The New Jersey Experiment

Back to Life

2010-04-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

Me and Majia (aka the cutest kid on the planet)

Once my kids left California, I had a couple more days to hang out in LA before I had to get on a plane back to Camden. After dropping the kids off at the airport I drove to Brett's apartment in Long Beach and we went to a bar on second street. When we got to the bar, I immediately became aware of how tired I was and, after about an hour, I decided to head home and get some sleep.

The next day, I woke up and met Brett and Jason and a couple other people at the waterfall that we sometimes go to in Mt. Baldy. Being at the waterfall really reminded me of how much I miss living in California. After the waterfall, we went back to Joey's and went in the pool. I then went back to my parents house, showered and got ready to go out for Cory's (college roommate's) birthday. I met Jake at his apartment in Azusa and then we headed to a liqueur store to do some birthday shopping for Cory. We then met Cory and his girlfriend and Chris Sevier (another college roommate) and his wife Lindsey for dinner at a Mongolian BBQ. It was so much fun to have everyone back together and reminisce about our ridiculous college days at "The San Dimas House". After dinner, we went to T. Phillips which is a bar we frequented when we were students at APU. I had a blast catching up and hanging out with the guys. Sunday I went to a movie with my parents and then my dad and my uncles bought me dinner at Island's because I kicked their butts in our NCAA Tournament bracket.

Me going down the waterfall

On Monday I got on a plane back to Philadelphia. I arrived around midnight and went to bed. We had a pretty good week of camp and it was nice to be back in the normal routine after spending some really quality time with some of my kids in California. The weather was nice so we took the kids to the park for baseball or kickball most days.

Camp night at Chick-Fil-A

On Friday of my first week back, one of my co-workers convinced me to go salsa dancing in Philadelphia. There was a class at the beginning of the night and we learned enough to pretend like we knew what we were doing. There were a few guys there that were really terrible at it which I was thankful for because it made me feel a bit better about not really knowing what I was doing. I was at least able to fake it when dancing with other beginners.

I don't recall what I did the rest of the weekend (other than playing basketball on Sunday) because that was too long ago. Last week we had another really good week at camp. The weather was nice once again so we spent alot of time with the kids at the park. We had a work group of high school aged kids helping out at our camp which isn't always as helpful as you might think but it is nice that they take the time to come out for a week. At one point a kid was talking to Jeffrey (Riblet not Plankton) and Jeffrey asked him what video games he played. The kid said Call of Duty and Gears of War. Jeffrey laughed and then the kid said, "Why? What do you play? NBA?". Jeffrey kind of tilted his head to the side and then looked at me and said "Was that racist?". I responded, "Ya. That was a little racist". I knew the kid didn't mean it to be racist but I also knew that Jeffrey realized that it just came out wrong and wouldn't be offended. Jeffrey then proceeded to make fun of the kid for the rest of the week. He even brought NBA Live to camp the next day and started chanting "What do you play? N.. B.. A.!". At one point Jeffrey gave the kid so much crap that I thought the kid was goiung to cry. It was hilarious. At the end of the week the kid couldn't help but love Riblet and even got his contact info when he left.

Riblet being Riblet

Phillip (orange shorts) is back at camp playing basketball after having been shot.

On Friday night a group of us went camping at the Delaware Water Gap. We got there around 10pm, set up camp and then went for a 3 mile night hike to a waterfall. The moon was huge and lit up the sky pretty well. It was beautiful. We woke up on Saturday and went for a 10 mile hike to some lake on the Appalachian Trail. When we got back at like 9pm we went to a Bar in Philly that had the best burger in Pennsylvania (according to the food network). We got some truly delicious beers, some fabulous calamari and the angus burger with smoked Gouda, bacon and chili's. It was definitely one of the top 5 burgers I've ever had in my life and we are absolutely going to have to go back there before our time here in Camden is over.

On Sunday, we visited a church in Morristown that supports Urban Promise. Three other interns and I got to talk to an adult Bible study group about Camden and Urban Promise. One other intern and I sort of dominated the conversation and spent the whole hour and a half answering questions, rambling about stories we had from Camden and giving our personal opinions about things relating to Camden (dangerous territory considering both Mike and I tend to be very liberal compared to most church folk). Luckily for us, this group of about 20 people ate it up. They all said they were very moved bymuch of what we had to say and they are even now planning on organizing a day in the next couple of weeks to come visit our after school programs. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit and wish we could have done more Q&A's for small groups at church's throughout the year. It seemed to be a very effective way to promote the ministry.

On Sunday night I played basketball with a bunch of men from the neighborhood (like I do every Sunday), watched a movie and then went to bed.

I am beginning to get a little stressed about what I am going to do in a month when my time here is over. I am incredibly excited to be going back to California but at the same time I am extremely sad to be leaving some of my kids. I do not know exactly what the next step for me is, whether I will be back in Camden or who knows where. It's exciting to have such freedom to decide what I will be doing next but I also have bill's to pay so it is a little nerve racking. Please pray for me.

P.S. The spring break video is finished and can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/chad.otoski?ref=search&sid=56900826.304958250..1#!/video/video.php?v=563432435211&ref=mf

I spent alot of time last night helping chad pick music and edit it. Enjoy!

Spring Break 2010.

2010-04-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

Group Prayer

I got on a plane for California on the Tuesday before our kid's spring break started. My arm was still all bandaged from the gruesome skateboarding wound. I bumped it on the seat while getting one the plane and then it proceeded to bleed threw the bandage dripping blood onto my jeans. Other than that, the flight was nice and the blood washed out of my pants so it all worked out. Upon arriving in California, I went and chilled with some close friends who I had not seen in a while and then had dinner with my parents and went to bed.

On Wednesday I woke up, picked up Jake (college room mate who is still at APU and was on spring break) and headed to San Fransisco. Jake had decided to come with me for my interview and make a road trip out of it, . My cousin, who lives near San Fransisco, agreed to let us stay at her house to save us some money. We dropped our stuff off at her house and went to meet Jake's dad, who also lives in the area, for dinner. After dinner, we had a few drinks at my cousins house and went to bed early because I had to be up at 8 for my interview. On Thursday, we woke up, got breakfast at IHOP, and then I went to my Interview. The interview was for a job as a probation counselor at a juvenile hall in Martinez Ca. This job is exactly the kind of work I would love and I feel like the interview went really well. Please pray that the background investigation also goes relatively well.

After my interview, we went into spring break mode and found the nearest happy hour. Originally we had intended to head home Thursday night but we ended up meeting another friend from college (thanks for coming out Amanda) for dinner and staying the night. On Friday there were another couple of girls from college that wanted to meet us for drinks so we decided to stay another night. The girls ended up bailing on us but Jake called his friend Alexis, who told us she was having a girls night at her house in Vacaville, and we decided to stop bye. We had such a good time crashing the girls night, that we ended up staying and hanging out with the girls until Sunday morning when we had to rush back to be home on time for Easter lunch at my parents house. Easter was great and I truly enjoyed being back with family for the afternoon.

On Monday I woke up to several text messages that I had received in the middle of the night from excited kids telling me that they were boarding the plane to California. I then drove to LAX in my cousins Toyota Sequoia (thanks again Brett) to pick everyone up. My parents followed in their truck to pick up the luggage. When the kids got off the plane, I think I was just as excited to have them their as they were to be in California. After the kids fought over who got to ride with me in Brett's car and we rented the 15 passenger van for everyone else (we brought out 15 kids, 7 adult staff members, and one celebrity photographer) we headed to In-N-Out for lunch. The kids loved it. We then settled into my parents house, which they vacated for the week so that we could take over. After everyone was settled in, we headed to Boomers in Upland for some go-cart racing and some miniature golf. The kids absolutely loved the go-carts and at about 8pm we took them home, ordered some pizza, and let them swim in the freezing cold pool at my parents housing complex. At 11pm we called lights out and everyone went to sleep.

Albert aparantly smoking his french fry

Jeffrey AKA Riblet pretending he can drive

On Tuesday we woke up at around 9am, ate breakfast, and headed to Azusa Pacific University to play some football and basketball. After dunking on my after school program director, we took a short tour of the campus and the Alumni office bought all of our kids lunch at the cafeteria. We then headed to Burbank for a special tour of Nickelodeon Studios that was set up by Jerry (the celebrity photographer/former intern that set up our fundraiser in New York and accompanied us on our trip). The kids loved the tour and we even got to watch a couple of episodes of shows that hadn't aired yet. After the tour, we drove to Hollywood so that our kids could be in the audience of a Nickelodeon game show called Brain Surge. Only two adults were allowed to accompany the kids for the game show so all of the interns and Jerry wondered around Hollywood Blvd and waited for them to be done. Once they were out of the game show, we ate pizza at Shakey's and headed home. We got them to bed around midnight.

Going up to dunk on Albert

Jeffery, Duwayne, and Dave at APU

In the Hollywood Hills

This one is self explanatory

On Wednesday, we woke everyone up at 7am and made it to Lake Elsinore at about 8. When we got their my dad had already launched the boat and the Sea Doo and was waiting for us. We loaded about 7 kids into the boat and after a quick demonstration from yours truly, we let them try to wakeboard. One of my kids, who is tiny and a talented skateboarder, got up on his first try and road for 4 minutes, going outside of the wake and looking extremely comfortable. Between me doing spins and flips and Jeffrey being such a natural, it made it a little discouraging for the rest of the kids who struggled to get up (as one would expect them to). We then dropped off the first group of kids and let my dad get off the boat to take a break from driving. I loaded up the second group of kids and went out again. Two more kids were able to get up this time out, one of my 8th grade girls named Aliesha, and the only 5th grader we brought on the trip named Sandy. Luckily the kids did not get too frustrated with not being able to wakeboard and just enjoyed being on the lake. The whole time we were there, Chad was taking people for rides on the Sea Doo which really helped out a lot. The kids loved the Sea Doo and it assisted in keeping the people left on the shore entertained. In the end I was able to get 3 good runs in on the wakeboard which made me very happy and we packed up and left the lake around 3pm.

Jeffery AKA Plankton

Kids at the lake

Me showing off

Driving kids in the boat

After leaving the lake, we headed to my uncle's house where he had heated his pool and had prepared a BBQ for us (thanks Joey). The kids may have had more fun in that pool than they did the entire rest of the trip and the staff loved the tri-tip that they cooked for us (I think half of the kids might have preferred hamburgers but it's not always all about them). We then had a camp fire on Joey's balcony with an incredible view of the city below and Albert (my camp director) lead our spiritual discussion for the week. It was a great day and probably my favorite of the trip. We left Joey's house at about 9pm and got the kids to bed at about 10:30.

