up and directs us to a shed out back. It's about the size of a barn back home. She hands up XXL sized bright orange t-shirts with an X duct taped on the front. This way they can distinguish between volunteers and staff. Why do volunteers always have to wear the most hideous of attire?

The shed is a wreck. Outside of it, a 3' tall by 10' wide pile of boxes are haphazardly stacked. There are broken pieces of glass? fiber glass? Unknown substances? Inside are stacks and stacks of boxes crammed together with barely any walkway. All the boxes are donations of food, toiletries, animal food, diapers, etc. There are also stacks of Walmart bags filled with a few canned goods other volunteers packed the other day.

Our first job is to bring all the bags of food out and line it up on three 5' long tables. Maureen told us to check the bags of food. If we thought the bags were too heavy, she said to take out a can. Each bag had three or four cans. I was not about to take out 25% of the bag! Especially if this was to feed a family for the next 24 hours! While we are pulling food out of the shed, I take a moment to check out the line waiting to receive the food. When I got there at 8:30, there were about five people. The gates weren't scheduled to open until 11. While we worked, the line steadily grew longer. It was wrapping around the block when I left at 2.

Once we finished, we stood around bored for about half an hour. Then we bagged some more food for the next few days. Each bag did not contain much: a can of soup, a pack of crackers, a can of fruit, and a can of vegetables. Supposedly this would tide the families over until the next day when they could stand in line again, and receive another bag of food. 

Around 10:45, we stopped bagging and went to the distribution to get ready. We then found out Governor Cuomo was donating frozen turkeys with the fixing for a Thanksgiving feast. They were scheduled to be delivered at 11 am. It was 10:45 and there no frozen turkeys. 11 came and went, and still no turkeys. We weren't letting people in, because we wanted to give them a turkey, then a bag of food. Finally half an hour later the turkeys show up. The people are ancy by this point. I see women holding their crying babies. One lady shouts out, "Go to the other church! They have better stuff there!"

The truck carrying all the turkeys parks, the National Guard get out to distribute the turkeys, and then stand around. My volunteer group takes some pictures. I'm sure that's exactly what the people in line want to see. People standing around taking pictures while their food is half an hour late and counting.

After asking around, I find out the reason we are all waiting is because the governor wants to come and do a photo shoot handing out the turkeys. Excuse me? The reason these families who don't have electricity or heat  and haven't showered in weeks are standing in the cold waiting is because the governor wants to take a damn picture with them?!?!?! Unacceptable. He doesn't show up until 1 or 1:30. A full two hours late.

He's all smiley. Pompous. Showing off what a generous governor he is, and how he is taking care of his people. Ensuring everyone has a true American Thanksgiving. Never mind some people receiving the turkeys don't have electricity to cook their food. 

In the meantime, all the volunteers are standing around watching the mayor hand out turkeys. We are told not to give any bags of food. If they want canned food as well, they have to get back in line. I have no idea why. 

I was disgusted with the organization of the church. One of the Red Cross nurses on site was singing the church's praises with how organized they were. I would hate to see a disorganized place. Granted, it's not the church's fault for the governor showing up late. However, I don't see why we had to show all the food we had, and not give it away.

We also had feminine hygiene supplies, and were told not to distribute it. Apparently Wednesday is not pad day. What am I supposed to do? Tell a woman, "I'm sorry you are on your period. The fact that you still don't have hot water to shower in is terrible. Starting your period makes it that much worse. Unfortunately, you can't have a pad, because it's Wednesday, and we don't give out pads on Wednesday." Yeah right! I'd punch you in the face if you told me that.

I thought we had learned our lesson after Katrina. I thought we knew how to better respond to people in need after a natural disaster struck. I thought wrong. Not only does our country need to take a serious look at our contribution to global warming and the consequences of climate change both on our nation and the world, we also need to accept this is our new reality. We need to find a more effective, efficient system for managing these crises which will become more and more a normal part of our lives.  

