SUNDAY FARMERS MARKET:
Cesar went with me to the Farmers' Market this am. Kept saying he wasn't hungry, but I'm glad to say he had a cheddar brat with me for breakfast. Saw Kenchi's uncle when I picked up egg rolls and passed on a greeting from the neighborhood.We purchased several phlox and a couple other plants...I keep saying 'these are the last flowers'. Yesterday morning when I went out to plant bulbs that Jill had left, Mario and Cesar were right there to help. Also, we found a beautiful jar of honey with honeycomb...mmmm. I took a piece of the honeycomb and gave Cesar the jar to take home. He told how, in Mexico, he helped to smoke the bees to remove honeycomb, and how large it was. This young man has so many stories of his life in Mexico and his travels here and back. He and others, like Abigail have seen and experienced so much. Their stories could enrich our lives greatly.
SPNN KIDS VIDEO PROJECT:
Friday night, Mary Pumphreys and her son, Augie, came over to show us a preview of the Kids Neighborhood Video project. We had a small group Friday - not many kids around, for whatever reason. We showed the video twice...the first group had several adults who knew many places, but the second group, too - recognized and enjoyed seeing the bakery and several houses they recognized, with he little histories.
LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR ME:
Movies and projects such as this on the porch/yard, have been a learning experience in the attention span of various kids, and what movies appeal to them. It's certainly not as easy as taking six white, USA-reared children with same cultural background and similar experience and seeing an almost one-size fits all project through. Here we have varying degrees of comprehension and language skills, extreme differences in attention span and learning. If this is even a small indicator of what our elementary teachers face in their classrooms, they indeed face a tremendous challenge!
BIKES FOR KIDS:
Lara, by chance, met a neighborhood man who rebuilds bicycles that he finds broken and abandoned in the streets. She's been able to provide many of her neighbors with bikes. I called him yesterday and will connect with him again today. Cesar said about ten kids can use bikes. We'll pay for what we can. The man doesn't charge much, and I think the kids will appreciate them more it they can pay something.
I'll stop at Target on the way home to see what locks and cables cost. Too broke right now to do much until Friday.
IS SESAME STREET SURREAL?
In the last three weeks:
On the 19th, I came home early one day to find a mini-van partially blocking my drive, and parked about three feet from the curb. Long story short, young man was passed out behind the steering wheel, female passenger on cell phone; said car trouble/didn't need my help, said both had just moved here and were tired. I called non-emergency to have squad check on car. They quickly connected me to ambulance squad when I told her about driver. While I was on this call, the passenger finally aroused the driver and they switched positions before police arrived. Driver taken away in ambulance, police (three squads and canine unit) did thorough search of bags, passenger, vehicle (about 2 and a half hours).
The following Thursday when I got home, neighbors and kids told me of two groups who clashed. One group came into our block with bats, took one or two porch spindles from a neighbor's house, three shepherd plant hooks, and a brick from several neighbors. Neighbors said it was a 'ten on ten' and one person was taken in by police. A police report I later received from Ellen B. stated fewer people were actually involved (though all neighbors did say 'ten on ten'), and more people were cited. A windshield and window from one car were smashed. When I arrived home, there was glass on Bates at Fourth, and two of the three planters across the street were neatly sitting where they once had hung by the shepherds hooks I had put out for neighbors last year.
Later that day, one neighbor found the brick, another found the spindle/s and another the shepherd hooks and replaced them. I then replaced the flowers and exchanged them for fresh flowers as they had dried and seemed a bit ragged.
The funny part of all this is that when Kate, who had been away all week, came home, all was in order and no one would have guessed of our little melee.
Then last week, one block down, Lara experienced an episode of a person claiming to have a gun, yelling for all the kids to go behind the house, police appearing and staying only briefly (minute or two), and then a few hours later, Lara was in front, mending a child's scraped knee...police came by...all was peaceful, as if nothing had ever disturbed the relative quiet.
Yesterday Cesar told me that this past Thursday two people, with a gun, were at Fifth and Bates, looking for the daughter of a Fifth St. resident. No other info on it, except the daughter, apparently, has a history of getting into trouble. Larry never said a thing...that's how ordinary these occurences are in the neighborhood. The kids don't seem at all phased by these, though I know they are, from asking Cesar and Jose how they handle them.
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