Rock Band at Joey's

On Thursday Chad and I woke up early with a car full of kids (we had a drawing to see which kids got to come with me in Brett's car) and headed to Disneyland to buy our tickets. After all kinds of drama and difficulties associated with buying our tickets, we were finally able to purchase them. In the end it worked out perfectly because, despite the 2 hours of struggling to get the tickets, we finally purchased them about 5 minutes before the rest of the group arrived. We took everyone to Space Mountain to start our day and the kids loved it. The problem was that Space Mountain is really the only legitimate roller coaster at Disneyland and the kids were thoroughly unimpressed with the rest of the park. After a couple of hours, we took the kids to McDonald's for lunch and then they waited patiently as Jerry argued with the Disneyland customer service staff for two hours until they finally switched all of our tickets over to California Adventure. As the kids went into California Adventure, Boston (the other after school program director) and I went back out to the van because he had lost the key. I called AAA and waited for about an hour for them to come out and make us a new key. Once that was taken care of, we headed back into the park and met up with the kids. The kids had an amazing time at California Adventure and when the park closed at 11, we finally headed home. We got the kids to bed at abut 1 am and decided to sleep in on Friday.

Excited to be at Disneyland

This is what happens when you bring a profesional photographer

California Adventure

I bought that sweet hat at Disneyland cuz my head was burning

They loved Califonia Adventure

Tower of Terror

We got up at about 10 am on Friday and let the kids swim in the pool before packing up all of their stuff and heading to the beach. We parked at the pier in Newport and let the kids hang out on the beach for about an hour. My parents came with us and bought everyone cheese on a stick from Jane's Corndogs. The kids were more impressed by the beach than I expected them to be. After the beach we got back in the cars and headed to Universal City walk for dinner. This is when everyone got a true taste of California as it took us 2 and a half hours in traffic to drive the 50 miles from Newport to Universal City. We had intended to eat dinner at a restaurant at city walk but because we were pressed for time, we ended up just eating at the food court. After we ate we drove back down to LAX and everyone (except for me who stayed until Monday) boarded the plane back to Philadelphia. The kids had an amazing time and all of them were sad to leave. One girl even said, "I'm not getting on the plane, I am staying in California and becoming a hobo". I told her that that was some good motivation to do well in school so that she could come back for college. She agreed.

Newport Beach CA

Playing catch with Plankton

I can't even relay effectively through words how incredible this trip was for our kids. We took two different groups of kids on this trip. One was from south Camden, the other was from East Camden. These two groups usually do not get along. By the time we left, they were a family. The week after we got back, the camp from south came to east Camden to use our gym. It was amazing to see how, instead of the usual complaining, the kids we so excited to see each other and were jumping up and down and hugging. That sort of thing really makes you realize how important these trips are. Some of our kids had never been outside of Camden before and never realized that the way they are forced to live isn't normal. It's not like that everywhere. It's trips like this one that give them that little bit of indignation about their circumstances that is needed to inspire them to change them. It is also incredible for them to experience white people (like Joey and Diana and Brett and Jason and my parents) who love them for who they are and don't immediately judge them because of where they are from. Prior to this trip, I thought that it was going to be great to take these kids on a fun trip that they would otherwise not be able to afford to go on. I never could have imagined how effective and important this trip was for so many deeper reasons.

I'd like to give some special thanks to a few people who helped make this trip as incredible as it was. First I would like to thank anyone who donated money (including Russel Simmons who came out to Jerry's New York fundraiser). Also I would like to thank my parents who sacrificed their house to give us a free place to stay and bought us breakfast everyday and put in so much work to help us out. I can't say thank you enough for everything they did for us that week. Thank you to Joey and Diana for letting us use their house and barbecuing for us, as well as for being so incredibly nice and accommodating to our kids. Thank you to Brett for letting me use his car. The kids were fighting over who got to ride in the Sequoia every single time we got in a car to go somewhere. Brett saved us a ton of money in not having to rent another van. Finally I would like to thank Jerry. Jerry was an Urban Promise intern 6 years ago and is now a famous celebrity photographer. He took it upon himself to help us with this trip and without him it would have never been possible. He helped us raise the money we needed and payed his own way to come hang out with our kids for a week in Califronia. He also provided us with some pretty kick ass pictures from the trip.

Jerry playing football with the kids

Jerry also got our kids some free shoes from South Pole

Better Late Than Never

2010-03-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

I took a few weeks off from writing because 1. I was very busy and 2. I was getting a little burned out on writing these every week. It will probably take me 2 or 3 posts to get back up to date but I am going to attempt to do that this week.

I will start where I left off which I believe was the Jr. High Olympics. On the first day of the Olympics we had a few work groups create signs for each of the five teams. Each of the interns was assigned to a team and given a work group to watch over. My team was called the Black Bus (team names were assigned). We were instructed to create a banner for our team and to pick a Bible verse that would encourage team work or working together or something along those lines. Given my competitive nature, I suggested that our sign be a black bus running over the other team mascots and our verse be Revelations 6:8 which says, "And I saw a pale horse (pale horse was of course changed to black bus) and the man who sat on it was death, and Hell followed with him". The work group, not knowing any better, took my advice and created the a pretty sweet banner. Next, I took a sharpie and wrote black bus across my knuckles as if it were a tattoo, which immediately made all of my kids want to be on our team. Once the kids were placed on teams, I helped all the black bus kids follow suite with temporary knuckle tattoos. After the kids were on their teams and had their tattoos, we had the kids design a team flag and write a team song.

Our Banner

For the second day of the Olympics, we headed to Camp Grace in north Camden. We had a full day of events in the Basement of their camp and as we were leaving one of the 5th graders from my camp came up to me and said, "Matt, you are the kid best a friend can have". He then tilted his head to the side like a confused dog, realizing that what he had just said was jibberish, and ran to the bus. I have absolutely no idea what he was trying to say but I was touched none the less.

The third day of the Olympics was the day with all of the athletics. I knew that we had an advantage on this day because we had many of the athletic kids. The first event was knockout (for those who don't know, this is a basketball game). They announced that one staff or work group member was aloud to participate in this event. I of course told all of the other staff and work group on my team that they weren't aloud to compete since this was MY event. I won the knockout competition and then my team preceded to win the relay and other athletic games of the day.

The last day was the closing ceremonies. We ate pizza and they announced the winner of the Olympics. The black bus finished second. I don't see any way that another team could possibly have had more points than us. I think we got robbed but pretended that I was happy with second place for the sake of the kids.

Some other interns and I had planned to go on a road trip to Buffalo after the Olympics. Though originally about 10 inters had planned to go, by the time the actual day came around, everyone but me, Chad, Mike and Charlotte had bailed. My camp ended up having our staff night out after the Olympics and so we did not get on the road to Buffalo until about 11 pm. We drove through the night, drinking energy drinks and blasting music to keep ourselves awake, and arrived at Mikes aunts house in Buffalo at about 6am. We got about 4 hours of sleep (I only got about a half hour because of the energy drinks) and headed to Niagara Falls at about 10am.

We ate breakfast at Tim Horton's and arrived at Niagara Falls around 11am. After wondering around a bit, we decided to check out the Canadian side of the Falls. When we got to Canada we were sent to a long line in customs. When we got to the front of the line, the customs women started interrogating me about something I had been arrested for when I was 19. I told her it had been expunged from my record. She did not know what that meant. The customs woman was a bitch and kind of incompetent. When I explained these things too her, she sent us back to United States.

Despite what the sign says, the falls were not in that dumpster

We went through those turnstiles

When we got back to the U.S., we went to a bar for some buffalo wings, then to an ice cream place for desert, and finally to a hot dog place for a night cap. After a full day of eating, we returned to Mike's aunts house and went to sleep. The next day we got up and went to a Greek diner for lunch where I had the most amazing burger I have ever had in my life. We then took a walk on some river walk trail that was in the river between the United States and Canada, threw rocks at a dead fish, and piled back in the car to head home.

The Falls

The next week we had a fairly typical week of camp. Wednesday night we went to the karaoke bar in Philly that we had discovered a couple of months ago. It was possibly even more fun than the first time. On Friday we had our Math Dare competition. Math Dare is a competition where the kids have to compete in math related events that also include gross tasks. There was all kinds of slime and different things that a work group set up for the kids. It was great and camp spirit (my camp) dominated the math portion of the contest. We did not, however, win the title. A lot of the points awarded were dependent on athletic activities and our kids were at a slight disadvantage when it came to this portion of the event.

Pookie outside of the karaoke bar. Not sure what a shaved noodle is.

On Saturday, Chad and I took about 11 kids to the skate park under the overpass in Philadelphia next to FDR park. Pretty soon after we got there, one of our kids sprained his ankle and had to be taken to the emergency room. Chad took him in his car. Realizing that we might be stuck at the skate park for longer that anticipated, I went and bought us all some McDonald's. At some point during the day I fell on my elbow (I fall often and can not remember any one specific fall). I realized this when I took off my sweatshirt and one of my kids pointed out that I was bleeding. I put my sweatshirt back on and skated the rest of the day. When I got home I noticed that the elbow of my sweatshirt was soaked in blood. I took off my sweatshirt and as I was looking at the cut on my elbow in the mirror, my room mate came in and asked what the white was that was bulging out of the cut. As I examined it, I quickly realized that it was the bone. I drove to the store and bought some peroxide to clean it, some butterflies to close it, and some gauze to wrap it. After I bandaged it up, I spent the next couple days being extra careful not to let it split open again. The following Tuesday, I got on a plane to California for an interview with the Contra Costa Probation department and to prepare for our kids to come out for spring break.

My bone sticking out before I knew it was sticking out.

I thought Jeffery had this.

And then this happened.

Spring Break Post Coming Soon.

F@*# Virginia! Johnson City TN is ok though.

2010-03-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday I had to appear in court in Marion, Virginia for a speeding ticket I got in January. I had asked my Samantha (ex girlfriend) if I could stay at her house in Johnson City TN. She had told me that I could stay but that she was going to be in Texas visiting family that week. Seeing as how we hadn't talked in about a month, I sent several text messages the week before reminding her that I would be staying at her house for a night while she was gone. I left early in the morning and arrived in Johnson City around 6pm on Tuesday night. As I walked into Samantha's house I heard a voice say "hello?". As it turned out she had just gotten home from Texas and was not expecting me at all. She said that I could still stay but was clearly unhappy with my presence, so I decided to just get a hotel room instead.

