While things have been relatively quiet in the month of November at the house, Sitka and at work, the past week was fairly exciting. Unfortunately this past week, our friend Marcus, the local youth minister, moved back to Juneau to take a job with the state. It's definitely better for him long term but that doesn't mean that we can't be selfish and wish he were still here. We helped him and his dad move his stuff out of his apartment and then watched The Taking of Pelham 123 the night that he left on the ferry. After saying goodbye to Marcus, we had the luxury of having our first visitor to Alaska who was not a member of JVC staff. Greg's buddy from SLU, who is a JV in Tacoma, came up for the long weekend and it was really nice to have a visitor (hint: come to Sitka!) We went out to a little bar in Sitka that we generally had avoided because it is usually empty but we ended up having a really good time. It was a quiet enough atmosphere that you could actually have a conversation and the bartender was hilarious! She definitely gave Greg a run for his money...always having something to say to him and sometimes leaving him with no response. It was a fun night. We had a fairly busy Thanksgiving as well. When I woke up, Katie was watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade which reminded me of watching the balloons get blown up last year with Brian and Mo. Good times. Katie and I decided that we were going to play football with some FJVs and friends from the community which was a lot of fun. A bunch of high school students from Mt. Edgecumbe (local high school for Alaskan natives from throughout the state) played too, so we had a really good group of people together. After the game we hurried to get ready for our first Thanksgiving meal. We were invited to 'dinner' at 1 at the home of two parishioners from St. Gregory's. It was really nice to converse with them and Fr. Scott and they seemed to really appreciate having company for the holiday. During the visit we had some good conversations about history and the wide variety of historical artifacts that adorned their living room, ranging from every type of Alaskan license plate, to glass fishing buoys (from Asia), and a large number of pictures/paintings/images of wolves. After having an enjoyable time there, we went home, got everything together and moved over to the house where Greg was housesitting. Greg, his friend and I started getting preparations underway for deep frying our turkey. The girls (not thinking he could find one) told Greg that he could deepfry the turkey if he found a fryer and did it on his own. Contrary to what the girls say, no one was in any danger at anytime and the only casualty was the turkey who wouldn't fit in the pot originally and had to be cut into pieces. While it probably took us a little longer than it should have the turkey turned out really well and the girls did a great job at finishing off the preparations for the sides while fearing for our lives. Dinner turned out really well and it was really nice to have our own little family Thanksgiving.
I worked on Friday and had a much busier day than I had anticipated having. After doing a variety of little things for the children's program in the morning (and planning on getting ahead and planning something for our after school group on Monday), I did some women's advocacy in the afternoon. While it was quite difficult to hear the woman's story (and feeling not entirely comfortable because I hadn't really done too much advocacy for women thus far) it turned out to be a really good experience. While I can't talk too much about it, I was able to advocate for her in a variety of ways and was able to present her with information to help empower her that would allow her to advocate for herself as well.
Over the weekend, the art galleries opened themselves up which was really cool because there are so many really talented local artists and I saw a bunch of prints that I will probably look into getting later in the year. Saturday was a pretty low key day and involved a lot of relaxing and letter writing. We all spent Saturday night at the housesitting gig, playing Scattergories and watching one of my favorite movies, Up! It is so, so good! On Sunday, we attended St. Gregory's annual first Sunday of Advent mass at Centennial Hall that was presided over by Bishop Burns from Juneau. It was a really nice mass that included three Baptisms and the Confirmation of four others and culminated in a large potluck lunch for the parish community. A number of student dance groups from Mt. Edgecumbe provided entertainment and it was a nice afternoon.