November Reflections

Hello friends!

I am sorry I have not been doing a great job of updating this blog. They don't joke when they say this city never sleeps! (let along blogs...)

One of my requirements for MVS is to send in bi-monthly reflections. I thought I'd post them here too. Happy reading!

The phrase echoing throughout the house ever since I've moved in is, “Trust me, this is not how the house is normally.” I have yet to experience a week of “normal” is at the Menno House.

Here’s a taste of what the house has been like since I moved in:

In mid-September, Linda Hood, head of the Menno House board, beloved spouse of an MVS committee member, and cherished member of the Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship community passed away very unexpectedly. The house was host to a wake and gathering of remembrance throughout the rest of the month.

Throughout the month of October, the roof was being re-done. Construction workers come in and out during work hours, upsetting my typical lazy Monday morning routine; I have the day off as I work most Saturdays. The roof remains unfinished, and winter is fast approaching.

On October 29, Hurricane Sandy struck most of the North East coast. Needless to say, it was poor timing for a roofing project. We were without power from Monday night through Friday night. The city was completely shut down on Tuesday, and mostly down on Wednesday. Lower Manhattan resembled a black hole.

Menno House is back up and running, however one of my housemates has a hole in his ceiling, and another housemate’s room is inhabitable. She’s not sure where she’ll be staying for the next six weeks until the roof and her ceiling are fixed.

According to the news, there’s a snowstorm heading our way expected to hit on Wednesday. We’ll see how much it slows the city’s recovery.

 What have I taken away from this series of strange, unexpected events?

We as humans are not actually in control. As much as we try, in 24 hours, everything we planned for can be wiped away. Sandy was sobering and humbling for the city, and for me. My mom was visiting me at the time, and she was supposed to fly out on Tuesday. The airport didn't open until Thursday. It was so strange to work with her as she checked her flight updates, and realize her flight was pushed back yet again. No one can predict what the weather will do, and as much as we try to gain control of the situation, it is out of our hands. Why is it that we as humans struggle to learn this lesson? Why are we surprised when something like Sandy comes through and wipes out our man-made structures? These things happen often in our world, but we always think it’ll never happen to us. Until it does.

It was sobering to see lower Manhattan pitch black. There were no traffic lights or street lights, so walking after dark was a feat in agility. You would pray the cars would see you and stop. I heard stories of friends volunteering in Chinatown, and the gratitude the residents showed upon receiving a bottle of water. How is it that this city, once so admired, looked to as a place of fashion and business, be so crippled by a 24 hour event, that its residents are joyful for a simple bottle of water?

Five days after the hurricane, I took a walk to the river. The water was calm. I couldn't believe it surged high enough to explode the power-plant, and cause massive destruction across the city. It’s sobering to realize that something so calm and peaceful, when in the right circumstances, can turn so deadly.

While on the river walk-way, I saw a man out for a run with his dog. The dog found a huge stick, and was wagging her tail and flaunting her stick, as if it was the best thing in the world. It was strange to hold these two things: the city is badly crippled, yet some things remain the same, such as a dog’s love of a stick. I thought, “I only wish I could be that happy over a stick.” Then I started to wonder, what is my stick? What simple thing in life makes me so happy I would wag my tail and flaunt it around so everyone else would be jealous? I haven’t been able to answer this question yet. All of my answers rely on technology, such as watching my favorite TV show, or texting/calling friends and family back home. You can’t do any of that when you don’t have electricity. How can I live more simply, and remain joyful?

The city and my house are putting the pieces back together. Some people are still residing in emergency shelters. Others are living in their homes without heat or running water. Menno House is trying to figure out how to move forward without Linda’s guidance and support. Your prayers for the victims of the storm, and for the grieving community of MMF are appreciated.

It's like a hurricane came through or something!

Greetings fellow kindred spirits!

I apologize I have not been updating as often as I would like...turns out when you don't have power, you can't really update.