I decided to get dinner before finding a hotel and while I was eating at the bar of a place called Jack's, I met some incredibly nice people including a man who recommended the Best Western down the road. When I checked in at the Best Western, I noticed that the hotel bar was pretty lively. Since my room came with a coupon for a free draft beer, I put my stuff in my room and headed to the bar. While watching the Ohio State, Illinois basketball game, I met quite a few more incredibly nice people. Between the two bars, I talked to several people who said that they do not, under any circumstances, drive in Virginia for fear of getting pulled over. This seemed strange. After a few hours at the bar, I went back to my room, watched sports center, and went to sleep.

The next morning I got up and drove to Marion, Virginia to appear in court and pay for my speeding tickets. When I appeared in front of the Judge, he informed me that because I was going more than 30mph over the speed limit, it was a class 1 misdemeanor and I could potentially face up to 12 months in jail and a 2,500 dollar fine for EACH offence (there were two because the first officer was traveling the opposite direction on the highway and called the second officer to pull me over a few miles down the road where they arrested me and each gave me a separate ticket). I asked for a public defender and when I was appointed one he told me that because I was going over 30mph over the speed limit, there was likely no keeping me out of jail. At first I thought he was joking. He was not. He told me to tell the judge what I was doing here in Camden, admit guilt, and ask for mercy. I did this and then the Judge sentenced me to 4 days in jail and a 2,000 dollar fine. I was taken to a holding cell where I was to wait for a van to pick me up and take me to county jail. Shortly after, another man from the court room was brought to the same cell. He was going to jail for 6 days for a speeding ticket, despite having had a lawyer and having never been pulled over before in his life before this offence. He was a small Indian man and as they loaded us into the van to take us to jail, I noticed that he looked terrified. I looked at him and said "who would have thought you would be going to jail for speeding huh?" and then laughed. I saw some of the terror leave his face and I talked to him most of the way to the jail. I couldn't help but think that maybe I had to go jail so that the poor little Indian man wouldn't poop himself out of fear.

When we arrived at the jail and the officers were booking me in, they informed me that in Virginia, you only have to serve half the time that you are sentenced. Because my paperwork said that I was only sentenced to two days, they thought that I would only be there one day and left me in a holding cell (essentially solitary confinement) instead of booking me into population. This was a mistake in the paperwork and I did, in fact, have to serve a full two days. Had I been booked into population this would not have been so bad, but since I was in a tiny cell made of 266 cinderblocks (I counted many times) by myself, I nearly lost my mind. Even if I had to fight every second of the time I was there (which is generally not going to happen to someone that looks like me in county (especially in a place where they send people to jail for speeding)) it would have been far better than losing my mind in that tiny cell.

I was finally released on Friday morning. I was taken back to the court house and the officer driving the van told me that he would not even drive through Virginia if he didn't live there. He said he would drive around it unless he had somewhere to be that was actually in Virginia. When I got back to the court house, I paid my fine (which was slightly more than every penny I had. My parents sent me the difference so that I wouldn't have to return to jail) and got in my car to get the hell out of Virginia as fast as possible (without speeding of course).

Just when I was ready to start a petition to make Virginia secede from the United States, I stopped to get gas by James Madison University. As I got out of my car, I noticed that 5 of the 8 people pumping gas were attractive young women, all of whom smiled at me. When I went into the mini mart to pay for my gas, I noticed a basket full of ping pong balls next to the register (for those late night emergencies when someone steps on the last ping pong ball while playing beer pong). I said to the clerk, "This must be a college town" and then a voice from behind me said, "What gave it away? The ping pong balls?". I turned around to find yet another attractive young woman wearing a James Madison sweatshirt. I pumped my gas and continued on my way, but from the small sample size at the gas station, I determined that 60% of the people who go to James Madison University are pretty girls (all of whom will either smile at you or strike up a conversation with you, making you feel good about yourself). I am now strongly considering attending grad school at James Madison University.

When I hit Washington DC, it was about 3:30pm. This meant that I would be sitting in rush our traffic in both DC and Baltimore. I got back to Camden at about 8 o'clock, just in time to catch the end of the 3 on 3 basketball tournament we had for our Jr. High Kids. I would have loved to have been a part the basketball tournament but I was just glad to be home.

When I got back to Camden, Albert (my after school program director) told me that he went to my class the first day I was gone and his exact word to them were this: "I'm not gunna lie to ya'll, that nigga's in jail". This made me laugh and it was nice to be back with people. My kids prayed for me while I was in Jail and they told Albert that he should take the money from the change drive we are doing, to raise money to build a basketball court for a church in Kenya, and use it to bail me out of jail.

On Saturday I went with Mike and Charlotte (other interns) to Philadelphia and went to a couple of used bookstores. After Philadelphia, 8 other people and I went to dinner at Denny's and then hung out at the other intern house till about 2am.

On Sunday I went to church in the morning and then watched Michigan get killed by Michigan State, which would have been depressing if I hadn't already given up on Michigan's season. I then shaved my head into a mohawk and got all dressed up for our intern Oscar party, and I gotta tell you, I looked pretty damn good. The Oscar party was fun and when we got home at about 1am, my roommate Chad asked me to cut his hair. We shaved the top of his head so that his beard connected to what looked like another beard on the back of his head. Chad is crazy and it looked ridiculous. Video of the process can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=558251981881&ref=mf

Back beard

Chad named him Frank

Yesterday we did not have camp because we had to set up for the Jr. High Olympics that we are having this week. Last night we had another camp fire in our backyard. This time about 15 people showed up. It was a lot of fun. Today we started the Jr. High Olympics but I will save that for next weeks blog.

We got some great news this weekend. There is a former intern that Albert has remained friends with who is now a famous photographer and he is going to have a fundraiser for us at a club in New York. This is something that we have known for a while. The big news is how big the event is becoming. ESPN has gotten involved and is supposedly going to provide us with Disneyland tickets for the whole group. Also the legendary rap group Naughty by Nature is going to host the event and several other celebrities are expected to attend. There is also now the potential for some media coverage of the event. This event is going to be on April 1st and I am really looking forward to it.

Martin Luther King snowboarding and shot in the leg

2010-03-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

Last week we only had one day of camp. Monday we had a typical day of camp. My basketball class is starting to run a little more smoothly. Tuesday we had the Martin Luther King Speech Contest. This is where a number of kids from all of the Urban Promise after school programs here in Camden write speeches about a civil rights leader and then present them in front of parents, Urban Promise staff, and a panel of judges. A number of the speeches were very touching. I helped one of my 8th grade girls with her speech and thought about pulling a Kanye when she didn't win by running on stage, taking the mic and ranting about how Alishia deserved to win but decided against it when one of our 7th graders won instead.

On Wednesday all of the interns went to Washington DC to learn about a program down there called Little Friends for Peace (I know what you're thinking but no it is not a program for midgets). Little Friends for Peace is a program at a school in Washington D.C. that is run by a totally awesome older hippy woman named MJ. The program revolves around teaching kids an attitude of peace and non-violence. The presentation was a little corny for me and for that reason I don't know that a lot of it would work with our Jr. High kids but the idea's behind everything were great. I may even use a few things (presented slightly differently) with my kids for a cell group (Bible lesson) on Thursday.

After the peace workshop we got to walk around the city for the rest of the day. I had been to D.C. a few times before but it was still cool to see some of the monuments and there was even a new one that I hadn't yet seen. We then all met at some some crazy chicken joint (no not El Pollo Loco) for dinner and I ate an entire chicken before returning to Camden.

On Thursday it snowed enough for them to cancel school and so we also canceled camp. Garret, Chad, Kelly (girl who also works for Urban Promise), and I decided to head up to Kelly's house in the Pocono's Thursday night so that we could snowboard at Camelback in PA on Friday. It snowed all night on Thursday and snowed lightly most of the day on Friday. We got up bright an early and got out on the mountain Friday morning and we were practically the only ones there. We had some amazing powder runs and had the snowboard park virtually to ourselves for most of the morning. It the afternoon it got a bit more crowded but overall it was one of the best days of riding I've had in years. We got some video but not a ton because we were having way to much fun to stop and do many video sessions.

Friday night we barbecued at Kelly's house and went in the hot tub and just hung out. It was a lot of fun. We slept in on Saturday, cleaned the house and then got breakfast at a diner before heading back to Camden. We considered riding again on Saturday but decided it wasn't worth the money and it couldn't live up to the riding we did on Friday anyway.

On Sunday I just relaxed and watched the U.S.A. hockey team lose to Canada in a heartbreaking overtime thriller with a bunch of the other interns. Today we had camp again as usual. My basketball class went really well. I also found out that one of our 7th graders was shot in the leg yesterday. It wasn't even a stray bullet like you might expect. Someone just ran up to him at the bus stop randomly, shot him twice, and ran away. He is going to be alright, but he is still in the hospital so please keep him in your prayers.

I am leaving in the morning to drive back down to Virginia to take care of my court stuff. I have court at 1:30pm on Wednesday so please pray for me, that I can get all of this taken care of and that it doesn't completely bankrupt me.

Fire, Jenga, Chinatown, and No Look Eric doing a swing out sister.

2010-02-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

This week would probably have been a good week to get two posts in as I definitely had enough to write by wed or Thursday but have now forgotten most of that stuff. Unfortunatley, I am simultaneously too busy and too lazy for that. I will do my best to remember the happenings of the last busy week.

Last Monday after I posted my blog, it started to snow again. Not wanting my car to be stuck for another month, I spent a few hours (with snow falling and a separated shoulder) digging our cars out of the back yard. After the cars were out, Chad and I borrowed a free standing fire pit from the extreme make over house and started a fire in our backyard. We cooked hot dogs, smoked cigars and just enjoyed the company of our roommates and the warmth of the fire as the snow fell around us. It was a pretty great night and reminded me a lot of being back home in California with my friends (except for the snow falling of course).

Tuesday we had our first day of camp for the week. The day went well and I had my basketball class which also went relatively smoothly. Playing basketball with the kids all week with a injured shoulder really gives me a lot of respect and admiration for football quarterbacks who play through a separated shoulder. It hurts just shooting a basketball. I can't imagine throwing a football as hard as I can down field and getting tackled by 280 pound defensive ends. I can't remember what I did Tuesday night because I have waited too long to write this and so much has happened since.

Lookin at me like I'm crazy (prob cuz I am)

The roads in Camden have been covered in snow for the past month and for some reason the city does not plow or salt them. Because of this, two Urban Promise buses got stuck while taking kids home from camp on Monday. With the roads (especially the narrow side streets with cars parked on the sides) so difficult and dangerous to drive on, all of the after school programs were canceled on Wednesday (except for mine because my director hates canceling camp and a lot of our kids walk home anyway).