The weather also continues to be consistently inconsistent, ranging from sun, snow, rain, hail, sleet to thunderstorms and changing on a whim. The only constant lately has been the winds whipping off of the Gulf of Alaska. They were really rough this weekend and caused the airport to shut down for several hours due to boulders on the runway! Only in Alaska.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Early November
The weather continues to amaze me. The first week of November was similar to the month of October: cool, mostly cloudy, and windy with the occasional rain storm. Work has continued to go well and one of the families had a great week. They were able to acquire funding for a deposit on a house rental and they moved out! It was incredible to see how happy and excited the kids and mom were to be moving into their new place and it has inspired me to see the family's successes. The shelter is still crowded with a large number of children which means that we are really busy in the children's program. While it is wonderful that the women and their children have sought safety and advocacy at the shelter it is really tough to continue to see the shelter full and needed for direct services. This became particularly clear to me yesterday while attending a presentation that Katie was giving at her boss' fellowship. She did a wonderful job presenting her reflections on seeing ourselves and beyond ourselves and leading a guided reflection that led to each of us composing a poem about our thoughts on sight. My own personal reflection led me to think about liberation and unity. In the discussion period following her presentation, an older gentleman (in his 80's and a retired doctor) raised his suspicions about the existence of child abuse and domestic violence in the world, because in his experience as a doctor and visiting pediatric wards he had never seen child abuse and thinks it is one of those things that is made up. Another man asked people to raise their hands if they know of a child who has been abused or were themselves (every person) and thankfully Katie's boss ended the discussion right after that because I was not in a great place to be having a discussion with this guy. I was livid for a large part of the afternoon and couldn't believe what I had heard earlier in the day. It really made me take a step back and think about the need for and importance of trainings focused on Domestic Violence and child abuse in communities and for professionals (such as doctors, teachers and police officers) who might not fully comprehend the issues (or choose to ignore them) and will come into contact with victims and other individuals impacted by these abuses in their occupation. Thanks for letting me vent.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Halloween Week
So the week after retreat was spent almost entirely on getting things together for Halloween at the shelter and for Halloween and Katie's birthday (All Saints' Day.) Meg and I experimented and created a paper mache pinata by blowing up a balloon, covering it with 2 layers of paper mache (we left a hole in it so we could fill it with all kinds of treats), then put 2 layers where the treats were placed and painted it as a 'Happy Pumpkin' which won a very close vote over a ghost or a witch. We also got all kinds of fun foods and decorations together and started preparing the children's playroom early on Friday when all of the kids were at school. We had lights, jack-o-lanterns, spiderwebs, and Halloween themed garland and streamers. There were Halloween cupcakes, ants on a log (celery, peanut butter and raisins), pretzels, monster teeth (apples with almonds) and apple cider. The party itself was an absolute blast and the children definitely had a good time (as did the moms and staff who attended.) Meg dressed up like a pirate and I as Harry Potter (I proudly walked around town with my scar and cloak after the party.) During the party the children painted pumpkins, got their faces painted by Meg, tatoos from me, and played a few fun games such as pin the face on the jack-o-lantern and we led them through a creepy little story that had them reaching into paper bags to touch "guts, brains, eyes and intestines" and culminated with sticking their hands into a box marked with a ? that one of the moms had her hand in! It was great to see the kids interacting with each other (those living in shelter and those no longer in shelter) and they all seemed to really have a good time.
After that epic afternoon, I went with a few of my housemates to the haunted ship that the Coast Guard had on their ship in town. It was awesome! Particularly because my housemates are what I would call jumpy and sometimes they do things without thinking, like swatting or punching things that jump out at them. On Saturday night we attended the Stardust Ball hosted by the local radio station (we got free admission for agreeing to help with the cleanup), Raven Radio, and it was definitely an experience. My housemates and I dressed up like Ms. Pacman and the ghosts from the arcade game! The ball was really fun, there was a great band (the Gourds who cover Gin and Juice) and there were lots of awesome, ridiculous costumes. Among my favorites from the night were our friend T who dressed up like Mr. T (complete with mohawk), a guy who dressed up as the kid who floated away in the balloon in Colorado, the two radio hosts who dressed up like French royalty and my favorite costume, a man who dressed up like Levi Johnston (Bristol Palin's ex.) Only in Alaska I told myself.
Sunday was Katie's birthday and even though she did not want us to acknowledge or celebrate her birthday we all ignored her. We had a bunch of people over for a potluck to celebrate Katie's 22nd and it was fun and relaxing (which was super necessary for me after the busy week.) In the end I am pretty sure that Katie had a good time and might be over at least some of her negative feelings about birthdays.