Here's what my life has been like the past week:

My mom came to visit me!!!! It was great having her here, although I'm sorry mom that the circumstances were less than ideal. She arrived on Friday afternoon. I took off work early, and met her at Menno House. We feasted on kale chips, sushi and tea. I showed her around Union Square, we had our one and only encounter with a homeless person, and then we caught a train uptown to see PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.

Mom hadn't been on a subway since the 70s. Getting off at Times Square probably wasn't the best plan for her first subway ride in 40 years, but we did it. It was hilarious. I was walking briskly as usual (in heels I would add!) and mom was overwhelmed by all the lights, people, everything. It made me step back, and see Times Square again with fresh eyes. Yep, it's pretty overwhelming.

After constant negotiations on when to take photos, and of what would be appropriate, we found ourselves standing in line for the Majestic Theater's performance of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA! It was my first Broadway show on Broadway, and I was stoked! Obviously the show was phenomenal, and I would recommend it to anyone :)

The next morning we got up around six to get to the school where I would be working, and mom would be volunteering. Yes, my mother volunteered with me and CFY-NYC! It was a great day, even though we were exhausted afterwards. Mom did a great job volunteering. The staff thought she was training to be a Customer Service Representative instead of being a volunteer! She has some great stories from volunteering. If you have a chance, ask her about it sometime.

Ditmas, the school where we were working, is located in Southern Brooklyn. The neighborhood is predominately Hasidic Jewish, but there are many immigrant families living in the neighborhood too. On this Saturday we had families who spoke Haitian Creole, Russian, Bengali, French and Spanish. Mom did will despite all the diversity! My favorite moment she tells is seeing the pride and admiration in the eyes of mothers wearing hijabs as the watch their daughters do really well playing games involving science and math. I love being reminded of the good work CFY-NYC is doing, and how lucky I am to be a part of it.  

Sunday we took it easy. Little did we know how much we would need our strength in the coming days.

Sandy came in all her glory on Monday. NYC wasn't even hit, yet the city is in bad shape. Menno House lost power Monday night, and power wasn't restored until Friday night. All the flooding images and horror stories you all are hearing in the outside world is not reflective of my experience, Hallelujah! Our house didn't flood. We had water and gas the whole time. We were very lucky. In our neighborhood, some apartments were without water, because they needed electricity to pump water up to the higher floors of the building.

The subways continue to be down. Buses are running, but they are a mess. Walking anywhere is risky, because without electricity, there are no traffic lights. With traffic lights, it can be scary to cross streets here. It is anarchy without the lights! I have never seen nor heard Manhattan so dark and silent. It was like I was back home! We could see the stars for once!

Fortunately, one of my friends lives uptown, and she never lost power. She invited all of Menno House and guests to use her internet and electricity. I don't know how mom would have got home without her kind offer!

Despite all the adventures and bonding time I was fortunate to share with my roommates and mother, I think we are all VERY HAPPY to have electricity back. Mom is ECSTATIC to be back home in Kansas. Thank you for all your prayers and warm thoughts for us during this stressful time.

The city continues to recover, and it will be awhile before it is completely back to normal. I hope in the aftermath of Sandy, NYC begins to think of how the city will look in the future. Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy are our future. These once in a century storms are coming every other year. It's not sustainable for the city to completely shut down like this every other year. It's not sustainable to rebuild on Rockaway Beach or the Jersey Shore if the waters will tear it down in a couple years. The irony is it is our very addiction to the power we lost that fuels these life altering storms. Global warming is alive and well in our world, and until we find alternative solutions to feed our addiction, or wean our addiction altogether, we will continue to suffer. Humans are not invincible nor indestructible. We cannot control our surroundings no matter how hard we try. In one day, everything we worked hard to create can be wiped away, and we are left to pick up the pieces. Continued prayers for the victims of Sandy, the volunteers helping restore the city, and for our policy makers are appreciated.

Life at the Menno

Greetings people who care about me and my well being!

