Day Two

Hello! We had a very busy day. In the morning, we cleaned Northgate park, the park next to Holy Name. Two years ago, when we started coming to Camden, the park was unusable. Today there is new park equipment and things have been painted. Today we rakes leaves and the boys removes old trees stumps with simply an ax. This allows for a fence to be built to close in an empty lot. The clean up took all morning since there was a lot of debris from the recent storms.

After lunch, Kenny, a former homeless man who works at DSW, gave his story. He explained how he lost his job and found himself on the streets for roughly 30 years. He told the kids to push themselves and get as much education as possible because that is the one thing people cannot take from you. He also explained how the downward spiral toward homelessness could happen to anymore. I was a powerful hour that ended with a very insightful question and answer session. After Kenny spoke, we split into two groups. One group cleaned the tennis courts in the park while a group of girls painted a fence.

For dinner, we split into family groups of four. Each family was given $8 and taken to a bodega, corner store. This is to simulate what a normal family has to experience in Camden. In a citythesame size as James City County there is no grocery store. Residents must rely on these bodegas for food. Families had a wide variety of meals from Romen noodles to eggs and pancakes.

After dinner we went to South Camden for a play by the south Camden players. The professional theater was created 8 years ago as part of a neighborhood revitalization project around Sacred Heart parish. The pastor, Michael Doyle, has transformed his neighborhood one house ata time and the theater has become an anchor in his community. The play was a story of the transformation of the neighborhood from 1968 to 1988. It was a powerful story that showed the real life issues of the community and how it went from a thriving ship building community to urban decay.

The student reflections attend of the day were profound. Everyone had something else that stuck out to them and they are all doing very well. They are all currently playing a game of catchphrase before bed and enjoying each other's company. They are making all of us and you very proud by their openness and willingness to live in the moment.

Pictures to follow.

We Made It!

We made it to Philadelphia 3 minutes ahead of schedule at 12:00. We had lunch in the train station and then walked 15 blocks to the subway to go across the river to Camden. Right outside the subway stop in Camden in front of city hall is a tribute to all those who have been killed in Camden in the last year. It is a drastic eye- opening experience that we are not in Williamsburg anymore. Once we arrived at DSW, we had a quick orientation and went right to work leaning the school yard of Holy Name, the local Catholic elementary school. After cleaning the yard, we helped run after school care for the school children. Our kids wherein their glory playing football, kickball, jumping rope,and racing around with the elementary school kids. After we went back to the house we had dinner and are now getting ready fora reflection on Camden and mass in celebration of All Soul's Day. Pictures and more information to follow.

Leaving Tomorrow!

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for our fourth Camden trip. Fr. McCue, the priest who runs the program, sent us a preliminary schedule and he is going to keep us busy. The community was not hit as hard as others by the storm, but there is plenty of cleanup. We will also be able to take in a community play Saturday night in South Camden.

We depart from school at 5:00. Please be on time since our train leaves Richmond at 7 and will not wait for us.