oy vey!

i've spent most of the past fourteen days hurling yiddish expletives around inside my head with virulent frustration. GYAC is so frustrating! bureaucracies are so crappy! people who do not feel exactly the same way about me about every single thing are so dumb! bwahhh!

one part of this experience that is not frustrating or crappy or dumb, though, is the Youth (that's what we call the campers 'cause gosh we're so progressive!). i am so lucky to be around them all the time, and also i am touched and sappy and get teary when i consider their vibrance and their brilliance despite the new orleans school system's various attempts at fucking them over.  

seriously: these smallish people i see every day are amazing. they think so well and speak so well and dance so well and are sweet and confused and teenager-y so well. i promise this is not hyperbole! one of my fellow counselors scoffed at their alleged brilliance the other day and i was really put off because it is not alleged, it is definite, and it is not scoffable at all.

speaking of counselors and adult-types, i am fed up.  counselors and adult-types are the sources of all of my frustrated yiddish expletive episodes.  here is a numbered list of examples because i feel like i have not vented enough in real life:

1. the GYAC powers-that-be first told us we would not have field trips, then told us we would, then changed their minds the day before the first field trip (so we had to cancel it), then told us two days later that we have field trips again. obviously, the campers, the campers' parents, and the counselors were all very frustrated by this.
2. yesterday, lack of communication led to an hour-long bus stop on the side of the road in ninety degree heat on the way to the pool. this was very frustrating for the thirteen counselors, sixty campers, two bus drivers, and countless passersby involved.
3. we still don't have teaching supplies. erlack.
4. a number of my fellow counselors are unable and/or unwilling to effectively communicate with their students and thus really really really like the idea of kicking people out of camp FOREVER AND EVER LET EM SEE HOW THEY FEEL HAH. this is so frustrating! we can't help people who aren't around.
5. lots of counselors and adult-types think it's a good idea to make young people cover up their bodies with shorts and teeshirts any time we have a water day and do not understand how that contributes to body shame slash is just plain silly. bwahh frustrating.
6. someone around me is always whining and none of those someones are campers. frustrating.
7. most of the someones that whine are also VERY AFRAID of challenging "authority" (read: inept higher-ups who make poor decisions and have poor management skills), even when said "authority" hasn't earned its respect or authority. this is lame and frustrating and difficult because i keep having to hear only a few voices speaking out against shitty policies/situations.
8. apparently our group meetings call to mind "freshman year women's studies courses" for some counselors.  this would be totally maddening and unfathomably frustrating if it didn't have so much potential for fun.  i can't wait to begin every sentence with the phrase, "As a Women's and Gender Studies minor," and to quote Andrea Dworkin at every turn. HAH.

HUFF PUFF WHINE BITCH 

i'm done. in other (good!) news, there are really really amazing counselors here and most of them are not whiny or misogynistic.  tomorrow we are going to the local bike coop, Plan B (so clever!) to procure transportation. we are also going to watch movies and eat stove-top popcorn, time allowing.

finally, my daddy is coming here this weekend, and i absolutely positively one hundred percent can't wait.

auf wiederzehn (?)

mwah mwah xox

so i thought that i thought about poverty until last saturday, when we were asked not only to explore government housing on the west bank (of new orleans, not palestine) but take pictures of it, also.  the project was difficult for a number of reasons: first, i was thrust far, far out of my downy privilege-bubble; second, the conditions i photographed are inexplicably devastating; and third, it was considered a "valuable" and even "constructive" activity despite its obvious levels of intrusiveness and overt disregard for individual (and community) privacy.

maybe i should clarify the final point: i have no doubt that this was a valuable and constructive activity for the Corps Members (that's me and my twenty-nine fellow volunteers), but i'm struggling with whether or not it was done at the expense of the community members, who were fully aware of our presence and our purpose. the GYAC higher-ups say not, because we are coming back into the community to do a service-learning project, and, besides, "they're used to people doing stuff like this." hm.

that said, i'm going to post some of the pictures i took.  keep in mind that this community is nowhere near the base level of poverty that exists all over new orleans.

...FUCK MY IMAGES WON'T UPLOAD

i'll do it soon promise

i maybe have not snapped

THIS CITY IS BEAUTIFUL. (mural de l'ashe cultural center)

in other news, i have a surprisingly strong connection with eighth grade girls and am thinking seriously of dreading my hair.  life is good.

I AM EXCITED FOR SO MANY REASONS:

1. New Orleans makes my learning and loving and hoping and giving (and taking! I want this culture to be a part of me) clocks click and tick and tock all these different crazy directions. I am captivated.
2. The Gulf South Youth Action Corps program is so full of passion and so dedicated to youth empowerment and social justice and every time one of the adults involved speaks I am inspired and excited and thinking really hard all over again.
3. ALL OF THE OTHER CORPS MEMBERS ARE SO SUPER NICE YIPPPEEE. And they're from all over the country! And from all different backgrounds! And they all want to be here! Maybe I will make real friends with one or six soon and then there will be pictures.

In short, I am totally stoked about this program and I can't wait to meet the campers (that's about a week away) and explore New Orleans in its entirety. I haven't seen much, but today I was blown away on our drive back from Ashé Cultural Arts Center (which was so cool! See description below) because we passed blocks and blocks of the low-income housing that's being demolished in this already impoverished and overwhelming homeless community. It was so terribly sad. I sat next to Dr. Tayari (spelling is probably incorrect), who is the GYAC program coordinator and a brilliant educator and philanthropist, and she explained some very basic problems with the city's infrastructure as we drove past. She also described New Orleans as a third world city operating with third world industry (or lack thereof). That is, of course, an incredible statement in and of itself, but it resonated with me especially because Dr. Tayari is so deeply involved in this community and its youth. I think that it had a special sort of truth to it since it came from the heart of a person who loves this city and its people really, really deeply.


In other news! The first real methods-contention was raised during one of morning training sessions today. One of the Corps members protested speaking as loudly and assertively to the campers as Dr. Tayari & Co. have recommended. She said she was uncomfortable screaming at youth who weren't doing anything wrong. This opened up the floor for discussion about methods of communication and how they differ depending on your race and class - a very interesting and constructive conversation, I thought. I'm really excited about reading and learning more about this as the program wears on.

Finally! We visited the ACAC - which I mentioned above - today, and it was like so cool. Not only did they feed us, but we got to check out some really incredible local African-American art and hear some "word art" (same as slam poetry? not sure) recorded right after Katrina. It was all very moving. I'm going to post pictures once I figure out how, but right now I want to type out the text from one of my favorite pieces in the center, called "SIFA Praise":

May we always remember those who have gone before Us;
May we be inspired by their vision and valor;
May their lives continuously remind Us
that service is more important than success;
that people are more important than possessions;
that principle is more important than power.
May whatever we do be shaped and molded by honesty, competence, and commitment.
May our children and our children's children carry forth with pride, the nobility of our history and tradition.
To the creation of all of Us, we dedicate our lives
to make this world better
and more beautiful.


Hell yeah!

On that note - miss you all a lot. All my love and hugs and big kisses over and over again from here to your respective countries!
Be safe and happy, muah muah etc

in two weeks

i am packing my gris-gris up and taking it with me to nola, which i understand is a hip abbreviation for "new orleans, louisiana."
also hip: the abbreviation for "xavier university louisiana" - soon to be my place of residence - is xula.

XULA-IN-NOLA IS GONNA BE SO COOL
holy crap