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jvc-yearofservice · 5 years ago

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8/18/19 - 8/24/19

"When it comes to matters of social justice and personal conscience, create as much holy mischief as possible."

We had our second Spirituality night together, where we shared our favorite songs and then explained why after collectively all listening to them in silence via a speaker. Mine was 'Kiss Me' by Ed Sheeran. For Community night, we watched Nacho Libre and ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Tres Hermanas, and when the waiter found out that we were volunteers, he gave us free extra chips for the table and a pitcher of mango margarita (Olé!). The house has been functioning pretty smoothly since we have a shared Google Docs with weekly responsibilities for each person (this week I led Community Night and swept the downstairs hallway). I also cook with the assistance of another housemate on Thursday nights. We also have a collaborative Spotify playlist for our house that we listen to on a speaker (lots of ABBA because I created it, heehee).

Work has been more prepping and getting ready for the kids, who come on Thursday. The other Jesuit volunteer and I went to the California DMV to get new licenses since we will be driving children around for our job (me more so than her). It was a pretty easy experience, except we didn't bring proof of residence so we had to pretend that the teacher who dropped us off at the DMV was our landlord, and he had to sign a form saying that we lived in his building. Then we had to take a written test, and I failed the first time around, haha! But eventually, I passed, and I got my new license, hooray!

One of our housemates hasn't been having the best time getting transportation to work, however. Apparently, the volunteer in her position had to have her parents pay for an Uber/taxi every day to and from her site (PS7 St. Hope elementary school) because the walk/bike ride there is so stressful and unsafe. When we were all visiting each other's sites, we walked together to this particular site, and even in a huge group, I will say that it was incredibly sketchy and unsafe-looking, so I do not blame my housemate for not wanting to walk BY HERSELF AT 5 IN THE MORNING to work. So far, she has contacted our regional coordinator, and he suggested that she simply take a different route, one that is much longer. All of us are behind her, however, and she is close to having her parents drive her car all the way from Boston to Sacramento because she feels like she is getting nowhere with the JVC in terms of being provided with transportation. Likewise, all the community credit cards from every single site in the JVC were declined and found to not properly work (the money we use for groceries, etc). They have since fixed the problem and promised to give us all an extra $100 for our troubles but later changed their minds and didn't give us the extra money (sad face). The most hilarious part was definitely when the administration posted on the JVC 2019 Facebook page to update us all to the problem with the credit cards, and all the volunteers were commenting hilarious things about how they were eating their own shoes for survival, haha. Another funny thing is that I recently compared the JVC to being the pimp of the volunteers since all of our work sites pay the JVC a fee to have a volunteer (and our free labor), and the JVC keeps the money, only giving us a small portion of our earnings in the form of a $100 stipend each month.

On the weekend, we got to swim in a former Jesuit volunteer's pool which was awesome, but my face definitely got a little burnt. I've taken to just wearing my ball cap any time I'm outside to prevent further skin damage. Then on Sunday, we attended mass at St. Francis church, which was founded by the Franciscans hundreds of years ago. We sat with another former Jesuit volunteer and our current in-city coordinator, Windi, who is awesome! I even got to hold her amazingly cute infant daughter during mass! The presiding priest was Irish which made the homily infinitely cooler, in my opinion. After mass, we went to a welcome brunch put on by the parish (mainly for the free food), and all these elderly members were so welcoming and fought over who got to sit at our table. We even signed up for a weekend night ministry opportunity to cater to the homeless that sit on the church steps.

More information on the homeless issues in Sacramento: I've been talking to the teachers at Mustard Seed, and apparently it is not that uncommon for children to show up for the school year, not speaking any language (not sure if from trauma or educational neglect or both). One group of siblings even created their own language that only they understood but spoke no other language a couple years ago. It is also common for homeless children to have never been in school before the age of 7 or by middle school. The cost of living in Sacramento is lower than more of the bigger cities like L.A. or San Francisco, but it is still a lot higher than the cost of living in my hometown, St. Louis. For example, rent for one-room apartments are about $1,000 or more a month, and there are many well-off people we know here who live with several people in a small space in order to afford rent. Likewise, apartment applications cost money, which the homeless cannot afford, and even motel costs add up quickly. The homelessness here is largely attributed to the landlord's refusal to rent to anyone who cannot readily set aside 1/4 of their income for rent.

