Month: March 2013

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ASB TEAM JERSEY OFFICIAL DAY 1

Hello everyone!! :) Oh my god, I’m so excited to tell you about my first day at the Boys & Girls Club here in Newark NJ! Urban Poverty has always been the social issue that is closest to my heart and I’m so so so SO excited to embark on this wonderful trip with my peers from Lafayette College. I was placed in team Wolf Pack and we stayed at the Boys & Girls Club while others helped out with Sandy Relief. Today, a couple of team members and I decorated a bulletin board and drilled it into the wall!! It was pretty hard. But with our super good friend — Mr. T Square and his friend, the drill, we accomplished our mission!! Check out the pictures on facebook because it was pretty cool :) I never drilled anything before.Hanging up this bulletin board took a while before getting the whole thing straight and getting all the holes right, etc. It looked fabulous when it was done and we’re so proud of it!! I also made origami roses for the bulletin board that Kate made in the Games Room :)

I couldn’t sleep on the cots though, haha. I woke up at 5 AM and I started studying and reviewing neuroscience LOL! Yeah, I’m doing homework at 5 AM during a break LOL! This is so sad :)

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Fabulous Start

Starting our service today was more incredible than any of us could have imagined. We knew about GO! from their website but our community partner Marilyn Bass blew our minds with information, stories, and progress that Green Opportunities (GO!) has achieved in the low-income communities in Asheville. I will leave our blogger for the day to describe more about our activities, the Peace Garden, and what we learned about Environmental Justice in Asheville thus far.
What I really wanted to talk about was our reflection session last night. It began with a team builder called “Who am I?” led by Camila and Julia. We all had people or character’s names taped to our foreheads and went around asking the group about our person trying to guess who we were. It was our first game-type activity on the trip that really resonated a feeling of bonded fun among the members. We followed with Zsck and Anh’s reflection activity – a personal journaling time and sharing circle. This allowed us to reflect on our expectations for our trip, set some personal goals, think about our first impressions of Asheville, and then combine all of our thoughts together as we shared. I really enjoyed the actively engaged conversation that began about the role of service in the Environmental Justice movement, about social inequity, and the touches of what I am sure will turn into discussions about multicultural competency. Many of us were eager to see how downtown Asheville differed from the outer-parts of the city. We have questions about demographics of the county and how the wealth is distributed. Our adventures around the peace garden today taught us a lot about these topics; I cannot wait to learn more!
That’s the tid bit I wanted to share for now. Thank you for reading.

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Pre-trip

Well, not really since I’m already here in North Carolina but I want to jot down some of my pre-trip thoughts nevertheless.

I’m not entirely sure what concrete changes we can make to the issue of environmental injustice in North Carolina, but I’m definitely excited to finally get some hands-on experience with local community and organizations. I’m also looking forward to gain a deeper understanding of how community service is done here in the US, and of course to get to know all my teammates better.

Eggcited! ;)

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Day 2: Cultural Day!

Today was the actual first day of our trip, after our long journey yesterday. I was the coordinator for today’s activities and it was very exciting to get started this morning.

We slept in until about 10 a.m., which I planned for, because I assumed that people would be tired from yesterday. After a nice community breakfast of eggs and toast we went out to  the Asheville Urban Trail, and explored the city. It was very cold, rainy, and windy, so we tried to go inside as much as possible, but we got to see a lot of the historic buildings from the “Gilded Age.” After walking and driving through most of downtown, we came home and had lunch together before heading out to the Botanical Gardens. Fortunately it stopped raining, and we got to enjoy the beginnings of Spring, as the periwinkle was beginning to bloom. The gardens were a wonderful way for our group to get outside, experience some nature, and get to know each other.

After the gardens we came back into Asheville, where we visited the Woolworth Walk. The Woolworth Walk is home to artist booths, where they rent out the space. This was a very great way to really get a feel for the people of Asheville. The art was very unique, and modern. We got to speak with one of the artists, who uses beeswax to paint, and she was very friendly. I hope this is simply a preview of the rest of the Asheville community and their Southern friendliness!

After the Woolworth Walk, there was free time until dinner! We took this as a further opportunity to explore our surroundings, and check out the local shops. We went out to dinner at the Lexington Avenue Brewery, which is right underneath our hostel. It was very cute, and homey and the food had this great rustic taste. Everyone had a lovely dinner, and it was great to be out and about in the city.

After dinner we returned to our hostel, and we had our first reflection meeting. This was a time for us all to share how we hope the trip goes, and what our first impressions of Asheville are. Everyone is very excited to see the difference between this part of the city, and the disadvantaged part where the pollution of our concern is occurring. Generally we had a great first day of bonding and exposure to the city, and we’re really excited to get started with our work tomorrow!