After that epic afternoon, I went with a few of my housemates to the haunted ship that the Coast Guard had on their ship in town. It was awesome! Particularly because my housemates are what I would call jumpy and sometimes they do things without thinking, like swatting or punching things that jump out at them. On Saturday night we attended the Stardust Ball hosted by the local radio station (we got free admission for agreeing to help with the cleanup), Raven Radio, and it was definitely an experience. My housemates and I dressed up like Ms. Pacman and the ghosts from the arcade game! The ball was really fun, there was a great band (the Gourds who cover Gin and Juice) and there were lots of awesome, ridiculous costumes. Among my favorites from the night were our friend T who dressed up like Mr. T (complete with mohawk), a guy who dressed up as the kid who floated away in the balloon in Colorado, the two radio hosts who dressed up like French royalty and my favorite costume, a man who dressed up like Levi Johnston (Bristol Palin's ex.) Only in Alaska I told myself.
Sunday was Katie's birthday and even though she did not want us to acknowledge or celebrate her birthday we all ignored her. We had a bunch of people over for a potluck to celebrate Katie's 22nd and it was fun and relaxing (which was super necessary for me after the busy week.) In the end I am pretty sure that Katie had a good time and might be over at least some of her negative feelings about birthdays.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Long overdue post
So the past couple of weeks have been pretty crazy up here. Over the past 2 weeks I have celebrated and experienced Alaska Day, gone on retreat in Wasilla (the town where Sarah Palin was mayor), and celebrated Halloween!
Alaska Day
Alaska Day is October 18 and it commemorates the 1867 exchange of Alaska from Russia to the United States. While it is a state holiday, Sitka is the only place that actually celebrates it and celebrate they do. The whole celebration lasts an entire week and includes a large number of events and hundreds of people flowing into town from all over Alaska and down south. My housemates and I officially began our Alaska Day celebration on Friday night by attending a concert put on by the 9th Army Band from Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks. Prior to attending the concert I had expectations of seeing an orchestra dressed in tuxedos or dress uniforms playing classical music. That was most definitely a false assumption! The band played in their camo and band t-shirts (which were awesome...they had a polar bear on the front) and played a wide variety of music ranging from 1950s rock and roll to funk to Rob Thomas and Toby Keith. It was an awesome show and a great way to start the weekend! After the concert we met up with a bunch of Americorps volunteers and saw Where the Wild Things Are. Greg and I were really excited about seeing this movie and I have to see that I was not disappointed. I thought that the movie was really good but I don't think that I felt happy at any point in the entire movie. It was a really, really heavy movie but it was well done and I could definitely feel what the characters were feeling.
Saturday brought relatively nice weather (50s cloudy and dry) and a trip to the U.S. Coast Guard open house! It was most definitely geared towards families with children but I made the most of it. My housemate Katie and I were by far the most excited people at the base. The hangar was full of representatives from the fire department, police department, the local search and rescue team, the Coast Guard and the Army. We had the opportunity to go on a C-130 airplane, a Blackhawk! and a Coast Guard Jayhawk (a modified Blackhawk.) I met a rescue swimmer from Rhode Island (he saw my red sox hat and I noticed a red sox patch on his helmet) and chatted with one of the pilots for about a half hour about the helicopter (while sitting in the cockpit), life back east (he went to the Naval Academy) and sports. It was totally random but I learned a lot about the aircraft and it was a great conversation. My housemates and our support person were convinced that I had enlisted on the spot and I am pretty sure that they see this as a very real possibility before the year is over. NOTE: I have no intentions of joining any branch of the military so don't worry. After the Coast Guard open house we explored the Russian Bishop's House, which is part of the National Park system in Sitka and is directly across the street from our house. It was interesting to learn about the Russian history of town and the way that it continues to exist today as the chapel is often used for services. We had a relatively quiet night at home playing card games with a couple friends and gearing up for Sunday.