While I was stuck in California, I missed my favorite street leader's birthday. Because he seemed somewhat disappointed that I missed it, I decided to take Eman and his friend to dinner after camp. We went to Friday's where we ordered the the course meal deal thing and ate more food than should have ever been able to fit in our stomachs. The meal only cost about 60 bucks for all 3 of us which seemed like a great deal for how glutenous we were able to be. After I took them home, I jumped in the car with a few other interns and headed into Philly for a concert at some bar. This is the second time that I had seen Rachel's sister's band (they are called Turning Violet Violet) and I enjoyed them even more this time than I did the first time. I also had a espresso beer that I really enjoyed but can now not for the life of me remember what it was called.

Eman

At the concert

Thursday we had camp as usual and I taught a lesson about forgiveness (with the a little help from my director) and I can't exactly remember what I did Thursday night.

On Friday I hung out around Urban Promise most of the day until the evening when some of the other interns and a couple other people that work for Urban and I decided to head into Philly to find a Karaoke bar. We were told about some Irish pub that had karaoke, so we headed there first to check it out. Jessie was driving the van and we decided to drive down the alley where the bar was to see if there was a cover charge. As we got to the end of the alley we came to a small one way street with the one way we were allowed to go blocked off. We quickly darted down the street in the wrong direction, expecting to pull back out onto the main road before a car came the right way onto the street. When we got to the main road, that too was blocked off. Jessie then decided to drive around the road block, over the curb, to get onto the main street. By the time I was able to inform her that the car she was about to cut off was a police officer, it was too late and the officer quickly turned his lights on and got out of the car. I rolled down my window, as I probably have more experience talking to cops than most, and he walked up and asked me what the hell we thought we were doing. I explained to him the predicament we had gotten ourselves into and as it turns out he was the nicest officer on the planet. He said,"Well lets get you outta here then." , moved the road closed signs out of our way and blocked traffic allowing us to pull out. I can only assume that this happened because we had a cute girl driving the car and will now forever assume that cute girls catch every break and resent them for it.

After all of this we finally parked near bye and headed into the bar. There was a two dollar cover charge which we all payed. I then ordered a drink just before realizing that this extremely over crowded bar did not, in fact, have karaoke. We asked one of the bouncers of there was a karaoke bar near bye and he told us that the closest one was in Chinatown. I quickly finished my drink and went to close out my tab when I was informed that there was a minimum of ten dollars to pay with a credit card. I ordered another drink, quickly finished that one as well and then I closed out and we walked to Chinatown.

After asking some random girls on the streets of Chinatown, we finally were able to find the karaoke bar. We walked into this sushi restaurant and headed up the stairs to one of the coolest karaoke bars I have ever seen. We got ourselves a private room (thanks to Jesus (Castro not Christ) for paying for that), did some sake bombs and sang Karaoke for a couple of hours. I had an absolute blast. After we left the bar we went to a diner and got breakfast at 2 in the morning before heading home and going to bed.

Street sign in chinatwon. We had no idea what not to do in order to avoid a 300 dollar fine.

On Saturday I went grocery shopping for the house and then helped clean the walls of our kitchen, which we are sort of remodeling, so that they would be ready to paint. I was supposed to go out to the bar with some people who work for Urban Promise and some other people from Camden but I wasn't really feeling up to it so I just watched a movie and went to bed.

On Sunday I watched basketball on TV for most of the day and then headed over to the other intern house to see what they were up to. Jessie had some friends from college in town and they were about to head to Dirty Franks when I showed up. I tagged along with them to Dirty Franks and when we got there they were about to have a Jenga tournament at the bar. Just for fun, Jessie's Friend's boyfriend and I decided to enter the contest. We both ended up winning and advancing to the semi finals which will take place in two weeks. The guy that I played in the first round was absolutely ridiculous. Apparently he was one of the favorites to win the tournament. He used all kinds of crazy "jenga terms" like swing out sister and uptown sally. He also introduced himself as No Look Eric. It was extremely hard to keep a straight face while playing him, as he seemed like a character out of a bad B action film, but I actually managed to win.

This week should be a little less eventful than last week but if it's not I'll do my best to force myself to write a midweek update. Also be looking forward to hearing about the Jenga Semi Finals in two weeks.

We had a little scare last week when the school district threatened to cancel spring break due to all the snow days, but they ended up deciding against it. Our spring break trip is going to be to California and we need lots of donations to be able to fund this trip (about 13,000$). We also need people in the San Gabriel Valley/Inland Empire/Orange County areas to help us out by either providing a place for us to stay or cooking us a meal. There are going to be 22 of us (14 kids and 8 adults). Please let me know if you would like to help in any way.

Two weeks of snow and how it has kicked my ass in every way possible

2010-02-15T11:01:00.001-08:00

It's been two weeks since my last post. This is because I have not been in Camden for the majority of the last two weeks.

I mentioned in my last post that we were starting classes for kids at the after school program and that I was going to be teaching basketball. I had my first class on Tuesday and it went really well. The divide in skill levels in the class was the only thing that made my task slightly difficult. The kids ranged from tripping over their own feet to playing for their Jr. high basketball teams. This made things a little frustrating for the latter group who had to wait for me to show the former group how to do things they learned 5 years ago. Over all the class went well though and I am looking forward to continuing it this week.

On Tuesday I flew to California for a test for a job in Ventura. I took the test on Wednesday. It was more difficult than the others I have taken but I think I did fairly well. I spent the rest of the week hanging out with friends and was scheduled to get on a plane to return to Camden on Sunday morning. However, on Saturday I received a call from the airline saying that my flight had been canceled due to all the snow in Philadelphia. I rescheduled my flight for Monday and decided to head up to Wrightwood to go snowboarding with Brett (who works there as an instructor) on Sunday. The first run of the day, at the very top of the mountain, I went for a backside 360 off of one of the bigger jumps at Mt. High. This was a pretty foolish thing to do as everyone knows you don't go for big tricks like that on your first run. In the course of my 360, I somehow managed to get a little off axis and came down on the nose of my board which then slingshotted me into the ground. It felt like getting hit by a truck and was on of the the most painful falls I have ever had snowboarding. I basically destroyed my right shoulder and my hip. I continued to ride (slowly and painfully) for the rest of the day and even taught a couple snowboard lessons with Brett while I was there (I worked at Mt. High as an instructor last year).

Me doing about the only trick i could do without wanting to cry like a little girl after the injury.

While we were on the mountain we had Jason turn on the hot tub and record the Superbowl for us. When we got back we watched the super bowl (sans commercials), went in the hot tub and then I headed home.

My flight was again cancelled on Monday, so I rescheduled it for Tuesday. It was cancelled on Tuesday so I rescheduled it for Wednesday. It was cancelled on Wednesday so I rescheduled it for Friday. Finally on Friday I was able to return to Camden.

On Saturday we took a trip to Baltimore with the street leaders to visit the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. It was pretty cool but very intense. The trip took pretty much the entire day and when we returned I watched a movie and went to bed.

Sunday I woke up and was basically stuck at my house, seeing as how my car is buried under the snow in my back yard and my shoulder hurts way too much to spend several hours digging it out. After a full day of boredom, five interns from the other house came and picked me and Chad up and took us to Dirty Franks (the sweet dive bar we discovered in Philadelphia). We played darts and hung out for a few hours and then returned home. We have today off for Presidents day, which means I am again stuck at the house and bored out of my mind. I am really looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow and actually getting to hang out with the kids again.

In the last two weeks snow has dislocated my shoulder, bruised my hip, derailed my travel plans several times, stolen my car, and made me slip and fall on my ass while walking home from 7/11. I am starting to be quite a bit less fond of it than I once was.

I'm sick. Cut me some slack.

2010-02-01T09:45:00.000-08:00

I really need to start blogging more than once a week because I forget way too much of the entertaining stuff that happens by the time Monday rolls around. Last Monday camp went relatively well. We tried out having an art class and gym class for the activity time of our after school program. I ran the gym class and it was a little hectic because there were too many kids in each group. This week were are going to try dividing them up into 4 groups. We will have a creative expression class, a cooking class, a drama class, and a basketball class. I, of course, am running the basketball class. I would have liked to have done the creative expression class as well but how could I pass up basketball? I will let you know next week how it all goes.

On Tuesday the zoo came back and brought some more animals (nothing quite as cool as the porcupine this time). The kids were really rowdy and somewhat disrespectful of the zoo people so our director decided to cancel camp on Wed.

Wednesday night we had our street leader night, as always, and we were able to play basketball again instead of dodge ball, which I was quite grateful for.

Thursday was a long day for me. I woke up and drove to Sam's club to buy some meat for a dinner we were having with other interns from other Urban Promise locations as well as people from a program we work closely with called mission year. I bought some steaks and some chicken and made a marinade (that I learned to make from James Shaddy) and left them to marinate until after camp. My class was rough because some of the girls were dealing with some pretty tough issues with a friend. I ended up scrapping the bible lesson that I had planned and just talked with them and did my best to answer some questions they had. After camp I fired up the grill and cooked up about 60 steaks and 30 chicken breasts for our dinner. After a few hours of barbecuing, we sat down to eat. The food was a big hit (thanks James) and then some Jimmy Walker looking guy in a sweater vest (I'm not being racist, dude actually looked like Jimmy Walker from Good Times) talked to us about the homeless in Camden. The information was shocking, in a city of 70,000 we have 3,000 homeless.

Friday and Saturday I was sick and didn't do a whole lot. Yesterday, I went snowboarding with Garret and Chad at Blue Mountain in PA. The mountain was not quite up to par with what we have in California but it had some nice features and it is only about an hour and a half away so it was definitely worth the trip.

Chad and myself at Blue Mountain

Me doing a backside 360 off of one of the smaller jumps

The video of our trip to the skatepark and other antics from that day is now on my facebook and there will be one from snowboarding up soon (the camera died after 2 runs so the the snowboard one might not be great). Here is the link to view the skateboarding video: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=554510844151&ref=mf

I am still a little sick so that is all I am going to write for the week. Sorry it wasn't more entertaining.

The Zoo, sleep deprived children, and losing my mind

2010-01-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

This week was a bit better than last week simply due to the fact that I wasn't arrested. On Tuesday we had the zoo come to camp and I think I might have enjoyed it even more than the kids did. They brought a porcupine, a python, some sort of flying squirrel thing, and a hawk. I had never seen a porcupine in real life before and they are surprisingly cute. Also the kids were terrified of it which made me laugh.

Zoo Lady with her Hawk

On Wednesday, for street leader night, we did not play basketball in order to allow the the gym to be used for dodge ball. Playing dodge ball was a lot of fun but I realized a couple things. 1. I am far two competitive to play games with high school kids. 2. Allowing grown men to play dodge ball with soccer balls is a good way for people to go home injured.

