After four weeks of preparation and office decorating, I was very ready for this first day of Urban Compass on Tuesday. What I wasn’t quite ready for, though, was running the show essentially on my own. As luck would have it, Theresa had to report for jury duty on our very first day of the program. Fortunately, she wasn’t picked for a trial, but unfortunately, couldn’t make it to Watts before 5. So, armed with my clipboard and list of students, I walked over to 112th St. Elementary School and rounded up the kids! Many were a little sad that Ms. G. wasn’t there, and they were very confused when I tried to explain what “jury duty” was. (I may have mistakenly led a few to believe she had to go to court herself…but we cleared it up quickly!)
Now, Theresa had prepared me well for the first day. I knew how to unlock the gate, where to put out the snack, how many students should be allowed in the office at a time, and I had the schedule planned out to the minute. What she did/could not prepare me for took me by surprise. Getting the students to stand in a line to walk to the high school was almost harder than getting their attention from 100 yards away on the football field. In good teacher fashion, all my plans for the day went out the window once I was with the kids. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, practically voiceless, and terrified that I would never be able to control children so young. I was in a terrible mood that night (sorry, Casa!) and went to bed early in order to re-energize. It truly was baptism by fire; no amount of discussion, preparation, or lesson planning could have made that day go any better.
Thankfully, Day Two was completely different. With Theresa back, I was able to watch her discipline style and how she interacts with the kids, which gave me a better idea of what I could and could not say. I think it’s safe to say that in real life, I am pretty gentle with people – especially children. Obviously I know how to put on my teacher hat and command respect and attention, but I had never tried wearing that hat in front of 35 five to ten year olds from LA’s toughest housing projects. Let’s just say gentle isn’t going to fly. On day two, it went out the window completely. Immediately, the kids were responding to me and I was falling in love with them. It is such a wonderfully warm feeling when a first grader sprints from his classroom to hug you after school! Of course, it feels equally awful when I’m disciplining him five minutes later for talking while Ms. G. is talking, but that’s all part of the job, I guess.
The rest of the week was just as wonderful and exhausting. The 9-2 office hours go by quickly, and next thing I know it’s time to change out of teacher clothes into play clothes and spend the next 3 hours spinning around and trying not to trip over the cherubs. We are fortunate to have a lot of volunteers from Verbum Dei and local universities, but sometimes it’s just as hard to keep them focused, especially the high school boys! I’m sure there will be many exciting stories about the kids over the course of the year, so I’ll skip them now and wait for a great one to share.
I’m starting to realize how much I am enjoying cooking here. Back at BC, I always made quick, simple meals because I ran around from classes to meetings and libraries. But with fewer commitments at night and more people to feed than just me, I have really been enjoying the creativity and community that is built in the kitchen. This week, we made our own pizza (dough and all) from scratch, as well as a delicious shepherd’s pie. (Thanks, Mom, for the recipe book…it is serving us well!) This all might sound simple, but it’s new and exciting for me! On weekends, we don’t plan meals together but instead eat leftovers and get really creative. We also patronize the Papusa Ladies around the corner. A few Salvadoran women on the block over make papusas on Friday and Saturday nights and sell them for $1.25 each. I think they are definitely becoming a weekend staple!
On Friday night, my friend Sam flew into LA for a spontaneous and short visit. He is bouncing around before leaving for a 2-year gig with the international branch of JVC in Peru. On Saturday, I gave Sam a tour of my neighborhood and the USC campus. Later, we went downtown with Cara and one of Sam’s future JVI community-mates to the Fiestas Patrias. In the “El Pueblo” district downtown, there were vendors, musicians, artisan markets, and tons of people out and about, all celebrating Mexico’s 200th Birthday (which was on Thursday). The environment was so vibrant and a lot of fun, and made me a little nostalgic for Quito. Afterwards, we walked across downtown to the Cathedral and checked it out. The building is beautiful, very new, and quite modern looking. There was a wedding going on, complete with a mariachi band. We poked around the mausoleum and wandered the grounds of the church.
At mass this morning at Dolores Mission, the pastor, Fr. Greg, announced that their parish would not be getting a new associate pastor any time soon. Apparently, there simply are not enough Jesuits – let alone bilingual ones – in the California province, or the other US provinces, or even in other countries. Though Fr. Greg was really positive about it (and even made a joke about this being a problem until some people in Rome start changing the rules), I felt sorry for the parish for some reason. This parish has so much life, and serves many many people in the pastoral, educational, and communal sense. They do a lot of good work – which means they do a lot of work – and would probably benefit greatly from having another Jesuit around to help out. Unfortunately, the JVs that work there can’t quite fill the shoes of a priest!
To wrap up the weekend, I experienced two “firsts”:
1. My first In-N-Out Burger meal. Mego, I hope you’re proud! (Mego has been talking about In-N-Out since her lacrosse trip to Denver…which I think was sophomore year?!)
2. My first Professional Soccer game! We went to the Chivas USA vs. Kansas City tonight at the Home Depot Center with free tickets that our lovely friend Colleen from Casa Ita Ford scored at work. Thanks, Colleen!
That’s all for now…thanks for sticking with me. I will work on adding some pictures next time to spice up these long posts!
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