It's been so busy here! They have us doing something every second! I thought I would have time to explore the city a little, buy the remainder of the things I need, and get all my paperwork done for Cornerstone, but we have some place to be from 7am to 8pm.
Our mornings start with breakfast in a building near the dorms. Fruit, white, sugary muffins, eggs from a carton, bacon, sugary yogurt are the choices. This isn't a really healthy city. I was telling someone that I went to Dunkin' Donuts for an Iced Coffee and ordered skim milk, no sugar. Instead I got cream and lots of sugar. The girl was like "They don't understand 'no sugar' down here. They probably thought you were saying 'mo sugar.'" If only this wasn't a joke...
Then we go into a classroom and sit for 3 hours listening to lectures/panels on Memphis City Schools, the history of Memphis, the Achievement Gap, etc. It's been really interesting, and I love learning about the history of this city. I really think I'm going to love it here. It's not the most gorgeous city, but it has a lot of soul, and the people of Memphis, called Memphians, love it and are so proud of it. It's a little contagious, and I just want to love it too. It's different from any city I've been to in the north.
Then we go our with our TTL groups (Transition Team Leader). My TTL is Modesto, a great, energetic, funny high school ESL teacher in his second year of Teach for America. The people in my group, Nancy, Brittany, Shannon (my roommate), and Gus are the best! We've done a lot of bonding outside of class time, like going to a dance party on the roof of the Peabody Hotel last night, and brunch this morning.
Anyway, the first day we went to the National Civil Rights Museum. It was incredible. Very emotional and moving. I stood in the room where Martin Luther King spent his last hour of life, and the room in which the sniper made the shot from. It brought the whole Civil Rights Movement to life and made it seem so present. If you all get a chance, you should watch the documentary The Witness, an account from the Reverend who was standing on the balcony with Martin Luther King when he got shot. It was really amazing (and only a half an hour long, so worth taking a bit of time to watch). Obviously it made me cry.
Yesterday we went out into a community called Frayser, where a lot of our teachers will be placed. Frayser has a higher infant mortality rate than many third world countries. The average ACT score of a Frayser student is 16...you need a 27 to be considered for state school, a 32 to be considered for Vanderbilt. We went from door to door to pass out information about community development programs and to conduct surveys for Councilman Harris. I talked to one lady, a 76 year old who's husband has Alzheimer's. She says they're scared to stay in their neighborhood because everyone is leaving and all the homes are being boarded up, but they can't sell because no one would ever buy a home in Frayser. Two homes had been deserted the day before, and already looters had come in a stolen everything valuable, including all the copper tubing from the attic. She's scared because if anything happens, no one is around to see anymore. One house at the end of the street is a meth lab, and she says she and her husband hear gunshots all the time. She never goes outside after dark. Talking to her was so eye-opening; we hear all about the communities in which we're being placed, but this was the first time actually being out and talking to the people of Memphis. These are the communities in which our students are coming from. It makes me feel very lucky to have grown up in Vermont where I never had to worry about gunshots or meth labs.
Today is a hiring fair, so because I already have a job I have the morning off and don't have to be anywhere until 1:30. It's nice to be able to sleep in.
I can't wait to get to institute. It's going to be a long, hard summer. They describe it as finals week, except 5 weeks long. But the people here are great, and make sure that you have a lot of fun, too. I'm so glad I was placed in this city, the schools are at the lowest they've ever been, and there's a movement underway to turn everything around. School reform is huge here in the local government. It's exciting to be participating in the start of a movement and revitalizing a city.
I hope you'll all come and visit me down here!
Hopefully I'll talk to you very soon.
lots of love!
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