Thursday I had to pick 7 of my 8Th graders that would be able to attend the Jr. High all nighter the next night. Jeffry is one of my favorite camp kids and I really wanted him on the all nighter because it would have made it more fun for me. The problem was that he had been a pain in my ass all week and hadn't been doing his homework. It was a tough decision but I decided to leave him out so that more deserving kids could go. He assumed that he was going to be invited to go regardless of his behavior (which has always been the case since he is everyone's favorite) but he understood why he was not invited when I explained it to him. Hopefully the opportunity to be invited to future events will be a good incentive for him to behave in the future.

Hasi being crazy at the all nighter

On Friday night we had our all nighter. 60 Jr. high kids showed up and we loaded them into the buses at 7:30pm and took them roller skating. We were at the roller rink till about 10:15 and by the time we left, my feet felt like they had swelled to about 10 times their usual size.

After skating we loaded the kids back into the buses and took them to the bowling alley. Luckily I bowled well enough in all three games to not lose to any Jr. highers. We bowled until 1 am and then headed back to urban promise for pizza and just hanging out.

After the pizza, the kids were hanging out in the gym and the parking lot. Apparently someone complained about them being too loud because the police came. I went outside and talked to the police and told them we would keep everyone inside. It felt like I was back in college all over again (at least college prepared me for something I guess).

Albert Explaining the Bus Rally

At 4am (after drinking lots and lots of caffeine) we explained the rules of the bus rally and loaded the kids back into the buses. We then sped around the city in two buses racing to different locations to accomplish the tasks of the bus rally. Unfortunately my bus lost. We got back at about 6am had some breakfast and then started taking kids home around 7am.

Some kids couldn't hack it

On Saturday I slept from about 8am till about 11:30am.... I watched some basketball on the TV at urban promise and as I was walking back to my house to make lunch, some of the other interns saw me and invited me to go to Philadelphia with them. I went. They were going to find a coffee shop to use the Internet and write their support letters. We got stuck behind a dump tuck on the street in Philadelphia and I noticed the Michigan/Purdue game playing on ESPN inside a bar. I jumped out of the van and went into the bar. The other interns continued on to their coffee shop. I spent a few hours in the bar watching Michigan lose and then headed to the coffee shop to meet up with the other interns. When I got to the coffee shop they had finished their support letters and we headed to Dirty Franks (the sweet dive bar that we discovered a couple of weeks ago) for a couple drinks and some good conversation. After Dirty Franks, we went home and I went to bed.

On Sunday I woke up late and was lazy all day and just watched football. I was sad to see Brett Farve lose the way he did but that Vikings Saints game was a lot of fun to watch.

Sitting in the bar, watching the Michigan game alongside people who were clearly regulars at that bar, really made me miss having a social life outside of Urban Promise. We are stuck here in this little bubble where our entire lives revolve around Urban Promise and the other people who work here. Camden, being what it is, doesn't provide too many attractive options socially outside of Urban Promise and our internship is very intrusive into our lives. Because our schedules are so busy and always changing, we are expected to inform our intern director of any trips we are going to make or anytime we are going to be more than 20 minutes away from home. This is sort of a transition phase in my life and I know that this is probably not where I am making any sort of long time home (although i don't really know for sure). All of this is really starting to get to me. I love camp and my kids, but the rest of it is really starting to drive me crazy. I am really ready to move onto the next phase of my life. I could use a lot of prayer over the next few weeks/months for the endurance to get through May with my sanity (if i ever had it to begin with).

Drive slow in Virginia (or at least have super nice ex girlfriends)

2010-01-19T07:37:00.000-08:00

Last week was our first week of camp and it went very well. My class was well behaved and there isn't too much to tell about the happenings of the week. It was good to get back into the routine and fun to be playing basketball and just hanging out with everyone again.

Thursday after camp I went left to drive down to Tennessee to visit my ex girlfriend (Samantha) as we had sort of started to rekindle the relationship. It's about an 8 hour drive from Camden to Johnson City Tennessee and at about 11:30 pm (when I was only about 50 miles from Samantha's house) I was pulled over by a county sheriff. Apparently a Virginia state police officer had seen me and called ahead to the county sheriff who was waiting to get me on radar. When the officer pulled me over, he informed me that I was going over 20mph over the speed limit which is a misdemeanor and that California does not honor Virginia's arrest warrants. He informed that this meant that, if he did not arrest me and force me to post bail, I would have no incentive to return for my court date. So the officer arrested me and took my to the station where both the County Sheriff and the State Officer each issued me separate tickets for reckless driving (over 80mph) and then had me taken to county jail where I would have to post 1,500 dollars bail to be released. Of course Samantha, being a college student, did not have the money to bail me out, so my parents had to wire her the money. After a whole fiasco of trying to get the money, she finally got it and then had to meet with a bondsman to get me out of jail. Basically she is an amazing friend (or whatever we are/were) and managed to get me out at around 10am on Friday before I was booked into population (meaning I was in a holding cell by myself the whole time).

Amazing girl who saved me this weekend

Once she picked me up and took me to get my car, we drove back down to her house in Tennessee. She was quite displeased with me to say the least (and understandably so), not for everything she had to go through but more because I was driving so fast and being irresponsible. Because of this she decided that I could only stay until Saturday rather than Monday like originally planned. It was still nice to hang out during the time that I was there and we ended up talking about a lot of stuff that needed to be discussed. In the end we decided that we needed to go back to being just friends for now, for a number of reasons, and I headed back up to Camden.

Relaxing with June, glad to be free

I got back to Camden just in time to go to a concert at a bar in Philadelphia with a couple of the other interns. I enjoyed the show but was exhausted from not sleeping either of two prior nights. We got back from the show around midnight. I slept until early afternoon on Sunday and then spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching football.

Monday I woke up, went to lunch with some friends, and then Chad and I piled about 12 kids into a van and a car (thanks to Jesus (Castro not Christ) who let us barrow his van) and took them to the skate park. Angel, the 8th grader from my class that I gave his first skateboard 3 months ago, is now better than me and is on the skate team with the other kids that are trying to get sponsored. After spending a few hours at the skate park and collecting a sufficient amount of cuts and bruises, we brought the kids back to Urban and hung out and watched all the video Chad had taken of the day. For those of you that have Facebook, Chad will be editing the footage and putting a video up on my Facebook page at some point. There will be lots of footage of me eating it... hard. After the kids went home I watched some Anamaniacs and went to bed early.

Even though my weekend didn't go quite as i had hoped, I am really glad that Samantha and I talked about the things we did and that I was back on Monday to take "team haze" to the skate park. I'm looking forward to an uneventful week of just hanging out with kids and getting back to my normal schedule.

Below is a video the kids put together of themselves skating. I don't think it really does justice to how good they have gotten but enjoy it anyway, If you cant' watch the video, click the link to YouTube below it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKPCsob5JFE

Guess Who's Back

2010-01-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

My Christmas break was incredible and relaxing and it was great to see everyone. I would like to thank all of those that made it a great experience and making it exactly what I needed to return to Camden refreshed and ready to finish out the year.

I've been back in Camden for about a week now. The last week has been filled with meetings, workshops and team building activities, followed by a retreat on the weekend. It was somewhat relaxing and was a nice way to get settled back in.

Flying out of California where it was 78 degrees and into Philly where it was in the teens was definitely not the most enjoyable experience (especially since I wasn't thinking about it when i left and was wearing a jersey). All of the interns who had arrived before me came to pick me up from the airport when I arrived. We then went to get dinner and drinks in Philly which was a lot of fun despite me being absolutely freezing. I got to catch up with everyone and find out about everyone's Christmas break.

The second day I was here, the rest of the interns arrived. A few of my kids heard I was back and came over to say high. I showed everyone my new tattoos and everyone seemed really stoked on the Camden one.

The top of what is now a half sleeve

Camden tattoo before i added the clouds

The next day we got started with the team building activities by going bowling. I bowled a 126 both games (which is exceptional for me) and had a good time catching up with everyone. We then had some meetings and workshops. My favorite workshop of the week was one about literacy. The workshop was great except for one thing. About half way through the workshop she handed out pages from the sports page in the news paper. She did this to illustrate all the ways that we could use something as simple as the sports page to create reading activities for our kids. The problem is that you can't hand me the sports page and then expect me to listen to anything you have to say. What I got out of the first half of the workshop was great... and the second half... well I learned how biased Philadelphia sports writers are towards the Eagles as well as how frustrated they are by the 76er's.

Speaking of the 76er's: One of the activities of the week was attending one of their games. At the game I was lucky enough to sit next to Jessie and Lizzie who are the only two interns who know anything about basketball and would not be annoyed by my giving the biography of every player on the court (which is an impulse that I can't help but act on). Though the Sixer's blew a 20 point lead and were seemingly out of the game as it approached its end, our interest was held by the fact that the crowd would be awarded free big macs if the Sixer's reached 100 points. They then proceeded to go on a scoring drought and fell 3 points shy of buying my dinner.

76er's game

On Friday we had nothing scheduled until we had to leave for our retreat at 6pm, so we headed into Philly to find some entertainment. By searching the Internet I found a suggestion for a dive bar called Dirty Frank's. We got the address and parked near bye. But when we got to where it was supposed to be located, we couldn't find it. I then noticed what looked like and abandoned building on the corner and there was writing the door. The writing said "no one under 21 allowed" so we pulled the handle and it opened revealing one of the coolest little dives I have ever seen. The bar was small but had ample seating and there was jazz music playing on the juke box. It being around lunch time on a Friday, there was only a small crowd and they all seemed to know one another. The drink prices were great and we managed to make some new friends in the short time we were inside.

We then left for our retreat which was at camp Haluwasa. The retreat was for the interns and peer leaders (the high school age managers of the street leaders). The camp was beautiful and had snow on the ground which made it even more so. We had a few activities and lectures that we had to attend. We went ice skating (which i do exceptionally well for some unknown reason) and had a scavenger hunt. My favorite part of the weekend however, was sitting around a table with a couple other interns and a bunch of street leaders, playing a game called "the ungame". The game is just a series of cards that ask questions such as "when was the last time you were embarrassed?" and "what sort of things make you depressed". It really allowed me to get to know many of the people at the table a whole lot better. Interestingly, every one of the street leader's answers to the latter of the above questions was a specific example of a close friend who had seemingly been on the right path but is now in a gang or selling drugs.

