Welp, nope, I'm still in the 'everything's great' phase!! I can't believe how blessed I am here with incredible roommates, church community, coworkers and job....anything else you can think of. Really.
My birthday was last weekend. You probably know this because if you're reading this, I bet you're one of the many who sent me something great in the mail-- I was totally spoiled ALL day! I got to sleep in, go for a nice run, come back to find a big bright green package from Aleesh which ended up being crammed full of pictures, incredible art projects and candy. I also got some great decor and millions of other things as usual from m + d. Thank you all for sending me cards, packages and love on my BD! We got to go to this art fair in 'the plaza' which is the fancy part of KC, which was like a saturday market only less hippy and more ritzy. There is quite a spectrum of people in KC, like any other city. It is interesting how close the plaza is from our own neighborhood, which has a reputation of being sketchy. Apparently there is also a specific road that divides a white neighborhood from a black one. I didn't know that still existed. One of the more overt ways racism is showing itself in our post modern 'progressive' society. We can all do our part to change. Anyway! We got to go to a park and have a picnic- it was the prettiest midwest fall day ever- mid 70's and sunny and crisp. We saw 3 wedding parties go by- apparently it's the park to get married. Then we got to go to cheesecake factory and have some INCREDIBLE appetizers and peanut butter heaven cheesecake. Good day. yep. I love the girls I live with. We get along really well and we're all super considerate and good at keeping up the house all together and talking about things that matter, or don't! It's great. We just lost a housemate- who was a big piece of my time here getting introduced to KC. We all miss him lots. We'll be getting a new housemate soon too. He sounds like a really nice guy who has traveled and done a lot of service so hopefully he'll serve all of us : ) just kidding! We're excited to see who our new house friend will be!
The biggest deal with work right now has been the execution of the health fair, aka the events of the year. We were calling around to get local organizations who service to youth to be our exhibitors and getting donations for snacks and water and tying down dental screeners, etc. This adds up to a good 50 calls a day- many to annoyed people who did in fact get the message, but skipped over it on purpose until they happened to pick up the phone at my call! But I feel worse for the people in the cubes around me who could probably give my schpeal better than I could by the end of day 1! But the first fair went great and was totally worth all the repetition- we caught a number of kids who needed emergency dental care, and had good snacks (though not very healthy for being a health fair) and booths that were worth while for the kids of KCK public schools. My role on the day of is basically to play games with the kids when they're done with the booths!! My favorite! I have to say- I'm not the best facilitator. One of my coworkers said they couldn't tell me apart from the middle schoolers because we were just all playing together. I love it! It's great to have fun, active things to do to connect with the kids. We've been tallying hundreds of student evaluations from the fair, and a vast majority say they "liked the fair a lot". I like to attribute their to playing games with me : ) Ha! One health fair down, 13 to go!
Today I got to do an intake evaluation for a 15 year old kid who was caught as a minor in posession of drugs and was court mandated to come to see if he needs treatment. He obviously did not, and only needed to learn how to find better things to do with his friends every once in a while. The poor kid wants to play football this season and these 'drug prevention' classes may get in the way of that. This is just crazy because one of the best ways to keep kids out of drugs is for them to be involved in school stuff that directs their energy in positive directions. How do you balance that out!? The poor kid was just caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. Better caught now than when it's a problem however.
Way to make it all the way to this point! I hope you're doing well also. Keep me posted on what's happening with you!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It would be a good discussion to have with him about the significance of his choices and how they have consequences. It can help him mature in terms of thinking ahead and thinking before acting, which is a good thing! Even though it seems unfair to him, it was still his choice and he needs to take responsibility for it.
ReplyDelete/advice
Thanks for the updates! It sounds like you're getting some good experiences. I look forward to reading more... Melis and I have your b-day present - forgot to mail it! So sorry! We'll get it out to you ASAP, though, I promise!