If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed . Thanks for visiting!I was in 7th grade, at public school for the first time ever. As if junior high weren’t bad enough already, I switched schools (that should tell you how bad my old school was) into a school where most of the kids had been classmates or neighbors since kindergarten. Book smarts came naturally to me, but social smarts, maybe not as easily. My home was a …
…You learn that a machete is actually much harder to work with than it appears–pick axes, too, are much harder than I’d ever imagined. The ancient supervisor who was guiding us, showed the teens how to use machetes: to watch him work them, you would think that machetes were simplistic yet sharp. When I finally put my hand to the machete, I was stymied. It was awkward and the bending over to swish it as you flicked your arm/wrist quickly …
Jennifer and me holding the machetes after a day’s work! Thursday (for those of you keeping track) we worked with children in the morning and machetes in the afternoon. First, let me tell you a bit about machetes. I grew up in a suburban neighborhood in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C: one would think that machetes would be few and far between, and yet, we were familiar with them. Ask any of my family members. There was a day …
To wrap up the never-ending concrete story, let me begin by sharing, that as long as this concrete story feels, our day felt longer. After we returned from lunch, the kids huddled and decided whether or not we would proceed and finish with the project: clothes were torn, arms were dry and peeling, construction boots were close to being sucked off of our feet. My hands, albeit bandaged, had none of the damage that some of the other kids did …
Here’s a picture of Rigoberto, whom I mentioned at the end of the last concrete email: Rigoberto shared his glove with me, so that I could cover my bandaged hand and avoid any further injury or infection. I mentioned my herniated disc here and here : there were several pieces to that story, though. I would take breaks from our work so that my back could rest for a few moments. Although I aimed for discretion, it wasn’t always a success. Case …