Today was the first day back at our after school program and it was great to get back into the swing of things and see all of my kids. The first day of camp went great. We now are doing picture prompts (putting up a picture for the kids to write a story about) for the kids that do not have homework. This is a huge help in keeping the class orderly during homework time. Also, creative writing is something that I have always enjoyed so it was fun to help the kids with their stories. The few kids that didn't have homework wrote some very entertaining stories and my class was extremely well behaved today. One of my favorite kids at my camp is a 5th grader named Quincy who is always freestyle rapping when no one is paying attention (and he's pretty good at it). I purchased Tupac's poetry book, "The Rose That Grew from Concrete", over the break and put it in my classroom. Quincy noticed the book on the shelf and started reading it. He struggled a little at first, as its not exactly 5th grade level reading, so I started reading the poems out loud to him. At the end of the day he didn't want to go home because he wanted to hear more poems. It was cool to see a kid so excited about something that is both artistic and academic.

All of the kids were incredibly excited to inform me of what they got for Christmas. Many of them got skateboards and the parking lot had twice as many kids skating today as it usually does. Angel ,whom I had given a skateboard to, was one of the kids that got a skateboard. I told him that he had to give the skateboard that I had given him to someone else who doesn't have one. He seemed excited about the prospect of being able to do for someone else what I had done for him. Also, one of the kids from the main group that skateboards in our parking lot got a video camera for Christmas. They have been recording themselves skating for the last couple weeks and there are multiple companies that are now interested in sponsoring them (meaning they would get free stuff and get to travel to competitions). I am extremely excited for them.

Gio: age 16, Incredibly talented skater

soon to be sponsored skate team

All in all it feels great to be back in Camden and back in the swing of thing. I love it here and can't wait to have an incredible semester.

"Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk with out having feet. Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared." -Tupac Shakur

Bruce Main and Tupac Shakur

2009-12-21T16:29:00.000-08:00

Since I am currently back in southern California for a couple weeks, I don't have much to write about. For those that rely on this blog for some sort of weekly entertainment I decided to post a few videos.

This first video is from the Urban Promise Banquet last year. Bruce Main talks a little bit about what it is that we do in Camden. I know almost all of the people in this video and there is one scene with Garret Poper who is my friend from APU that encouraged me to go to Camden.

These next two video's are from the Documentary "The Poet of Poverty" which is a documentary about Father Michael Doyle. Father Doyle is the priest at Sacred Heart Church in Camden. I have done some work with Sacred Heart during my time in Camden. Father Doyle has been in Camden for over 40 years and has an incredible story. And yes that is the voice of Martin Sheen.

This last video is an interview with Tupac Amaru Shakur (2pac) during the Christmas season, which I thought was fitting. He has some interesting things to say about poverty and the inner city. This interview was conducted when he was just 21 years old. There is a great little moment at the end where he calls you out.... "YOU need to do something!". I love it.

Hope you enjoyed the videos. I'll get back to posting actual material in a couple of weeks.

I suck at tag

2009-12-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I went to New York with a handful of other people. We didn't do a whole lot there but it snowed which was cool for me since I hadn't had any snow here yet. The one memorable part of the trip (other than the snow and the splendid company) was a burger place that someone here at urban had recommended. It was called the burger joint and it was in this posh hotel that no one would ever expect to house a establishment of this sort. In the very back corner of the lobby of this hotel one finds a door with a sign above it that reads: Burger Joint. Entering through this door is like entering another world. All of a sudden there is the chatter and laughter that one would here in a crowded dive bar. All of the walls are scribed with the names and drawings of every former customer who happened to have a pen in their pocket. The menu consists of 1/2 pound burgers and pitchers of Sam Adams. For someone who isn't overly keen on the "Manhattan scene", this is definitely a hidden gem that needs to be checked out. We of course got a pitcher and some burgers and they were both absolutely delicious. Now that my little restaurant review is out of the way, on to the rest of my week.

This week camp went really well and I was able to get all of my kids to do their homework during the time designated for them to do homework, which was something that I needed to focus on. On Tuesday I took a group of kids to McDonald's after camp and on the drive home I saw yet another homicide crime scene. The kids don't even act as if its a big deal. They point it out casually as if its just a fender bender on the side of the highway. I asked them to pray for the family of whoever it was that was killed. When we pulled up to on of my kid's (Jeffrey's) house, I jerked my wheel and pulled my emergency brake sliding to a stop in the middle of the street. When Jeffrey got out laughing, I noticed that his neighbor was outside and that she spoke with Jeffrey before he went in. The next day I asked Jeffrey what his neighbor had said (assuming it was something along the lines of "why is that guy driving like an asshole on my street?"). He told me that she just asked why he was in the car with a white guy. He told her I worked for urban promise and she was satisfied and went back inside.

Tarre doing homework

On Thursday's we do what we call cell groups in our classes. This is where we plan some sort of lesson and talk to our kids about God. This week I decided to tell my kids a little bit about my life story and allow them to ask me questions. At first most of the questions were about what drugs I've done, what I've been arrested for, and the like, but after those were out of the way they started coming with the good ones. They asked a lot of questions like, "What made you decided to stop doing drugs and Why did you stop doing bad things". The one topic that we ended up spending a lot of time on was, "Why would you quit a job where you made decent money to come work here?" They had a lot of trouble understanding why I would do that and absolutely refused to believe me when I told them that money doesn't make you happy. Many of the good questions I was able to answer came from the street leaders (high school age workers) instead of my camp kids. The street leaders are really the age that I enjoy working with the most and it is because they are really able to connect with my experience. The issues that I've dealt with are far more relatable to the older kids. I feel like the class went really well and all of the kids got something out of it.

On Friday I went down to Harrisburg PA to hang out with a girl who goes to Messiah College that I've been talking to quite a bit. There was actually snow on the ground there which was awesome for me since I haven't really had that since coming out here (or really ever outside of the mountains). We went to dinner and then out for a few drinks and I stayed in a hotel room which meant I got to sleep in a king size bed for a night rather than my little lumpy twin that I don't even fit in (I also got to watch sports center which I often fiend for since I don't have cable here).

Saturday I drove back to Camden and took Jeffrey and Eman (one of the street leaders) to the mall in Cherry Hill. I then went to a dinner for the street leaders and afterwards three other interns and I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Atlantic City. We arrived in Atlantic City at around 10pm. I was rather unimpressed with the city and its casinos but it is pretty bad ass that it is literally on the beach. The other interns decided it would be fun to play tag in the casino. At some point I was tagged and didn't immediately find someone else to tag so I went up to the bar, ordered a beer, and played some video poker while watching the Purdue Alabama game. This allowed me to enjoy myself while all the others got to believe that they were doing a tremendous job of hiding from me. When they did find me out however, they weren't overly happy. We headed back to Camden after a short stroll on the beach and got to bed in time to get a few hours of sleep before having to get up this morning.

Ceasar Agustus gettin in the holliday spirit in AC

This morning we got up at 7:30am and picked up about 20 kids from each after school program and took them to the Dollar Tree for a shopping spree. Each kid got ten items for their families and then we brought them back to Urban to wrap the gifts and eat pizza. After pizza, Santa came and gave all of the kids presents. It was a ton of fun helping the kids pick out gifts at the dollar store and it was definitely worth getting almost no sleep.

Me, Tarre and Angel after the shopping spree

About a month ago my mom sent me out the two skateboards that I had left in her garage. I gave one of them to one of my 8th graders (Angel) and told him that alot of other kids wanted it so he better use it often. Today I saw him with the skateboard and it was so torn up you couldn't even tell it was the same board. I said it looks like he'd been getting alot of use out of it and he said, "You told me I had to, I use it everyday". It really made me happy to see that he had been getting so much use out of it. Also some of the older kids that skateboard in the parking lot at Urban have told me that skateboarding everyday is one of the main things that keeps them from selling drugs so it is good to know that Angel now has that same activity to keep his attention.

Also the statistics from 2008 cam out and Camden NJ was ranked as the most dangerous city in the United States. This is sad news but I thought I provide the link if anyone wants to read the article. So here it is..... http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20091124/NEWS01/911240338/-1/towns04/Report-ranks-Camden-most-dangerous-U.S.-city

2009-12-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

Last week we had Thanksgiving dinners for all of our afterschool programs (all 5 of them) which was alot of fun but actually made me sick of turkey by the last day. On Tuesday night my parents flew in and on Wed. morning we headed up to the Poconos for Thanksgiving. As soon as we got there they started feeding us and didn't stop untill we left on Sunday. I literally don't think I went more than a half hour without eating for the entire weekend. Joey, Diana, Brett and Brandon all flew out as well. It was great to see them and really fun to hang out with the east coast side of my family.

My parents decided to fly out Sunday instead of Monday which worked out well because I had a date planned for Sunday night. I took my parents to get cheese steaks at Geno's in Philly and then dropped them off at the airport. I went to Cheesecake factory on my date which was awsome because I hadn't eaten there since moving (and when I am home my family eats there at least once a month). After my date I went back to the house and hung out with all the other interns and to my suprise I was actually really glad to be back. On tuesday night all the interns did kareoke and it was rediculously funny. Of course I can't sing so I just did rap songs which tended to be far more inapropriate than the others... which i guess kind of suites me.

My roomate and teaching partner for my class moved back to St. Louis last week so this has been the first week that I have had my 8th greaters to myself. It's gone really well so far. One of my kids did get suspended for getting in a fight with a 5th grader which was a little disapointing.

Yesterday, we had our devotional time in the morning and all of the interns went around and prayed for each other. It was pretty intence and it was crazy to hear the things people were praying about for me. It was alot of stuff that I have been really struggling with but haven't even talked to anyone about. It was things like what I am going to do after the intership and stuff that I am still dealing with from the past. It was shocking. It is really nice to be back into the swing of things and have all the crazyness from the past couple of months behind me. Our schedule gets a little less intence from here on out so I am really looking forward to that.

Reality

2009-11-20T06:10:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I flew to San Fransisco to take a test for a job as a probation counselor in the bay area. It would be my dream job so anyone who wants to pray for me for that feel free. On Monday and Tuesday this week we had a fundraiser at Chick Fillet. I spent most of my time there on both days, either taking kids to eat (as we got part of the profits for our spring break trip this year) or standing in the back encouraging people to donate to Urban Promise. This all came quite natuarally to me having been in sales. On Monday I had a conversation with a friend that had me feeling pretty shitty. No one noticed that I was having a bad day (as I wouldn't expect or want them to) untill I picked up some of my kids to take them to Chick Fillet. One of them immediately asked me what was wrong. I explained the situation to him on the way to Chick Fillet and then really had my spirits lifted just by hanging out with my kids and having fun with them. It really made me start to think about how I get just as much and learn just as much from these kids as they do me.

