Re-cap

This is the first Saturday I haven't had anything scheduled in almost two months I think! It always nice to have plans of course - to be out and about in the city - but I like having time to reflect on those plans and just life in general and I feel like I haven't had a moment to do that. So today is the day for reflections. I may be bouncing around in these next few posts ... just as a warning. I will let me iphoto be the guide.

First up on my reflection list is a Saturday service day in late April with a few friends. Maya's company teamed up with "Hands On DC" to help clean up a school in the same neighborhood as their office. Maya invited Maria and I to come along and help paint. (Random side note - Maya and I were BFF's in High School and both just happen to live in DC right now. Also, Maya's friend Maria grew up in Irvine too and they became friends out here ... small place that OC is!) I said - YES I want to paint a school, SO FUN! I was pumped to be able to get dirty and be productive.

So we get there and get started on a stairwell outside of the cafeteria and the gym. The people in charge gave us some sponges and a bucket of water and asked us to wipe everything down before they would give us the paint. This stairwell had not been hosed down or swept for that matter in ages. There was standing dirt on the stairs. It was terrible. Yet they still wanted us to paint the railings. As the day wore on I got angrier and angrier ... there were dust bunnies in my paint brush! I was upset that we were doing cosmetic things and not a deep clean in this place. It made me upset that while I understood that painting was a "lasting", once-in-a-while thing and that cleaning was something that had to happen on a regular basis - that we were doing something so backwards.

Maria and Maya hard at work "prepping" the railings

If you are going to do something, do it right. Those railings had chipped paint that should have been sanded down and stripped before being repainted. The stairwell should have been scrubbed - on our hands and knees. Cleanliness would have shown these kids that they were worth it. Your environment is so influential to learning. I was so frustrated that low-income was being acquainted with dirty ... you can be poor but still be clean. What was this saying to the kids? It was inadvertently telling them that they weren't worth having a clean learning environment ... that has got to kill your self-esteem. And what was this telling the volunteers who were predominately white and upper-middle class young professionals ... a half days work of paint and you have done your community service. Grrr.

More prep-work

Do your yoga breathing Bethany! I realize I am being incredibly hard on the volunteers and the organizers. You need to make a situation where people will volunteer to help. You need to foster that desire first and foremost. And you have to be realistic in your expectations of how much time and effort people will be willing to donate. I am sure they are doing the best they can. Maybe I am just projecting my own self-disappointment onto others. I know I could do more to help. I know I could be less self-serving.

These are before pictures ... I was too upset to take after pictures.