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On our way to Hazard,Kentucky!!!!!

Started the day by meeting up with my ASB team at March Field at seven in the morning. I woke up with a great attitude knowing that our journey to Hazard, Kentucky was going to be a blast. Eleven hours went by on the road, and I experienced a whole new part of the East Coast. I saw several mountainous hillsides and many cows on the farm. We took several driving shifts, and got to know each other very well. As we got further south, I began to notice the rural poverty in the hillsides of Kentucky. I saw trailer parks, mobile houses, worn down neighborhoods and empty houses. I knew that I was in an area where rural poverty was affecting the communities and lives of people. I saw neighborhoods where there were no sidewalks on the street; houses were bunched together and had weak infrastructures. I was so unused to such sight. Everyone on our trip had the same initial reactions when seeing such communities. Once we settled down, everyone took the time to reflect on his or her car rides. We came to the agreement that we were going to work as hard as we could to help the rural poverty conditions in Hazard, Kentucky. Now that the day is over, I look forward to the next few days full of service and memorable experiences!

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Jersey Bound!

I’m so excited to get to Newark tomorrow! As this semester progressed, I’ve been anxiously waiting for spring break to come, and now it’s here. My team and I are just about ready to make our way to New Jersey in the morning.

When I first learned I was going to be a part of team NJ, I was really excited. I went to high school in the middle of a small city, and while I personally did not experience the effects of poverty, I saw it in the environment around me. However, I never did anything to learn more about it. I’m eager to better understand urban poverty on a deeper level. I want to know more.

This is my first service trip, and I’m really excited to get to know my team better and start our service! Even though we’re not leaving until tomorrow, I’m going to say goodbye for now, Lafayette! Newark, here we come!

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Pre-Trip Post

We have arrived! After an incredibly long car ride and numerous meeting talking about and planning our trip, it is finally time to put those plans into action.

I am excited to help Green Opportunities and River Alliance in their efforts to end environmental injustice. We will be assisting these groups in anyway possible. I am looking forward to work with different areas of the larger issue of “environmental injustice” through water sampling and canvassing. Also after researching the town of Asheville and the issue with our team, I am particularly excited to work with individuals who have a passion and a dedication to conquer social injustice.

It is exciting to be apart of a grassroots movement to create change in a tangible way. I can not wait to get started and to bring what I learn back to Lafayette with me. Hopefully the change we install here can inspire us to create change back on Lafayette’s campus! Who knows, huh?

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Pre-Trip Reflection

This semester has been flying by- it’s already spring break! I remember marking this trip on my calendar months ago, when it seemed impossibly far away.

I entered the program knowing virtually nothing about our topic or the town of Asheville, but I’ve learned quite a bit during our pre-trip group meetings and activities. The issue of environmental justice is and will continue to be relevant to many people’s lives, and I look forward to experiencing it hands-on. I’m definitely very excited to meet the people involved with Green Opportunities and the West North Carolina Alliance and to gain a clearer idea of exactly what our service will involve.

Last Saturday morning, our team completed pre-service by helping out in the garden at 1075 Lehigh Drive. While this was somewhat last-minute, participating in ASB-related service a week before the actual trip built up my level of anticipation for the trip. It was a great way to connect with nature, make a tangible difference, and gain perspective, especially since I had never been to the West Ward before. On that day and during the twelve-hour drive here, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know several members of the team, and I look forward to even more team bonding through reflection and throughout the trip.

After our cultural day tomorrow, service will start! This week is sure to be a cultural, educational, and fun experience :-)

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Pre-Trip Post

After a few very quick weeks our trip is finally here! I literally cannot believe how quickly this semester is passing us by!

I’m very excited to start our service, I’ve been busy planning all week for Cultural Day, which is tomorrow! I took a lot of time to plan our day so that we get exposure to all sorts of things that I hope everyone will enjoy, and I can’t wait to get started tomorrow.

In regards to our actual service I’m very excited to be working with Green Opportunities, and the River Alliance. We’re pretty much here to do whatever they need, which I believe is one of the best ways to help organizations. They often have many aspirations and sometimes simply lack the man-power to actually get things done. So we’ll be meeting the leaders of these programs, which will be very inspirational and I’m very excited to get to know them and their work on a deeper level.

I’m so excited to get started, especially after the very long driving day full of two montonous CDs… it’ll be nice to have a break! Go Team NC!

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Leaving in 7ish Hours

Still packing…but excited for the trip ahead of us! I think we have a great group of people that get along well with each other, so this will make for an interesting drive…11 hour drive (I really hope we have some dope playlists). During the team meetings and especially the pre-service I think we all got to know each other a little bit more. Now that we’re a little bit more comfortable with each other I think this will certainly help us in terms of team work and communication as we head to Kentucky to repair and build homes.