Recovery from a Whirlwind Week

August 6, 2006: Recovery from a Whirlwind Week

Hello all. May I just say how heavenly it feels to have slept for 9 hours!? WOW. My body is a bit achy from the week’s demands and I can feel a touch of a cold coming on (Echinacea here I come), but I feel good. The UWP team put on a FANTASTIC performance last night. Every alum and host family I spoke with gave us rave reviews. One person even stated that it was the best UWP show she had seen in 20 years (That is a MAJOR compliment coming from you Carolyn).

So now it is time for me to catch up with all of you:

• Monday July 31^st, 2006: CI day. Today we partnered with Leader’s Challenge, which is, I believe, a leadership program for High School students in the Denver area organized through WorldSmart. We all met on the Johnson and Wales campus (beautiful by the way) where the WorldSmart students had been residing for orientation for the past few days. It was heartening to see HUNDREDS of high school students participating in this program. After a brief organizing meeting, UWP split up into small groups with the Leaders Challenge kids and set off on busses to hit (Lord knows how many) community service sites in the Denver area. Marcello, Phoenix, and I were paired up with about 8 Leaders Challenge students to work at Brent’s place, a home for children diagnosed with cancer and their families. The bus ride there was a “trip” to say the least. I sat at the back of the bus, surrounded by high school students. I immediately struck up conversation with the students around me. I was thrilled by their positive attitudes and enthusiasm. I learned that this program for them will continue into their school year, where they will continue to conduct community service each month. How wonderful. It was also great to hear that, though they are leaders, they are still teenagers. They talked about dating, family stresses, peer pressure, etc. It really made me think of my clients back home and when I was a teenager. Being a “positive” leader unfortunately isn’t often viewed as being “cool”. It’s a risky adventure for an adolescent. I tip my hat to all who are willing to take that chance. Our experience at Brent’s place was great. We started off by viewing an informational video about Brent’s Place then dove into our work. Marcello and I worked with a few of the Leaders Challenge ladies to clean up the playground area outside, which included bleaching almost every surface to ensure clean play spaces for all the children. Phoenix worked with the other half of the crew to organize the Brent’s Place storage area. I enjoyed talking with the girls on my team about their program and learning about their aspirations for the future. They are all currently studying foreign languages, which I STONGLY encouraged them to continue in order to be more worldly citizens (AND to be more marketable as the world continues to get smaller and smaller). Marcello worked diligently and taught us some Portuguese. After lunch, the team worked on decorating the dining area for a resident’s birthday. The theme was pirates, so we hung banners and streamers with skulls and crossbones and pirate ships. Many of us were hoping to meet some of the residents, however, I thought and expressed to my team that it was not surprising that they would not come out and meet us: A) for their own safety and sanitary purposes and B) because cancer is a very personal thing that not everyone wants advertised. I was lucky enough to see one resident in passing. She was an adorable young girl, maybe 8 years old. She wore a stylish little hat which loosely covered a bald head. She was all smiles as she entered the house, currently connected to a machine providing her with her medication. All I could think was “this girl is the embodiment of strength and resilience”.

At about 2pm we returned to Johnson and Wales for a brief wrap-up and to listen to a speaker on the topic of poverty and the Denver government’s plan to reduce the amount of poverty in the Denver area. This was presented by Jamie Van Leeuwen, Project Manager for Denver’s Road Home, for the City and County and Denver. I found it difficult to concentrate on his presentation. Personally, my mind kept wandering to the show, wondering whether we would be able to pull everything together in time for Saturday. I also could barely hear and understand Mr. Van Leeuwen due to being near the back of the auditorium and there being several UWP students who continued to speak through the presentation. This became a huge test of patience for me. I fidgeted. I gave purposeful glances at my peers. I took deep breaths until I couldn’t take it anymore. As far as I could tell, nobody was saying anything to these participants and it needed to be done. We were there to listen to a speaker and the High School students were being much more attentive and respectful than we were! During a brief break in the presenter’s speech, I went over to my chatty friends and let them know how distracting they were being, asking them to please quiet down. They apologized, quieted for a bit, but 10 minutes later resumed their conversations. I felt like I was at my wits end, but I felt a certain satisfaction that I had done all that I could do. I couldn’t make them stop talking. They were informed and it was up to them to react. Unfortunately, due to boredom, differences in age or perspective, or maybe there was a cultural aspect, they continued to chat throughout the remainder of the presentation. I wonder; is there a multicultural standard for respectful behavior when someone is speaking?

• Tuesday August 1^st, 2006. First day at Teikyo Heights. Teikyo is to be where we will perform on Saturday. We spent nearly all day in workshops and in practices. We need a lot of work. I NEED A LOT OF WORK! People ask me what I think we need. My response is consistently, “More practice time!”. Invariably I get rolling eyes as a response, no doubt due to the fact that we’ve been practicing for the past two weeks.

That night Wouter and I took the bus with “the Brazilians” to Boulder for an authentic Brazilian dinner. On the way up, I sat with an American UWP participant from California who spoke with me about growing up on her own, outside of her home and family, in a culture of drugs. She admitted to having many difficult experiences and having lived in her car for extended periods of time. She admitted to drug use being the standard recreational activity for all the people she knew, including herself. She spoke about losing many friends to drugs, either through arrest or death, and the moment she was able to look at all that was going around her and making the decision to clean herself up and take herself out of her environment. What great strength she has. It’s easy, as someone who grew up in a very clean and nurturing environment, for me to judge her situation. Easy to say, “how sad, how terrible, how blah blah blah”. But I have no right to say that. That was her life, and she accepted that life. Now, she is trying to create a different life for herself, which has not and likely will not be very easy. She is still very connected to her home and to her friends. She talks about it being difficult to talk to people back home, as she feels guilty about having this UWP experience (where many would not have the same opportunity). My hope is that she will find a way to ease her guilt. She has worked hard to get here, to participate in UWP. It will be great to see her grow in the program and how she creates her life post UWP. Maybe she will be a role model for her friends and family back home. Maybe she will find a way to engage her home culture and help people to see a life outside of drugs. Who knows? It will be great to witness though.

Our Brazilian night was wonderful. The food, well, nothing short of fantastic. I fear (ha ha) that I may return home many pounds heavier than when I left home. There are just too many great things to eat while I’m on this journey.

I took several pictures during this party. I think they will say more than I can. Thank you to Bob and his wife for hosting this gathering and opening your home to UWP (for many years in fact). OH, and thank you for sharing your train world with us. What an amazing accomplishment! I admire your dedication and attention to detail.