From different lenses

Today we started tutoring and the girl that I am tutoring name is Alyssa and I had just met her when she told me that she had decided that we were going to be great friends. It made my day totally worth while to know that she liked me and that she wanted to be my friend. 
Now I can't wait to see her tomorrow for some more fun and friendship.
-Rachel
At kids club today Hannah and I walked around finding out the names of the many kids that were there. For 2 hours I wrote name tags only to realize that I had already written about 50 names and had only gotten about 65% of the total names of the kids. It was a great thing to realize how many kids enjoy our company and wait for us to come every summer.
I cant wait until tomorrow when we get to go do it all over again! 
-Rachel

This is Paco talkin now, and I hope u can tell by the way I be typin, hehe, anyways, today at tutoring we were doin sumtin about a black renaissance so so and such and such, so somehow we came to talkin about rap and the teacher asks if anyone in the classroom can rap, so I get pointed I didn't even raise my hand, so I was pretty much forced into rappin something or anything in a couple of seconds, so, I came up with some random words that did not ryhme but apparently sounded good to the teacher and so she asked me to do a rap for tomorrow and I told her ild see what I could come up with, so now here is the first verse to what will hopefully be a full song by the end of this week, I do not promise this will be the same when I have the final result

We are here in saint loui
And so my mind went cablui 
Cuz the heat was mighty flamin
And yet we was still playin
And we be showin some new things 
While we sit here with the kids
As we pursue our happiness
And me sayin some rap - ness
And yet even though we've never met before 
We be likin each other like a metaphor 
So I kno we be havin a good time
And ild be glad to blow your mind 

Me ending will definatly be:
Now i hope you liked my rhyme 
Because now I am out of time 

... And back to Angela
We've had a great day. Well, most of us. Tate has been fighting a bug that took her out of kids club last night, and then Casey came down with something that had him out all of today. We're hoping both will be back on their feet tomorrow - AND that nothing is contagious!

It was really neat to meet the kids we'll be tutoring this morning. Some are really challenging, some are much less so, but all are a privilege to meet and to get to know.

For the afternoon, we split into different groups for yard work, visiting nursing homes, painting a mural, making cahones (wooden box drums) and picnic tables, and whatever else we were asked to do. Hannah and I and two other girls were assigned to help tutor English to two Afghani women - so neat. Hannah played with the kids, and the intern and I talked about colors and family relationships and whatever else they showed interest in. My favorite part was teaching them the word "fat". They started giggling and each saying that she was fat, and we all got the giggles for some reason. Just fun to laugh together when there's so much we're unable to communicate about. 

On to more adventures and stories tomorrow!

Pictures!

Well - it's harder to get pictures out here than it is to get text updates, so there's been some delay on adding the pictures that went with the stories of the past few days. I'm happy to report that they're now up here, and some have been added to individual updates.

For the full St. Louis photo album, visit this link.

Updates from my breakfast companions

Update from Adrian: I fell asleep. It was good. I met a kid who can do the rainbow (a soccer move). I did it once and then I never did it again.

Update from Antonio: Kids Club was fun last night. I was playing with a bunch of kids - little kids. It was actually fun! 

Paco - I like the song Sunshine by Lupe Fiasco

Sunday is a good day (but maybe not a day of rest here in St. Louis!)

The kids began today with an energetic start - on time for breakfast and ready to go well before our 9:30 meeting. We'll see how that trend continues! After a discussion with Josh Chapeau (yes THE Josh that has come multiple times to visit us in Appleton!) about what we might expect from the week, we headed to church. At church we sang songs in multiple languages and a bunch of us participated in a conga line that spontaneously started during one of the songs. After church, we were divided into smaller groups and went home with various families from the church. We were fed amazing food and answered and asked many questions. One story that arose was of a family that owned a huge house and then learned of a family in the church with 14 (yes, 1-4) children. Four of their own and several sibling groups of foster kids that came in batches. So the first family moved to a smaller house to make their six-bedroom home available to the larger family. Ironically - both families hosted part of our group today, so it was fun to compare stories! Quite an example of the kind of stuff that goes on in this church.
Next, you're probably thinking it was time to rest. Nope! Not remotely! We split into groups of kids and "grown-ups" and were oriented separately, then brought back together to finish up orientation. That brought us to supper (pizza! Hooray!)

