Something strange happens whenever discover my next project. Being away from campus and my other Americorps friends I sometimes make the mistake of forgetting I’m part of this massive organization. I start to think that I work for the site sponsor, but whenever I learn of my next project it kind of sucks be back to reality in a way. All in all, even with the frustrations of this project, the traffic, the out of control kids, my initial disappointment, I have been enjoying this project and I will miss many things about it, especially the kids. They are good kids and I have a lot of fun with them. Last week we started making cards for some of the VISTA staff that are leaving. The kids did not seem to be to upset until they remembered that we would also be leaving at the end of the summer program. I guess we all have the ability to fall into routine and forget to stop and appreciate the things we enjoy. It is a lot easier to acknowledge the frustrations, then it is to appreciate the rewards.
What else can I share? On a less serious note last week was sprinkled with high jinks and highlights. I’ve heard some real interesting stories and had be given some really bizarre things during our Friday cleaning sessions, like the sweet lady who thought I looked like Jesus and the woman who sent us home with gigantic pine cones, but on Friday, we ran into what I’d say is the most interesting crew during our senior cleaning. There were four of us at that site and when we went down to eat there was an enormous amount of food. The seniors not only love to cook for us, but the ones that do take great pleasure in watching in the act of eating there food and ask us if we like it and if we want more, over and over again. There were also two boisterous Jewish residents, one man and one woman who put on a show for everyone. The man would say something outrageous and the lady would yell at him for all his nonsense. It was very charming. Peggy, the lady, was very nice and invited me to go to synagogue with her before I leave town. Before we left the building, we were forced to pack up all the leftovers, which where 2 shopping bags full to take back home. We didn’t have any complaints about this, actually it spurred a conversation of what else can we give them before we left, which ended up being a bread maker from the kitchen which they said they would never use and a kitchen juice dispenser that they were going to throw away. They even wanted to give us their organ. We definitely made out like bandits.
During the weekend, we went to the art car parade, a street parade of individually customized art cars. That was pretty redundant. Anyway, the event was really cool. My favorite cars were one that looked like a turtle and one that was a living room couch. Not kidding, the thing was a couch. On the way back to the van I spotted a jewel of a dumpster that was overflowing with goods. Since being in Minneapolis, we’ve heard a lot about dumpster diving, the act of taking things from someone’s dumpster for your own personal use. I don’t know what Minneapolis’ connection is with it, but everyone seems to talk about or on occasion partaken in dumpster diving. Not fully convinced I should be poking around it someone else’s trash I continued back to the van. Once there, my friend Gabe convinced me that we needed to go back. I’m glad we did. Seeing it for a second time, I realized the true magnitude of such a find. Somebody must have been evicted or something. It was like one day somebody decided to throw away all their possessions. Half archeologist, half garbage man I started to sift through some of the stuff on the top. Bags and bags of stuff. We found a CD burner in its box, a jump rope, a imitation swiffer the loveable broom slash mop like cleaning device, some interesting books and behold, a paper shredder. I can go on and on about the stuff we saw that we did and didn’t keep. We did make really good use of the lovable swiffer. It was amazing. We even had someone invade our turf, one guy walking down the street joined us in digging through the dumpster. Most of the time people would just walk by, smile, say something like “dumpster diving eh?” smile, and continue on their way. I was slightly weirder out by how socially acceptable this all felt. It was a lot of fun, until you work your way towards the bottom. The more we dug, the worse it smelled and the less cool stuff we found. We were lucky to find a can of Lysol in the dumpster that we used to extinguish some of the smell. We’ve made good use of the things we found. Gabe and I have been playing with the paper shredder, seeing how many sheets of paper it can take. Right now it max is 24 sheets, although that clogged it so I don’t know if it counts. There shredded that’s for sure.
Turtle, Turtle, Turtle
On Sunday, we volunteered at this 5K race sponsored by St. Paul Parks & Recreation. We helped set up and hand out water to the runners while discussing how much fun it would have been to dress up as a rabbit and turtle and run in the race or how we should of entered our van in the art car parade. After the race, while Gabe, myself and the folding table were waiting to get picked up, I held my umbrella over Gabe shielding him from the sun Michael Jackson style and asked random park goers if they would like to meet the Prince of Macedonia. Most of the people kept walking, although a couple wished him a nice stay in St. Paul. I think it worked quite nicely. The End.
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