Eman making a stupid face to cheer me up

This last week or so, the reality of what these kids go through living in Camden has become increasingly apparent to me and it makes me sad. At the same time it makes me realize even more how important it is that we are here. On the way home from our Chick Fillet fundraiser one of my 8th graders got a call from his cousin who had just gotten out of jail. He was so excited that his voice was squeeking on the phone. It was kind of cute. I asked Tarre if his cousin had been in jail or prison and then had to explain to him the difference between the two. When he informed me that it was infact prison, another one of my 8th graders proceeded to tell me that his father and both of his older brothers are all in prison. That essentially means that every influencial male figure in his life outside of Urban Promise is in prison. I cant even imagine what that would be like. These are such great kids and you'd never suspect the things that they have gone through or are going through at home.

Jeffrey explaining something to Suzie

I also had a good conversation with my Site Director this week. He grew up in North Camden and has been involved in Urban Promise since he was a small child. He then went to Eastern University, and after graduation, came back to work for Urban. This is really the model we need to strive for. We need to instill in these kids the value of helping their own community. Its great to provide an environment that allows kids an opportunity to "get out", but it's not enough. My director is a prime example of how much this city can change (and is changing) if we are working ourselves out of jobs here and being replaced by people who are actually from here. He also explained to me how traumatic his childhood was. It's to the point where he can't even talk about alot of stuff. He did tell me, however, that he whitnessed his first murder at 6 years old.

Our director playin with the kids

On Wednesday of this week, my house was broken into and my laptop and ipod were stolen. It's just stuff and not a big deal but its the second time someone has broken into our house while no one was home (no one being home for an extended long period of time is rare). This probably means that someone has been watching our house to see when we all leave. They changed our locks and took some steps to make our house a little more secure so hopefully that helps. One good thing did come of the theft however. I told one of the high school kids that skateboards in our parking lot about it and it led to a really good conversation with him. He basically unloaded his life story on me. I am not even comfortable relaying most of the things we talked about on the internet but this kid is 16 years old and he's been through inconcievable things, including being shot in the leg. At one point he stopped in the middle of his story and said "Man, its so nice to finally have someone I can talk to about this stuff". At that moment I was thankful that my stuff had been stolen because it provided the opportunity for me to connect with someone who needed that.

A man got shot on the corner of my street Wednesday night and it's things like that that make you realize how much these kids see and go through on a daily basis. These are such great kids and it's incredible to see how well they handle their situation.

Angel (one of my 8th graders)

Some of you probably have recieved my news letter by now, along with the letter from Bruce Main about donating to the ministry. Please don't feel like, because I sent you the letter, that I expect you to donate money. My mom informed me that some people who have been reading my blog have asked her if there is something that they can do for me. I am glad to provide those who WANT to give with the opportunity to do so, but I would never want those who don't want to give to feel pressured to. I will continue to send a news letter once a month. If you recieved it and don't want to recieve anymore, just let me know. Also if you would like to be added to that mailing list you can give me your adress and I would be happy to do that.

I'm shipping up to Bostonia

2009-11-09T11:29:00.000-08:00

Friday night after the Urban Promise Summit ended here in Camden, Jessie, Mike, Charlotte and I jumped in a car and headed for Boston. On the drive, we all took turns asking questions and making everyone in the car answer them honestly. It was quite interesting and made for the quickest 6 hour drive I have ever been on. When we arrived in Boston on Friday night, Jessie had to visit some friends so the rest of us decided to head into the first bar we saw and try to finagle a place to stay for the night. We sat at the bar and ordered drinks. After about ten minutes two guys sat down at the bar next to me and I struck up a conversation about what there is to do in Boston. The first guy, Pete, was a distributor for Miller/Coors and had a ton of advice for us about what to do and where to eat (he also bought all of our drinks for us on his Miller/Coors credit card). Mike wrote down Pete's suggestions on his hand so that we would not forget them. At some point we got to talking about where we might be able to find a cheap place to stay and the second guy, Kyle, blurts out, "Fuck it, you guys can just crash on my couches if you pay for my cab ride home". We couldn't have asked for a better scenario. Soon after this, after Pete had left, I saw that Kyle was talking to a couple of young women. Not wanting him to forget about us and leave, I walked over and joined their conversation. I convinced them that Kyle is the greatest guy on the planet for letting us stay at his house. I also tell them about what we do in Camden and they dub me Missionary Matt. I made sure that Kyle got a kiss from each of the ladies before they left and that we made it back to Kyles house with him.

Once we arrived at Kyles house, we played some ping pong before he decided to show us all of his cooking utensils (in his bedroom and not the kitchen), about which he was obviously quite passionate. He showed us some of his knives and his special potato masher. He then stops and informs us that he is about to show us the best cooking item he owns. He proceeds to reach into the drawer and pulls out a turkey baster... not any special turkey baster...the turkey baster that every single one of you has in your kitchen. He then proceeds to explain to us how a turkey baster is used as if none of us had ever heard of such a thing before in our lives. He was entirely sincere and it was rather surreal. At this point I informed Kyle that I needed to go to bed. Mike, Charlotte and I went to sleep on the couches in Kyle's living room.

Mike playing ping pong at Kyles

The next morning we got up and walked to the train station to take the Orangeline back into the city. We found a little farmers market and stopped for breakfast on the way. We got off the train in Boston and walked through little Itally where we got some coffee. We saw a big ass statue of Paul Revere, walked some more and saw some more touristy landmarks, and accidentally planned our walk on a map from 1852. . We then decided that the north end of Boston was a bit too touristy and headed to the south end. We soon found a little pub called JJ Foleys where we were able to get clam chowder, half a sandwich, and salad for 7 dollars. I was great. Our waitress had virtually the exact same tattoo on the top of her back as Samantha which freaked me out a little for some reason, but she was also possibly my favorite person from the entire weekend. We then ordered Irish Coffees which, combined with our lack of sleep, put us all in a sort of haze for the next several hours.

We walked in our haze to a gigantic, incredible church where we spent some time before heading to Starbucks to find wifi so that Mike could use his computer. After a couple hours at starbucks we were finally awake again and headed back toward the north end of Boston. As we were looking for some place that the waitress from earlier had recommended we go for dinner, we stumbled upon one of the restaurants Pete had recommended called Beantown Pub. Mike consulted his hand to make sure it was the right place and then we went in for dinner. We ordered boston baked beans and the steak tips that Pete had recommended. They were good not great and we had a horrible shrew of a waitress (the one and only unpleasant person we experienced in all of Boston). We then headed to another bar near the one where we started our weekend. We watched some ridiculous, over the hill cover band named Deizel and then Jessie picked us up.

Saturday night we stayed at some huge house that Jessie used to live at and is owned by the Salvation Army (the New Kids on the Block also used to live there). We had breakfast in the morning and then headed to Harvard Square. It was a beautiful day. We had a pitcher at a bar. Mike slipped on a rock and fell in the river. We sat and listened to a guy play guitar at a park. We ate dinner on the patio at Charlies Beer Garden and then headed south to Rhode Island.

We went to Rhode Island because Mike had never been there and wanted to say that he had. For him to be able to make this claim, something out of the ordinary had to occur there. When we got to Providence we walked around a little and then found a bar where Mike convinced the bartender (who happened to be a hot brunette) to give me a free shot and let us keep the shot glass. She took a shot with me and then informed us that there was a beach somewhat nearby that we should check out. She lied. The beach was not nearby. We went anyway. It was about an hour out of our way but it was an enjoyable experience. We all peed off the jetty into the Chesapeake Bay and then headed back to Camden. All in all, it was an incredible weekend and just the vacation that I needed.

From Prison to Messiah

2009-11-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

Chris Skating in Bretts Shoes (thanks brett)

I have been so busy that I have not been able to get to my computer since my last post. I apologize for the longer intermission. Last Wednesday we took our 8th graders to a haunted house at Eastern State Penitentiary. It was basically on par with Knott's Scary farm but it was fun to watch all my kids get scared and I wore my Halloween costume which the kids got a kick out of.

My Halloween Costume

Last thursday we had a Harvest Festival for the kids and that was blast. I ran the booth with the plinko and there was one little asian kid that spent his entire day at my booth. He would play and then walk directly to the back of the line. After the carnival we had a raffle in which we gave out tons of prizes to tons of kids. It was alot of fun.

Kid that spent his day at my booth (sad cuz he lost)

Hosting Plinko

Last Friday we loaded up busses with all of our 3rd-5th graders and headed for hershey park. Thankfully I got to ride in the van with other interns and not in the bus with 100 little kids. We arrived at Hershey Park and I was assigned two 5th grade boys to follow around for the day. The kids had a blast and I did as well. When we first arrived they were telling me how scared they were and I told them that that makes it more fun because it gets your adrenaline going. At one point after a rollercoaster, Quincy looked at me and said, "I don't know what my adrenaline is, but I sure like it".

After hershey parked we took the kids to a nearby hotel and checked everyone in (the staff must have hated us). We then proceeded to take all of the kids to the indoor pool at the hotel which of course sent the people previously in the pool running for their lives. After we swam for a couple hours we returned to our rooms and went to bed.

5th grader doin back flips

The next day we headed to Messiah College, where these poor college students were assigned groups of our kids to take on a scavenger hunt. I was assigned to wait at some bridge for kids to arrive there as a part of the scavenger hunt. When I saw the first group arriving, I couldn't help but laugh at the group of kids that this poor girl had. She had somehow chosen to take the most difficult kids we have all in one group. I could tell that there was a far greater need for me with this group than at the stupid bridge so I spent the rest of my day tagging along with this group and making sure they didn't eat this poor girl alive.

5th grade boys at Messiah

We returned home from Messiah on Sunday night and had camp Monday through Wed of this week. We then had the Urban Promise Summit in which the staff from Urban Promise Locations all over the world come to Camden and we have guest speakers and workshops and all sorts of fun. The summit took place on Thursday and Friday. The speakers that I remember best were Duffy Robbins and Brian McClaren. McClaren was amazing.

After the summit on Friday I hopped in a car with 3 other interns and headed to Boston. Our weekend in Boston was absolutely rediculous and requires its own post..... Boston Post Coming Soon........

Musings from the Coolest White Person You've Ever Met

2009-10-29T14:49:00.000-07:00

On friday I went to Ocean City with a bunch of other interns and swam in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in my life. It was God damn cold. Saturday we went to New York City. We ate at Dallas BBQ, saw the typical sights, and then a few of us went to a comedy show at the Comic Strip and saw some pretty funny comedians. It was alot of fun except for the fact that there was a two drink minimum at the comedy club and drinks were 13 dollars. It was really nice to get some time in with other interns in a more casual environment. It's starting to feel much more like I have friends here rather than just co-workers.