Sunday was by far one of the busiest days I have experienced in Sitka so far. I got up early and went to mass and then headed over to the docks for some blackened Cod and rice with Greg which was absolutely delicious. We stood along the water and watched the Coast Guard and Army helicopters circling the harbor preparing for their flyover of the National Cemetary Memorial service. Shortly after lunch we headed up the street further into town to get a spot for the parade. It was a total community effort. There were groups marching from the schools (the high school marching band in matching rain jackets and xtra-tufs), community groups, local businesses, the Coast Guard, the army, bag pipers from Juneau and the Pipe and Drum band from the Seattle Fire Department! After the parade we headed over to the house where Meg (my supervisor) was housesitting to wait for the Coast Guard's rescue demonstration near the bridge. This was without a doubt one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life! One of the rescue swimmers jumped into the water from a boat and waited to be "rescued" by another rescue swimmer who jumped out of the helicopter. It was really exciting and it happened about 200 feet away from where we were standing! We could see everything and were getting hit by the spray created by the helicopter! After dinner, a few of us went back to Meg's to hang out. Her and I baked some cookies and then we all headed out to the Pioneer Bar to hang out. There were 8 of us and it was entirely JVs and FJVs. After about an hour or so of hanging out, the bagpipers from Seattle marched in playing! After they finished playing, they stayed to hang out too. The atmosphere is one that is very difficult to describe but it reminded me of St. Patrick's Day. It was a fun time and a great end to the weekend.
Retreat
After a busy week at work, we departed for Anchorage very early on Friday morning to meet up with the JVs from around Alaska for our first retreat. We picked up the Juneau JVs on our flight and rather than sleeping for the roughly 2 hour flight to Anchorage, I found myself deeply engaged in conversation with a Mormon missionary from Idaho (the Juneau JVs thought that we knew each other.) We had a nice discussion of different theological issues and differences between Catholicism and Mormonism and we talked about his mission and my JV year. He acknowledged pretty early on in the conversation that he was not going to try to convert me which definitely helped in keeping the conversation going. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and I got off the plane carrying the book of Mormon which the other JVs found extremely amusing. Sometimes I wonder how I get myself into these situations but my hosuemates are definitely getting used to the fact that I will inevitably get into a conversation with some random person pretty much wherever we go.
The retreat itself was really good for me and my community! It was not an intense retreat like Quest, Manresa or a Kairos but it was one that helped me evaluate my own perspective on how I am doing in community and at work, helped our community share our own thoughts on what is important for us in community (we created a community tool box full of little rules and advice that we think are important for us living in community) and brought us closer together as we had a really good affirmation session where we shared about how each person has inspired, challenged and pushed us this year. There was a good amount of free time built into the weekend which was awesome because I got to spend time with Alex and Avanti and I got to bond with JVs from the other houses. I had a lot of really good conversations over the course of the weekend, I loved hearing about the various placements that people are at and it was great to talk to JVs working at other domestic violence shelters throughout Alaska. I also feel like it will now be a lot easier to call and e-mail other JVs because I didn't really feel that connected to the other Alaska houses prior to this weekend.
The retreat also featured a coffeehouse social where members of various houses performed some dances/songs. Katie, Evie and Natalie serenaded Greg to their own version of Taylor Swift's "Love Story" essentially because he left the house a few days early for retreat to hang out in Anchorage and gave them enough time to 1. come up with this idea and 2. practice. It was one of the funnier things I have seen/experienced this year.
Alaska Day
Alaska Day is October 18 and it commemorates the 1867 exchange of Alaska from Russia to the United States. While it is a state holiday, Sitka is the only place that actually celebrates it and celebrate they do. The whole celebration lasts an entire week and includes a large number of events and hundreds of people flowing into town from all over Alaska and down south. My housemates and I officially began our Alaska Day celebration on Friday night by attending a concert put on by the 9th Army Band from Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks. Prior to attending the concert I had expectations of seeing an orchestra dressed in tuxedos or dress uniforms playing classical music. That was most definitely a false assumption! The band played in their camo and band t-shirts (which were awesome...they had a polar bear on the front) and played a wide variety of music ranging from 1950s rock and roll to funk to Rob Thomas and Toby Keith. It was an awesome show and a great way to start the weekend! After the concert we met up with a bunch of Americorps volunteers and saw Where the Wild Things Are. Greg and I were really excited about seeing this movie and I have to see that I was not disappointed. I thought that the movie was really good but I don't think that I felt happy at any point in the entire movie. It was a really, really heavy movie but it was well done and I could definitely feel what the characters were feeling.
