Philly - First Full Day ( Wed, 5/30)

Intro - I'm in Philly for May Term. We have to keep weekly journals, of which I plan on writing some each day. For those that may be interested, I've decided to post them. They are written with requirements of the class in mind, so if they don't seem totally organic, I'm sorry.

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Today is the first full day in Philly. I slept in, and then finished up my readings we were assigned last night. The book we were assigned was a little dense, but it looks like it gets better. The other two handout/excerpts were more readable, and it looks like much of our course readings are going to be in that kind of format.

After homework is lunch, and I while I was prepared to go carefully spend some diamond dollars at the SAC, things got switched between our last meeting at Messiah (before finals) and getting here. We now have all our meals at the cafeteria across the street. This is really nice, since we don’t have to worry about overspending on healthier food, and its a lot closer.

For my afternoon community service, I selected to volunteer at the Open Borders project, a nonprofit that is focused on empowering the community (namely Latino American) through education and technology. There are two other students who are going there with me, Jenna and Adam. Adam is a PR/Advertising major, and Jenna is math. I should mention that they both “graduated” already, so this is their final class work.

To get to the Open Borders office, we had to take a subway, then hop a bus, then walk. We did all these things last night to go to a restaurant, but our leaders guided us through it. The three of us were on our own for today. The subway part didn’t concern me too much – things were well labeled, it was cleaner then I thought it would be, and I was in a group. The cars themselves weren’t crowded either. I don’t think I even need to say that I’m by far the minority around here, but that didn’t seem to bother me. Of course, the little group of Messiah students stuck together and really didn’t interact with anyone else, so it’s not like we tried to leave our comfort zone either.

I was a little amazed about the kinds of advertisements on the subway. Every other one was “Are you addicted to painkillers/cocaine/ect, and interested in being part of a study?”. I had never thought about how the medial world collected people to test treatments/therapies on drug users. I’m still not sure how this kind of advertising fits in with the ethical/moral teaching I’ve gotten at Messiah, and I’ll probably write more on that later.

The bus part was more hairy. While Adam had lived in Phili for a summer, he didn’t once take the bus, which left us all struggling to understand what was going on. The bus was crowded, stopped frequently, and I felt a lot less safe. The safety concerns were mostly that the bus driver acted as king of the road, and while he may be, it’s not something I’m use to.

We ended up getting off before we needed to and walking further, but the walk was kind of nice. Nothing in our building is air conditioned, but walking in the shade with a breeze was refreshing. I felt like I had to watch my feet though, because of the massive amounts of trash and broken glass. Some places were worse then others, and I can’t help but wonder if anything is, or ever will be, done about it. I suppose that its just part of the landscape.

The Open Border’s project itself was a small nonprofit, staffed by four volunteers. They have a small computer lab and a classroom, along with some office space. Manuel is the director, I believe. He is from Guatemala (I think), but speaks very good English. The other assistant who was in there is Tessa, a Caucasian girl who works with curriculum development. She seems very smart, and I wonder how she came to work there. They are both very nice, and we talked about the skills we have to offer them. It looks like I’ll be getting their lab setup for a workshop for younger kids and teens that will involve recording stories and music, and putting it to pictures and presentations. I think he mentioned wanting to setup an internet radio station for the kids stories which is recorded there. Mostly all these things are covered by training I’ve gotten at Messiah, either through classes or my work-study.

I was happily surprised when I heard that most of the software I would be installing and setting up was open source – Audacity, LAME, cDex, ect. I use most of this myself, but didn’t make the connection how high quality free software is necessary for this kind of low/no budget setup (as opposed to a nice alternative for cheep college students).

When we finished up the orientation there, we decided to skip the bus and walk back to the subway station. One thing I frequently noticed was people selling food off grills and self-bottled drinks outside their homes. I know it can’t be legal, but it seemed to be generally accepted. Same thing for people who drive four wheelers on the streets. There is also a theme of small grocery stores, check cashing locations, and fast food. I probably notice these things more because they support stereotypes I’m coming into this situation with, but I’m trying to see things besides them. That’s probably something that will come more in time as I’m here longer.

I think I took a lot of things in today but still don’t know how I feel about all of them.. Things I miss chiefly include my wife, cats, quiet, and the color green. Things I’m learning to appreciate are desk fans, ice water, and shade. Grantham seems far away right now

(edit: Phili -> Philly)