On monday we had program and hung out with kids afterward and it was a pretty typical day. Later monday night, I was sitting on my porch, listening to music, being all pensive and melodramatic about somthing, when a guy walked up and introduced himself. He asked if Chad (another intern) was home and he was so I retrieved him. Chad and I sat on the porch and talked to this man, as chad had clearly done before, for a couple of hours. As it turns out, this guy is a minister at a local church. He is gay. He has not told his congregation about this little detail of his personal life but for some reason he feels comfotable being open about it with us. He is more passionate about the Lord than possibly any other person I've ever met. I am very glad to have met him and feel blessed to have heard what he had to say during the conversations that we had. It was raining so we gave him a ride home and told him to stop bye our house anytime.

On tuesday we had program like every other day and afterwards another intern, named jordan, and I took 3 kids to a restraunt in Collingswood for dinner. The three 8th grade boys that we brought were the only non-white people in the restraunt. Once we were seated, everyone in the restraunt seemed to be staring at us. I joked that they must have thought that me and Jordan were gay and that the 3 boys were our adopted children, but I very much doubt that was the real reason. It was kind of a shock for me. At one point during dinner, one of the kids leaned in and wispered "no offence, but you two are the coolest white people I have ever met". We took no offence. The kids also said that we were the coolest interns they've ever had and begged us to stay in Camden past the end of the year. It's going to be hard for me to leave these kids at the end of May. As we were walking to the car after dinner one of our kids (the one that is constantly giving us trouble but we love him) showed us that he had taken the silverware from the restraunt to be funny. We told him that it wasn't funny and he needed to put them back. He then started throwing up because he had eaten too much. Jordan said "thats karma for stealing" and then took the silverware back into the restraunt. About 5 minutes later in the car the kid asked, "So Jesus made me throw up?". We laughed histarically.

Last night we took all the 7th and 8th graders to a haunted house at the Eastern State Pennitentiary. It was fun. I wore my holloween costume (a dress and a wig) and the kids really got a kick out of it. Today the intern who usually takes the 5th grade class was sick and I sub'd for her class. It made me really apreciate my 8th graders. I'm not too fond of the younger kids. I even had a fight in my class. I sent the kids to our camp director and they both got suspended. One of the kids mothers came in and was ripping our director a new asshole when I walked up. Being that I have quite a bit of experience in management, I am accustomed to handling complaints and irrate people. I was able to help diffuse the situation and the mother left relatively happy.

Over the last week or so alot of the high school age kids have seemed to get more comfortable with me and they have opened up to me about life in this city. This week is initiation for Bloods in Camden. Alot of the high school kids have been telling me which gang their families are members of and that they have to resist pressure from their families to join these gangs. Can you even fathom what that must be like?!... the answer is no, you can't... and I can't either. These kids parents, the people that are supposed to be protecting them and guiding their decisions in a possitive way, are the ones pressuring them to join a gang. It has really made me realize how important what we are doing here is. Urban Promise Ministries does amazing things for this city and I feel so blessed that I am able to be the possitive adult influnce in some of these kids lives.... Holy shit!... who would have ever thought that I, Matt Williams, would ever be a possitive adult influence? It still sounds strange to say.

Brett gave my mom a few pairs of shoes to give to the skater kids that sakte in our parking lot. I got the box of shoes and other stuff that my mom sent yesterday. The kids were incredibly excited and thankful for the skate shoes. It was so much fun to give them to them.

5th graders doing homework

Jeffry(possibly my favorite 8th grader) making a stupid face

Eman wearing Bretts shoes

Cheese Steaks

2009-10-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a long week. I last blogged on friday when I was still sick. On Saturday I slept untill 3pm and was finally feeling better. I awoke to a phone call from James and Michelle Shaddy, informing me that they were on the East Coast and wanted to come see me. They showed up in Camden around 7pm and we headed into Philly to get some cheese steaks, which was something I was still yet to do since moving here. We went to Ishkabibble's on a recomendation from my friend Garret. We arrived in Philly and it was pouring rain. The parking situation looked hopeless, untill out of no where some crack head was standing in the middle of the street directing me into an open parking spot. The man asked for a 5 for finding me the spot and considering that the parking structures were charging 18, I saw it fitting to give him what I had on me (which was 2$). We walked to Ishkabibbles and ordered our cheese steaks. Because it was raining outside, there were no open seats inside of Ishkabibbles. James and I hovered over a group of people for a minute untill they felt uncomfortable and got up (James is 6'5'' and 300lbs for those who dont know him). We were then able to sit and eat our cheese steaks which were every bit as amazing as we could have ever hoped. We then went to Fridays and had a few beers. It was incredibly nice to just sit and have a drink with people who know me inside and out and just truly relax with my friends.

On sunday all of the interns were asked to sing in a Presbyterian church that supports Urban Promise. Considering that I have never sang for anyone who didn't just happen to walk in on me in the shower, It was a interesting experience for me. The nice, old (and apparantly near deaf) people at the church said we sounded great.

We only had two days of program this week because we had to prepare for the Urban Promise Banquet. The banquet is a meal and a show that Urban puts on every year for major donors in hopes of recieving funds. It is heald in the Ballroom in Collinswood. It was one of the coolest buildings I had ever been in. There is a baquet hall on the bottom floor and on the very top floor there is a huge theater. On Wed. we went to set up the stage. As we began to decorate the stage, I think they quickly realized the depth of my artistic ability becuase I was swiftly put in charge of raising and lowering the beems over the stage so that backdrops and courtains and things could be hung. In doing so I earned myself a part in the show (standing on the balcony above the stage pulling ropes to lower curtains and backdrops when neccisary). I was supprised to see how much preparation and detail goes into putting something like that on. The show was incredibly moving. The goal for the night was to raise 150,000 dollars so hopefully the people in the audience were as moved as I was.

James and Michelle at Fridays

My work space for the show

Moochie and Kareem (the kid that interviewed Diane Sawyer)

Week 1

2009-10-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

So I have been here for over a week now and have gotten into the full swing of things. I had my first full week of the after school program this week. It seemed to go well. Apparantly my class is known for being pretty wild but they must still be scared of me cuz they have been pretty good. I'm sure that will change quickly. All of the other interns here are really cool but I definately miss my friends back in Cali. Plus it is god damn cold here now and its raining. I'm told that the mountains aren't even getting snow yet cuz they aren't high enough elevation. Rain that is not working towards making the mountains ready for snowboarding just seems like a giant waste.
They keep us rediculously busy here. We are pretty much booked from 9am to 9pm everyday between comunity service and the after school programs and meetings and what not and their are required events on most weekends as well. I have, however, gotten to play a ton of basketball which has been fun.

On Wed night about 8 other interns and I drove into Philidelphia to see a band called Hey Ocean at some bar. So of course as soon as we walked in I left the group, going streight to the bar, and got a beer. Seeing as how, as interns, we aren't supposed to drink ,I assumed I would be silently judged by the mojority of the other interns. But when I cought back up with the rest of the group, everyone had gotten drinks. It was nice to get out of the little area of Camden where we spend the majority of our time and get a few drinks. The band was rediculously good.

With the exeption of two kids from my 8th grade class, the kids that we took to the skate park last weekend were high school kids who have never been involved with urban promise. They just skateboard in the parking lot everyday. Yesterday, one of these kids came into Urban and asked about volenteering with the jr. high and elementary school kids. I thought that was really cool that we impacted him enough to where he wanted to help out. The last two days I have been getting sick and I feel like hell at the moment so I am going to end this here. Thanks to everyone who has been texting me or facebooking me everyday to see how things are going. Peace.

Sore As Hell

2009-10-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

I arived in Camden on Thursday and was thrown into the fire imediately. I got here at about 2pm, was shown where I would be living, introduced to my roomates and then had my first day of the after school program at 3. The first day went pretty well. I am going to be taking over the 8th grade class for an intern who is leaving. The class seemed pretty fun and by the end of the first day they had learned my name and had stopped calling me "tattoos" or "muscles". I also was able to play basketball for about an hour against some random guy from the neighborhood who wondered into the gym after program (program is short for after school program incase you are half retarded and couldn't pick up on that). He won 11 to 10 on a pretty nice pull up jumper but i'll get him next time. Yesterday the entire Urban Promise staff took a tour of Camden. This city is pretty rediculous and really run down. Buce Main (founder of urban) sat next to me on the bus and I was able to chat with him a bit. He seems like a really amazing guy and it turns out he is an APU graduate. My roomates seem chill so far. A couple of the other guys in the house and I have gotten cigars and smoked out on our porch the last couple nights which has been nice. The kids here are so much fun and aparantly are extremely fond of batman because i've had someone pioint at my tattoo and say, "Is that the joker?... man, thats live!" about four times a day since I got here. Today two other interns and I packed two cars full of kids (8th-10th graders) and headed to a skate park that is under an overpass in Philidelphia. The kids were pretty awsome skaters. Most of them are far better than I have EVER been. They do, however, now all think that I am crazy because I have absolutely no regard for my health/safety and was trying things that they wouldn't dream of trying. Needless to say, I have bruises everywhere and am going to be extremely sore tomorrow. At one point I dropped into the 6 foot half pipe from a ledge that was two feet above the top and I fell in the middle slamming my shoulder into the opposite wall of the half pipe. I have a feeling my shoulder will be sore for at least a week. After the skatepark we took the kids to a church youthgroup service in Cherry Hill which is near bye city that is quite a bit nicer than Camden. We pulled up in our two cars, blasting System of a Down and Atreyu, banging our heads and going crazy. All the suburban chruch kids thought we were insane. We skated in their parking lot for a while, sat throught the service, went to Mcdonalds and bought the kids dinner, and then dropped em off at their houses. After that I sat down at my computer and wrote this blog... You are now all up to date. It's going to be a crazy, intence, difficult, amazing 8 months.

Philly Skate Park

Our kids skating

My House.

After School Program

Nothing to Say Just Yet

2009-09-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

I am leaving in 3 days to drive to New Jersey for an internship with Urban Promise (http://www.urbanpromiseusa.org). I will be working with inner city kids there untill the end of May. This is going to be a drastic change in lifestyle for me and hopefully a life changing experience. Because of this, a friend ecouraged me to start a blog (thanks lindsey). The decision to pack up my life and leave for something fairly unkown did not come easy to me. My cousin threw me a going away party that was soon dubbed the "Matt's a tricky duechebag party" when I wavered in my decision and he didn't want to call off the party. After much thought and prayer I then changed my mind once again and it returned to being the "Matt's going away party." The party was incredible and made me realize what amazing friends I am leaving behind for these 8 months. In the end I felt like this was the right decision for me and I am incredibly excited to attempt to impact the lives of the kids in Camden New Jersey. I don't really have much to say yet since I havent even left but this is going to be a place where I can attempt to keep everyone updated on my life in Camden. I promise that I will try to make these posts more entertaining in the future for those of you who only kind of give a shit.

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."