I realized I have given you a lot of updates about working at CFY, but haven't talked about house life yet. Sorry it's taken me so long to do so!

If you are interested in exploring the house website, take a look: http://www.mennohouse.org/

Menno House is a four story brownstone in Gramercy Park in Manhattan. It's located a few blocks from the subway, and Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship, the owner of the house, meets at the Quaker Meetinghouse located a few blocks away. The church shares an office with the Menno House manager here.

The first floor is a common living space with a living room, dining room, and kitchen. The residents take turns keeping it clean...we've wowed previous visitors with our cleanliness! Believe me, it's hard to keep a space clean with ten residents, and six guests on any given night!

The second floor is the office and three guest rooms. We have guests come stay with us from all over the world. Recently, I met guests from Sweden, Germany and Australia. Living in a hospitality house definitely makes life interesting! We had three sisters stay awhile ago. They arrived a blond, and two brunettes. They left all blond. One Sunday morning while they were here, we looked out into our patio (yes, we have a patio) and we saw them dying each other's hair. We're glad they didn't get hair dye on the furniture! Later that same day, I was going upstairs to my room and overheard one sister say to the other, "Oh no! We forgot to get hair dye today!" The other sister said, "Oh that's right! I guess we can get it tomorrow." I'm not sure what else or who else they wanted to dye. Whatever!

The third and fourth floor are resident rooms. We currently have ten residents. Five are students studying social work, public health, law, theology and ordination, and psychology. The rest are volunteers like me. Katie, the other VSer is serving at Urban Justice Center. She works with New York City residents who are in debt crises. The other volunteers are at MCC's office at the UN.

We have residents from Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Oregon, Canada, Kenya, Zimbabwe  Michigan, and of course KANSAS! It's really fun to live with such a diverse group of people. All of my house mates are genuine people who want to be committed to living in community together and to do life together. Every week we have a soup night where the whole house comes together to share a meal. It's great to have a chance to check-in with people and share a meal together. Outside of soup night, Katie and I regularly eat together. Sometimes other housemates join us as they're around.

We also have a patio!!! That was the main selling point for me to come to New York. We have a couple picnic tables, a glider, and an herb garden. It's great for brunches and morning coffee! Although we haven't been able to enjoy as much recently. We just started the process of installing a new roof. The workers set up scaffolding in our back yard. As I'm writing this, the workers are coming in and out of the house commenting on my lunch and music choices. They've just started working here, and already they've seen me in my pajamas. Great.

Other than the construction, life at the Menno is a fun one. We're a great group of people, and we have a lot of fun together. Thank you for all your support to give me this life experience!

Hope all is well with you.
Blessings,
Allison

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Yesterday was another Family Learning Workshop, and it definitely stretched me. Here's why.

First of all, I am not sure I've really explained CFY as an organization. If I have, I apologize; feel free to skip over this :)

CFY is a national organization whose mission is to partner with students, teachers, and parents in low-income communities to harness the power of digital learning to increase educational outcomes. We do this two ways:

1) CFY has a digital learning platform, http://powermylearning.com/, which is a K-12 Learning Platform, and free to anyone with internet access. It has over 2,000 educational games and tutorials. It's available for teachers, students and parents. Teachers can customize lesson plans and activities to help students build new skills. Parents can link their account to their students' to monitor their learning. Students can play fun games, and not even know they're learning! If you have a minute, my favorite game on there is World of Goo. You can find it in the Science tab under Physics, or search World of Goo.

2) The second way we live out our mission is through our Digital Learning Program, which our Family Learning Workshops are a part. Most Saturdays this fall, we go into the schools and host a workshop for the sixth grades students, their parents, and their teachers. The families learn how to connect their computer, and then learn how to implement powermylearning at home. The teachers learn how to use powermylearning in the classroom. At the end of the workshop, the families go home with their Home Learning Centers, which is a desktop computer equipped with Microsoft Office, Windows XP, and Launchpad, a mini version of powermylearning, so if the family doesn't have internet, the students can still play some games. During the workshop the families also take a survey to see if they are eligible for discounted internet through CFY.