Our first day of school was this week, and I'm already pretty smitten! I have so far played with kids on the playground, drawn several chalk animals, packed bags for families, and sat in on two intakes. As expected, the children are deeply traumatized but fiercely resilient at the same time. Disassociating in the children is a huge problem for the teachers due to the difficulty it takes to bring a child out of that state while other children are nearby. Some drama that occurred on the first day: Towards the end of the day, the fish bowl was broken, and the fish (formerly named 'Johnson' and now renamed 'Superdog' by the children) fell out of the bowl and onto the floor, where he laid for several minutes out of water. Thankfully, he was rescued by the homeroom teacher when she returned. For now, he is inhabiting a mason jar with some of his pebbles from before. Something that has been surprisingly fun is my job of making the backpacks for the newly enrolled children. Each backpack is chosen with care (only the highest quality of all the donations), and I strived to choose backpacks matching the personalities of their future owners based off my brief interactions with the children. Inside every backpack is a:

-journal

-binder

-highlighters

-crayons

-markers

-loose-leaf

-colored pencils

-ruler

-pens

-pencils

-pencil sharpener

-erasers

-shampoo

-conditioner

-tissues

-soap

-deodorant

-hand sanitizer

-toothbrush and toothpaste

-package of clean underwear

-package of clean socks

Although a lot of the staff have commented on how they feel sorry that I have to pack all these backpacks in a tiny room, I'm actually having a lot of fun with it. I put on my Latin dancing music, and I move around quickly and organize and pack the bags. I nearly missed my break on the second day because I was so concentrated on making backpacks. Part of the fun of making the backpacks is imagining the looks on the kids' faces when they see how I color-coordinated their supplies or included a toy. I supervised recess and played soccer with one little boy, and I chatted with the kids about whether Cartoon Network or Disney Channel was better while they waited to be picked up. One of the teachers also gave me and my housemate some iced coffees one morning as a thanks for helping him clean his room. On the morning of school starting, we also all received some flowers from the administration. Something funny that happened too is that a nurse asked me what grade I was in, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head when I told her I had just finished my master’s degree. Something I have been looking forward to is getting free bagels and cream on Friday's with my co-workers.

One of the drawbacks of serving at this placement is the walk to and from there. The walk to the school includes walking by fresh urine, feces, and general human waste. I have become quite a pro at breathing out of my mouth. I'm also not a huge fan of being hassled by drunk or otherwise intoxicated men. Additionally, the girl who had my position last year got lice from the children, so I'll be careful to keep my hair braided and away from contact.

On one weekday night, we went to an open-mic performance at a coffee shop, called Speak Out Sacramento. It occurs twice a month, and it is run by one of the bosses of one of my housemate's sites. I enjoyed sitting and listening to poems, songs, and experimental narrations even though I didn't have money for a beer or coffee. Something hilarious that I learned lately was that one of the founders of Loaves and Fishes, Chris Delaney, hosted a movie night at her house for the previous Jesuit volunteers. One movie night, they ended up watching a pretty explicit movie, and the volunteers were visibly nervous at watching this in the presence of someone so well-respected by the service community. Seeing this, Chris (a very tiny and old woman) laughed at them and asked them if this was really their first time seeing these things. Any time I see her handing out lemonade at lunch, she always comments on how I'm smiling whenever she sees me, and I always tell her, "What's there not to smile about?"

P.S. When living simply, always get super glue! It's very helpful for any broken item, and I've already glued two pairs of shoes back together. :)

XOXO

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