Saturday brought relatively nice weather (50s cloudy and dry) and a trip to the U.S. Coast Guard open house! It was most definitely geared towards families with children but I made the most of it. My housemate Katie and I were by far the most excited people at the base. The hangar was full of representatives from the fire department, police department, the local search and rescue team, the Coast Guard and the Army. We had the opportunity to go on a C-130 airplane, a Blackhawk! and a Coast Guard Jayhawk (a modified Blackhawk.) I met a rescue swimmer from Rhode Island (he saw my red sox hat and I noticed a red sox patch on his helmet) and chatted with one of the pilots for about a half hour about the helicopter (while sitting in the cockpit), life back east (he went to the Naval Academy) and sports. It was totally random but I learned a lot about the aircraft and it was a great conversation. My housemates and our support person were convinced that I had enlisted on the spot and I am pretty sure that they see this as a very real possibility before the year is over. NOTE: I have no intentions of joining any branch of the military so don't worry. After the Coast Guard open house we explored the Russian Bishop's House, which is part of the National Park system in Sitka and is directly across the street from our house. It was interesting to learn about the Russian history of town and the way that it continues to exist today as the chapel is often used for services. We had a relatively quiet night at home playing card games with a couple friends and gearing up for Sunday.
Sunday was by far one of the busiest days I have experienced in Sitka so far. I got up early and went to mass and then headed over to the docks for some blackened Cod and rice with Greg which was absolutely delicious. We stood along the water and watched the Coast Guard and Army helicopters circling the harbor preparing for their flyover of the National Cemetary Memorial service. Shortly after lunch we headed up the street further into town to get a spot for the parade. It was a total community effort. There were groups marching from the schools (the high school marching band in matching rain jackets and xtra-tufs), community groups, local businesses, the Coast Guard, the army, bag pipers from Juneau and the Pipe and Drum band from the Seattle Fire Department! After the parade we headed over to the house where Meg (my supervisor) was housesitting to wait for the Coast Guard's rescue demonstration near the bridge. This was without a doubt one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life! One of the rescue swimmers jumped into the water from a boat and waited to be "rescued" by another rescue swimmer who jumped out of the helicopter. It was really exciting and it happened about 200 feet away from where we were standing! We could see everything and were getting hit by the spray created by the helicopter! After dinner, a few of us went back to Meg's to hang out. Her and I baked some cookies and then we all headed out to the Pioneer Bar to hang out. There were 8 of us and it was entirely JVs and FJVs. After about an hour or so of hanging out, the bagpipers from Seattle marched in playing! After they finished playing, they stayed to hang out too. The atmosphere is one that is very difficult to describe but it reminded me of St. Patrick's Day. It was a fun time and a great end to the weekend.
Retreat
After a busy week at work, we departed for Anchorage very early on Friday morning to meet up with the JVs from around Alaska for our first retreat. We picked up the Juneau JVs on our flight and rather than sleeping for the roughly 2 hour flight to Anchorage, I found myself deeply engaged in conversation with a Mormon missionary from Idaho (the Juneau JVs thought that we knew each other.) We had a nice discussion of different theological issues and differences between Catholicism and Mormonism and we talked about his mission and my JV year. He acknowledged pretty early on in the conversation that he was not going to try to convert me which definitely helped in keeping the conversation going. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and I got off the plane carrying the book of Mormon which the other JVs found extremely amusing. Sometimes I wonder how I get myself into these situations but my hosuemates are definitely getting used to the fact that I will inevitably get into a conversation with some random person pretty much wherever we go.
The retreat itself was really good for me and my community! It was not an intense retreat like Quest, Manresa or a Kairos but it was one that helped me evaluate my own perspective on how I am doing in community and at work, helped our community share our own thoughts on what is important for us in community (we created a community tool box full of little rules and advice that we think are important for us living in community) and brought us closer together as we had a really good affirmation session where we shared about how each person has inspired, challenged and pushed us this year. There was a good amount of free time built into the weekend which was awesome because I got to spend time with Alex and Avanti and I got to bond with JVs from the other houses. I had a lot of really good conversations over the course of the weekend, I loved hearing about the various placements that people are at and it was great to talk to JVs working at other domestic violence shelters throughout Alaska. I also feel like it will now be a lot easier to call and e-mail other JVs because I didn't really feel that connected to the other Alaska houses prior to this weekend.
The retreat also featured a coffeehouse social where members of various houses performed some dances/songs. Katie, Evie and Natalie serenaded Greg to their own version of Taylor Swift's "Love Story" essentially because he left the house a few days early for retreat to hang out in Anchorage and gave them enough time to 1. come up with this idea and 2. practice. It was one of the funnier things I have seen/experienced this year.
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