Saturday, July 1st
Washington, DC to Erie, PA

The students spent their morning doing community service in the DC area. What I like about his program is that it makes every effort to try and take the students from the theoretical and academic to experiential as quickly and legitimately as possible. Obviously when you are working with some of the people we are talking about you seek out their schedule and adjust yours accordingly. As I mentioned yesterday the students studied hunger and the governments historical and current role working against it. Today was a classic experience. The group was broken into two different groups of 15. One group went to an organization called Bread in the City. The students completed all the work the volunteer coordinator had planned and took on two additional tasks. The organization operates as a food bank, clothing, and house supply store for those in need. The students made lunches, organized donations, and created a children’s section in the store. I mean they wanted to make a child friendly section that would not intimidate young kids. They asked the coordinator she said yes and within an hour and half created a children’s section of clothing, books, toys, and school resources that a store display designer jealous. They ALL had fun and learned a great deal.

The group that I was responsible for went to a place called Martha’s Table. This place has been in the Shaw District for 25 years. The neighborhood has seen growth, decline, and frenetic growth in those years but Martha’s Table and its counterpart Martha’s Closest has been around for all of them. Our task was to make sandwiches and meals for their lunch program which serves people n need right there as well as two food vans which go to other areas of need in the city. The kids knocked out so many sandwiches and meals that they literally ran out of supplies. So the students were then transferred to serving the people. This was a great experience for the kids because they saw the faces of the people they were feeding. They were white, black, and Hispanic. They were young, old, and middle aged. The rude, thankful, and on a couple of occasions those moved to tears. The girls from Bosnia could not believe that there so many people who needed food in America. “This is not the America that we heard about!” one related incredulously. Most of the kids were shocked at the not only the volume of the people but their ages and experiences. Unfortunately they a couple of the people be rude to them and the kitchen coordinator. This made one of the boys very upset because he saw how hard this lady worked and quite frankly told the older guy he rude. She told him not to worry about it. She added, “Sure there are a handful that use us, but we help so many more. What can you do? She said to look at each person and search for the face of god or a loved one, then just smile. It was both heart wrenching and touching to see 8 and 10 year olds getting food for their families. There was one little girl who was quite intimidated by the crowd of people there. She said something to her mother in Spanish and one could tell that neither was comfortable with English. So the one of the girls from Sarajevo started speaking Spanish to the Mom and walked her through the store and helped her pick up some groceries and convinced her to go with her right next door to get clothes. While this was going a couple of the boys, speaking Spanish also, helped the little girl pick out a sandwich and salad. I don’t speak Spanish at all but I could definitively tell when they told the girl she could take some apple pie. The site of her gritty face emerging to a smile moved the whole group. The little girl then spoke with one of the better Spanish speaking boys for about a minute and he got her a whole pie and she gave him a big hug and ran to her mom. I asked him about the conversation later and he basically said that she thought the group was angels and she wanted her Mom and Dad to taste the Apple pie because it tasted so good. My description does no justice to the morning. One of the girls sat with an 83 year old man who was retired and owned his home but could not afford food for him and his wife. Medical bills had really put him into debt and he was afraid he was going to lose his house. He asked if he could have 2 small cartons of milk for him and his wife. “The two will last us all week, we don’t waste anything.” He told me that I should be proud of “my” kids because they were nice to him and treated him with dignity. I can’t imagine the amount of pride he must have swallowed to come and get a hand out for his week’s groceries. Once we finished the there was lots of hugging and some tears shed. At lunch you could see the effect the day had on the kids. They asked questions about housing, healthcare, and the like. The morning’s activities coupled with the previous days lecture truly hit home with the students.

I hastily packed a bag and began my trek to Erie for my Cousin Matt’s graduation party. It was about a 6 hour ride and once I left the DC traffic went rather quickly. I went straight to my Uncle Ron and Aunt Kitty’s house for another party. Their oldest son, Brian is getting married in August and they were having a party for the couple. It was great to see family and hand out. My family is quite crazy, in all the good ways. We have a great time every time we get together.