If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, together women ought to be able to turn it rightside up again"
- Sojourner Truth
Some sobering statistics for Black History Month...
Things have come a long way since the time of the heros we celebrate in February, but read those statistics again. There is still discrimination. There is still segregation, and in many ways there is still slavery. Honoring a few token heros during the shortest month of the year is not enough. I wish I could make all the inequities go away, but I don't know how. I think the first step is admitting to ourselves that they still exist. I get really mad when I hear people say "why don't they just pull themselves up by their own bootstraps?". But, as one of my friends said, you can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you don't have any bootstraps to pull on.
Lots going on here in Chicagoland. Yesterday I had a mid-year evaluation with LVC�s city coordinator. It was good to be able to reflect on what has been going on so far, and get some suggestions for how to make the second half of the year better. Part of the meeting was with Shelly, my new supervisor (Norma is leaving for New York :( ) I really like Norma, but I�m kind of excited by the supervisory change. Shelly is the director of the entire program department. Since her position requires more of the longer term planning and strategizing, I think my skills will help her out more. She also knows what is going on in all the different parts of the program department, so she can identify more projects I can help with. I really hope that improves the amount of work I�m given. Being underutilized is the only really disappointing part of my year so far. I�ve been considering doing a second year and my enthusiasm for it definitely varies depending on the amount of work I�ve been given in a day.
I�d really appreciate your prayers for our rental assistance clients here at AFC. Today we have our first meeting where we explain the new program. We had to make several changes to comply with regulations from our federal funder. Unfortunately, those changes don�t make it very easy on the client. Under our former program clients received a small subsidy every month over a year. Under the new system they will receive a larger payment, but it will only be given every other month for 5 months out of a year. While the dollar amount of the subsidy won�t change, the different schedule may cause some clients to loose their housing. Also, clients will have to apply for every payment rather than once a year. Again, if a client misses an application, they may loose their housing. It is also possible that some clients will do better with the new system since it gives them much more control over their housing and builds in more time to meet with housing advocates who can help them come up with a longer-term solution. In any case, the transition will not be easy.
Last night we actually had all 5 of us home for dinner! We scheduled a house meeting and yet another party :) This time we are going to have an anti-Valentine�s Day movie party. The idea is to have foods that go with the movies we watch (for example serving humans while watching Fried Green Tomatoes � This was of course Kevin�s contribution). Should be fun to see what we can come up with. The ulterior motive of the party is that we actually clean our house if we know we are going to have a party.
Our client meetings for the rental assistance program went much better than expected. Most of the clients were pretty resigned to the changes since there really wasn�t much that could be done about it. Hopefully we�ll be able to help them through the changes as their current contracts expire and they enter the new program.
We Heywardians had a community meeting last night, the highlight of which was a trip to a pizza parlor in search of real �Chicago style� pizza. While I can�t verify that what we found is �real� it sure tasted WONDERFUL. It was a VERY stuffed crust pizza (stuffed with spinach and lots of cheese after our work at consensus building) topped with tomato sauce. We got a lot of �business stuff� done and solidified plans for our movie party tomorrow. We�re going to show a bunch of classic films since we can get them free at the library. For dinner we are going to serve quesadillas.
I�m thinking about taking on a big challenge� a 200-mile bike ride! Don�t know if I will do it, but I was so excited I couldn�t sleep last night. The ride benefits two of the organizations we work with. The really neat thing is that the last 2 times they did the ride ALL of the pledge money went to the organizations! It is a pretty small ride, they are hoping to get 50 people this year and very grassroots, not one of those big corporate things. We will ride up to Lake Geneva in Wisconsin, camp over in cabins (they take our gear for us) and then ride back the next day. I think it would be a lot of fun but I�m still trying to convince my legs and behind of that. Anyway here is the website to check it out so you have an advanced warning when I come hit you up for pledge money :) http://www.rideforaids.org
Another random thought... snow here in Chicago doesn't melt. I know that seems like a pretty silly thing to be fascinated by, but it really struck me. In the other places I've lived snow melts within a few days, maybe a few weeks after the snow falls. Here, once we got snow it has pretty much sat there ever since. Really neat!
It has been really warm this past week! It has also been getting light about when I get up and stays light until right when I get out of work. I love spring, it is so exciting to slowly feel it warm up and each day get treated to a little more sun light. I also have so much more energy than I do in the winter. Unfortunately, it is only February so I am waiting for winter to stick out its tongue and say �pllttt, just kidding�.
I took advantage of the great weather this weekend and began training for the �big ride�. I biked over to the lakefront path and then down in to Navy Pier. The way down was AWESOME. I passed some of the little inlets that were frozen solid, and others that were kind of a mushy consistency, which was really cool with the waves. Then I biked past the main lake with beautiful crashing waves. I was cruising along at about 14 miles an hour and hardly felt tired at all, even after 10 miles of riding. Then I turned around. There is a reason Chicago is the windy city and I got it full force. I thought I was going to die before I made it home! I crept along at about 6 miles an hour and managed to finally make it back to within a block of home. Then I noticed I would be about 2 tenths of a mile short of making 20 miles. I groaned and then decided to go around the block before heading home. I made it 20.3 miles! Then I hopped off and remembered I still had to carry my bike up three flights of stairs to my apartment. Sunday I was able to ride to church and back (about 5 miles each way). Today I�m sitting a little gingerly :)
My housemate Leah�s birthday was this weekend. Her sister surprised her and flew in to meet her at work. They got to hang out together all weekend. Everyone but me went out dancing (I�m not very social at that hour :() and I hear they had a good time.
Things kinda slowed down at AFC last week, which was disappointing for me. I hope it picks up again this week. I haven�t been able to track down my supervisor, but I notice that she is scheduled to be here all week so hopefully I�ll catch her and get some more work out of her :)
Had an AWESOME church service Sunday. We�ve been celebrating black history month, so this week was the culmination of that. We were asked to where African clothing (yey! I got to wear one of my Ghanaian outfits!). Those who didn�t have any were given a strip of bright cloth. Pastor Greg pointed out that by the best scientific knowledge right now, we�re all of African descent, some of us just more recently than others. Brandee, our student pastor (and I have to admit my favorite because she likes to push boundaries and have fun with her faith), gave the sermon in story style. She used the story of Harriet Tubman and the lectionary readings to talk about mountain top experiences (Moses coming down from the mountain with a shiny face, Jesus� transfiguration, and Paul talking about Moses � although Brandee has "issues" with Paul so we didn�t focus on him too much). The music was also AMAZING. One of the songs in particular really gave me a jolt that still has me thinking � "Go down Moses" (for all you UMs it is in the hymnal). As I was singing it suddenly struck me that the song was really hard to take once you realize that you are Egypt and not Israel (the song is an African-American spiritual about slavery and the Exodus story).
A thought from my house's namesake...
"God is a relation:
God is not a self-contained entity or a self-absorbed being.
God is love � the constant, immediate yearning and effort to make mutuality incarnate throughout the cosmos.
God is commitment, against all odds, to justice with compassion.
God is the Spirit celebrating mutuality, the Energy generating justice, the Root of compassion, the Power in the yearning, the effort, and the commitment.
God is radically loving community, ever unfolding, changing, living, dying, and yet ever-living. In a literal sense � embodied, sensual, transformative - God is holy communion."
- Carter Heyward in Saving Jesus from those who are right
Minneapolis: Fortress Press 1999, p.65