This is the context for Saturday's workshop. I was serving as Volunteer Coordinator in the Bronx. It took me about 90 minutes to get to the school from my house. My role was to make sure staff were supported by volunteers, the volunteers were having a great time, and were engaging the families.

The morning went great. I didn't have any hiccups with my volunteers. They came on time, they were excited to be here, and they were ready to work. I had enough Spanish speakers which helped too.

The Bad.

The afternoon was a mess. I had a group of buildOn students coming to volunteer. BuildOn is a national organization that partners with high schools across the country to provide volunteering opportunities for high school students so they can gain leadership experience and serve in their communities. They are also high schoolers. They came with a liason who was chaperoning them. I could not have done it without her!

The first student came 30 minutes early. Then there was a group of about four that trickled in, and they were ready to go at 12, which was when they were supposed to arrive. I knew I had three classrooms I needed to place students in, so it was a perfect number. I oriented them, and was just about to start the tour of the school to give them the lay of the land, when another group of about six showed up. Half an hour late. I decided that was fine. I would give everyone the tour, then orient the late comers while volunteers on time would help staff out with half-time set-up to get ready for the next batch of families. That went well.

When it was time to orient the late batch, my morning volunteers were back and ready to talk about their experiences. I ignored the students, gave them some pizza, and visited with the morning volunteers. They had a great experience, and talked about wanting to come back. Great!

I oriented the late comers, and then took them to the auditorium where they would meet the families, and escort them to their classrooms. Remember, they are high schoolers. During the tour of the school, the of course were not paying attention, and didn't connect the dots that when I say, "You are serving in this classroom, so when the families are dismissed from the classroom, you will take them to this room," that meant, "Listen up children! You need to know where to go, because you will have 15 families following behind you, and you need to lead them here!"

As is predictable, they did not know where to go. I got them all in the right classrooms, then was about to eat lunch. It's 2:00. They're liaison finds me, and says, "Allison, there are two more students coming! Isn't that great?" Is she kidding me? The workshop has started. They need to be oriented. I need to eat. I look for them. I don't see them. I go eat food, because at this point I have turned into a savage beast needing to prey on pizza to calm my inner rage. I finally find them. I orient them in 3 minutes instead of 30. I send them back in the classroom. I breath a sigh of relief.

Oh. Did I mention I found out as the families were dismissing that they were opening up a fourth classroom? I had to reorganize my assignments. Luckily, the liaison knew her students, and took care of the reorganization. Also, with 30 minutes of the workshop left, two more students come to volunteer. By this point, I don't even care. I'm ready to go home, although I was annoyed they showed up so late. What does that say to the families? Whatever.

The Ugly.

During my rounds (checking in on the rooms, checking up on the volunteers) I find out from the Family Trainer (the teacher in the classroom) that a parent beat his son in front of everyone, then left the room very angry. The child is sitting by herself. She doesn't speak English. Great. High school students witnessed this.

I find the Program Manager, CFY's liaison to the school, and explain the situation. She finds the Parent Coordinator for the school, and alerts her to the situation. We gather the Family Trainer so he can talk to authority, but there's no on to run the workshop. In the meantime, the child is sitting by herself, because her dad is gone. He never came back. She spent the whole workshop by herself.

The Good.

These buildOn students were AMAZING. I asked one of the students, a junior in high school and a guy, to sit with the girl until her dad came back. He stayed the whole time, and did a great job. He knew French. I have no idea if that was helpful to him in helping her, but I was so happy to see him sitting with her. It was really amazing.

Also, of the four classrooms, there was only one English classroom. Of the fourteen student volunteers we had, there were only two that spoke Spanish. Most of the kids were placed in a Spanish classroom. They complained for the first bit, but after the workshop got going, they were involved. Every time I would check on them, they were helping students, and being engaged. I rarely saw them off to the side. It was truly a gift from God.