Then it was time to clean up and head to our Kids Club sites.  Our team was assigned to a neighborhood called North Hodiamont, a place we have visited before.  Sadly, Tater Tot took ill and stayed back to recuperate.  Mike pulled the trailer right onto the grass in the middle of the courtyard where there were a few kids, but not many.  As we set up the popcorn and snowcone table, this quickly changed.  We played games with many of our young neighbors for a few memorable hours.  Rachel was an awesome bouncer and broke up a potential throwdown between a couple small children.  She was greatly loved by many of the kids there because of her awesome heart.  Many others in the group were just as awesome and awesomely loved by our young neighbors.  We wrapped up our time by prying some children off the trailer so we could back it up and out.  We celebrated a great kickoff to the week with slushees and debriefing time.  Tomorrow we are looking forward to meeting our tutoring kids, starting our work project and continuing our awesome adventure!
~Angela, Lori, Erica and Rachel

Site seeing with our St.Louis Neighbors

sure we have a jack!

St. Louis Basilica

Yes, Virginia, that IS real gold

wondering about the story of this chapel

What happened to the street that used to be here??

Inside the Basilica

The day started slow, even though we were awakened early by the other group throwing soccer balls.  We had a leisurely breakfast and group time where we talked about "who is our neighbor."  We then had many opportunities to discover our neighbors by heading to downtown St. Louis.  Inspite of the GPS's explicit instructions, we headed our own way.  On the way, we saw a car pulled over with police cars around.  When Mike asked what the trouble was, we learned they had a spare tire but no jack.  Well, we had those.  Please picture 3 vans and mini vans and 20 kids wandering around the side of the road as we helped get them back in gear.

Next we were off to the Basilica where we met another one of our neighbors. Mike made friends with a man who had traveled down from Minneapolis who was in need of food.  Well, we had that.  We explored the Basilica, we jammed to some music, played a raucous game of pterodactyl (for which the details are not forthcoming), and then were joined by John and Kathy at an interesting art museum.  And then it was off to the arch!

Neighbors from all over the country (as evidenced by the license plates in the parking lot) came to witness the magnificent arch and the mighty Mississsippi. The Mississippi is currently at about 30ft above its normal level, so the street in front of the arch was covered in water.  The water was a lovely and "normal" color.  This did not stop our intrepid people from wading across and hanging out on the viewing platform across the road.  Some even did many pushups into the water.  We're not sure why.  After exploring the museum beneath the arch, we headed to the St. Louis Union Station for food and frivolity.  We were surprised to learn that shop workers in St. Louis are quite musical.  Apparently, cutting fudge makes one burst into song!  We were almost tempted to join in, but then Lori started dancing and it was all downhill from there. :)

After almost leaving 2 from our group, we headed back to the dorm to meet the other groups- one from Mississippi and one from Kansas.  They should be fun folks to work with this week.  We're looking forward to it!  The evening wrapped up with a run to Ted Drewes, a custard stand indigenous to St. Louis.  Many more of our St. Louis neighbors were out and waiting for the edible awesomeness.  Custard, touring and fun people...maybe St. Louis won't be so bad.~Angela and Erica

annnd we're OFF!

view of St. Louis

Myster wants to be awake tonight, so he's planning ahead

Teaching on the top of Monk's Mound, Cahokia Mounds

Monk's Mound, Cahokia Mounds

see the fireflies?

And we're off!
This year's take-off was modified a bit from the usual approach: we had one rendezvous at the church, and a second at Country Crossings! The result was a caravan of four vehicles meandering its way through Milwaukee, Chicago, and endless Illinois prairie. I am happy to report that in this part of the country at least, the corn is well beyond knee-high by the fourth of July!

The evening found us drawing near to the city and pausing at the Cahokia mounds. These human-made mounds served some unknown purpose in the 900 - 1500s (probably religious) and still form an impressive monument in their own right, as well as an expansive view of the City. We're pretty sure they built the mounds in order to have a better view of the Arch, actually.

We took the time to regroup after a long day of travel, and Mike talked through a bit of what we might expect this week: the group we'll be working with (New City Fellowship) decided their "neighbor" was the poor and disenfranchised inner-city population. They began serving here in St. Louis, and eventually started a church in one of the most dangerous parts of town - with church members literally moving into the neighborhood. As we learn from them this week, we hope to take what we learn back home with us.

We prayed and headed down from the mound, pausing to admire the fireflies that are everywhere around the mound this time of year. We were also joined by a friend, Clint, who used to live in the Fox Valley with his family, but is now living in North Carolina! I think we're all looking forward a great deal to all that is in store for the coming week.

The day ended with a meal at Steak n Shake, and then a move in to our domicile for the next week: a school for the deaf that now serves as a dorm for the teams that come and serve here. Tomorrow is tour St. Louis day!

Gettin' set

We're on target for a Friday morning departure to St. Louis! The kids made a whole bunch of whine bread on Saturday to raise $$ and golly was it good! We're still trying to raise last minute scholarship money - so please contact the church office if you're able to help out (730-0507). Stay tuned for more notes - we'll keep mini-updates coming in the Twitter feed on the right - and bigger updates here in the main area!