That was my day yesterday. It was long. It was exhausting. It was stretching. But it was also rewarding. Who knew high school students would step up to the plate like that? Who knew they could be such great role models for sixth graders? Who knew they would indicate interest in coming back to volunteer again? I thank God for them, and their commitment to volunteering, and supporting their neighborhood. They attend the high school across the street from this school. Bless them.  

¡No tu canta sola!

Sorry I haven't updated my blog for a big chunk of September. Things have been crazy here.

Last Friday was my first day in a school. We went to a school in the South Bronx. It was about a half hour subway ride from my work. We arrived about an hour before the school let out, and we set up for a pep assembly. All the sixth grade students in the school were at the assembly. We wanted to pump up the energy so the kids would be excited to come back on Saturday morning with their parents. It was a really fun pep assembly. The kids were excited, and they kept the energy up. Each home room had their own cheer, and they were excited to chant. It was really fun to see. The best part though was seeing my colleague J.C. dress up as their Eagle mascot. The costume was ridiculous, and the only way he could see was through the eyes on the side of his head. We also managed to get a CFY t-shirt to fit around his giant Eagle head. The kids ate it up. However, we gave away a couple t-shirts via raffle, and when the assembly was done, some of the kids that didn't get a t-shirt accosted him and tried to rip his shirt off! I don't understand what they were so angry about...the next day they got a free computer. When given the choice between a free t-shirt and a free computer, I'd take the computer, thank you very much.

The next morning I had to be at the school at 8:15. It took me an hour to get there, because transportation is so sporadic on the weekends. We didn't have any volunteers that day, because it was training day for our new part-time staff. Since there were no volunteers, there weren't any volunteers for me to manage. I was a volunteer in the classrooms, and got to see what the Family Learning Workshop is like. It was so fun! We had four classrooms, two English rooms, one Spanish room, and one bilingual classroom. We had about 40 staff total, it felt like we overpowered the families!

I floated from room to room and felt silly having so many staff in each room. In the afternoon session, I ended up hanging out for a long time with a little four year old. Her mom had two girls in sixth grade, and she must have been the only available relative for the girls (CFY policy is in order to receive the computer, both student and parent must come for the full three hour workshop). The girls spoke English, but the mom spoke mostly Spanish, and the little one spoke only Spanish. I noticed she was being a pain...hanging on mom, demanding all of mom's attention; basically being a typical four-year-old. I went over to her, and asked if I could color with her. She said yes. Soon we were friends. She is so smart! I would point to a body part on the Sesame Street character, and ask "¿Cómo se dice en español?" "How do you say this in Spanish?" She knew all her body parts, including teeth! I would also ask her where I should color next, and which one I should use. At first, she was very particular, but soon, I must have proven myself to be a trustworthy contributor to her artwork, because when I asked what I should color next and where, she said, "Lo que quieras." (Whatever you want.) Needless to say, I was honored by this new responsibility. Towards the end of the workshop (three hours is a LONG TIME for a little one to entertain herself!) we were coloring a picture of Big Bird with the alphabet on a chalk board behind him. I asked her if she knew her alphabet. She got most of them. I tried to remember the Spanish pronunciation of the letters, and she laughed at me. Then we sang the English ABCs together. She loved that. Unfortunately for me, the room got really quiet in the middle of our song...it was a bit awkward. She then said, "¡Tu canta!" ("You sing!") I told her, "¡No canto sola! Cantamos juntos." ("I won't sing by myself, let's sing together.") She would have none of that, and we would go back and forth about whether I should sing a solo or not. Finally, I convinced her to sing with me, but she stopped after D, the terd. I loved hanging out with her; I guess I love preschoolers after all. Kudos to you Prairie View, for recognizing that in me before I knew it myself.

It was a great first Family Learning Workshop!