WCSC Student blog

The main thing I got from reading [Widening the Circle] was that community is very important, but is something that our culture really doesn’t value anymore….It gives the comparison of community to food. I thought that this was a great analogy because (being Mennonite) the most popular activity in my communities is…eating. The author mentions how “When people in community have their own individual food “stashes” or personal preferences which are indulged privately, it sooner or later leads to isolation and separation from others, whereas sharing food, and agreeing on dietary guidelines brings people together.”

against hip-hop dance. Rennie really makes his audience think….This past weekend was a very big weekend for Dance Place. Saturday was the big fundraiser benefit. We had a tribute to hip-hop artist Rennie Harris. His performance was brilliant. From watching him up on stage he put so much in his dance. Through his work he told stories from his life and after the performance he told the audience a little about his traveling hip hop company. He told of the stereotypes that are often heldI’m thrilled to have the chance to work with and see so many talented artists. I’m beginning to feel at home at Dance Place.

Some of the students at WCSC have sung choir versions of songs by Sweet Honey in the Rock.  Tonight we’re all going to see them in person!  “Wanting Memories” and “Who We Are (For Each Child That’s Born)” are two of my favorites.  I saw a documentary on this group, and it was downright inspirational.  4 and a half more hours til opening…

On Saturday I went to the Arts on Foot Festival in Chinatown and on Sunday I went to the Adams Morgan Festival. I really enjoyed both days–especially watching dancers and listening to their music….I love having endless opportunities of things to do on the weekend. It was also great to be able to spend the day without having to spend money (other than transportation).  I also love how easy it is to get around the city.

I really enjoyed [this week's reading for Doug's seminar]. At first I wondered why we waited until the fourth week to read something about intentional community. Then I thought about how the reading made more sense now because we have had a chance to see what living in community is really like. [Something] we all have in common is that we yearn for relatedness and wholeness. Yet…the majority of Westerners live in separation and isolation….In some ways I didn’t identify with what Hogeland was writing, [but] I am in fact very Western when it comes to entertainment. [With friends, I] like to go out to eat, watch movies, go shopping, or play video games.  I really liked how Hogeland stated that entertainment should rejuvenate us and relationship is a key ingredient in entertainment. I had never thought about that before but it made perfect sense. When I go out to coffee with friends and catch up on everything, I feel much more rejuvenated then when we sit and watch a movie. I am excited for this semester and how we will choose to entertain ourselves in the city.

WATER sponsors yoga on the national mall once each month to celebrate the full moon, so this week I attended the first one that took place this fall. [I went] with three other women: a young woman in her 20s, one woman in her 50s, and a Catholic nun who is in her 80s. It was a wonderful group with which to reflect, share, and stretch in silence, in the light of the moon.

The book Doing Justice by Dennis Jacobsen was an informative book for me….I appreciated the faith-based component of Jacobsen’s form of community organizing….Too many Americans, in my opinion, are unfazed with the condition and horrors of the world: the extreme inequity, the poverty, the hunger that faces so many of the world’s people….The church’s role is not to solely increase membership, but to respond to the needs of hurting people, to proclaim God’s Kingdom, and follow Jesus’ teachings….The church exists for those outside its walls.

My whole life I have grown up seeing power as basically only a bad thing. However, [the last reading for Doug's seminar class] made the point that although power tends to corrupt, powerlessness also corrupts. However, many people just sit back and don’t want to make a change. Some fear added responsibility, some lack confidence in their gifts, some prefer to surround themselves with dependable relationships, and some want power but only for themselves and their churches. I realized that I find myself in this group, mostly because of the first two fears. Yet we have to remember that God is the source of power and that power can be a good thing as long as it is rooted in love and is shared. That is why power has had a negative connotation in my mind, because power is almost never rooted in love.

I’m up at 8:00 nearly every morning and don’t get home until 6:30. I share a house with 13 other people (and only 2 other guys.) I bike ten miles to and from work every day. I babysit a three year old and a six year old three afternoons a week. I dodge traffic, dodge metro fairs and dodge homework until the last minute.I’m exhausted and exhilarated.

I didn’t have a wash cloth or soap for the first two weeks I was here. I can’t see the floor in my room because my unnamed roommate doesn’t use drawers or a laundry basket. There are two liquor stores within a block of each other near our house. I’m working at an organization trying to clean the 2^nd trashiest river in the U.S…and it only has 14 full time employees. We walk under the single, creepiest overpass in the world to get to the metro station.

And it’s sweet.

We never know what time dinner will be in our enormous house: sometimes 6:30, sometimes 9:00. There are five tubs of sour cream in our fridge and seven gallons of milk hardly get us through half a week. Our compost pile almost overflowed the week after we arrived. There were 8 dirty cups perched around my room for more than a week. The kitchen trash goes out almost daily. I never thought I’d live in a house with a complaint box.

But it’s a necessity.

One of my housemates weeds forests and gets school credit for it. Another one saw a clerk fudge the numbers to allow a Spanish-speaking immigrant her citizenship. My roommate worked 15 hours straight and met the archbishop of the Washington, DC diocese. He also got punched in the head on his way home the other day and he never swung back. Even though there are three guys sharing a bathroom with one girl, she hasn’t found the toilet seat up once.

Everyone’s still civil.

It’s 60 degrees out and we still have our air conditioning on. One of my housemates sits on the back porch reading a book, even though I wouldn’t go out without a coat on. There’s a Guitar Hero marathon going on outside my bedroom and four participants are not participating, just watching. We don’t have grass in our back yard, just mulch, the biggest rosemary plant ever, and a tiny fishpond. All nine of our fish have names. There are eight bikes in our back room and only half of them are worth riding.

No one gives a rip.

During rush hour I make it home far faster than any car. It’s fun to give up your seat on the metro. The Barra Brava and their cheers/facepaints/flags are absolutely fantastic. There’s way more free stuff to do here than you ever imagined. 61% of campaign donations in our neighborhood went to Barack Obama. The streets are terrible in D.C. Our neighborhood has a fitness facility free to any DC residents. Even in American’s capital, you don’t have to talk politics.

We’re not in Harrisonburg anymore—and I love it.

-Jake King

My internship at DC Jobs with Justice is more than I could have ever asked for. They are seriously training me to be a community organizer. There is no administrative work or busy work. All the tasks they give me have a purpose to better serve the community. Right now I am organizing an on site ESL training for Spanish speaking day laborers on the corner of Home Depot where they gather to picked up by contractors for work each morning and rallying volunteers, so far I have 6!! I’m so excited.

Ruth, one of my supervisors, she takes me to protests and has taught me so much. I’m sure she wants to elbow me in the face sometime because I feel like I ask a “ba-zillion”
questions. I must add that after just a year at EMU in the JPCS program, I am honored to say how well equipped I feel “out in field”. The resources that I have gathered and the oppurtunities I took advantage of allows me to feel a certain level of comfort and confidence needed in this field. So thank you EMU for empowering me!

My internship is at D.C. Jobs with Justice and so far it is amazing. I am assisting in organizing immigrant day laborers who hang out in the parking lot at the local Home Depot waiting for contractors to pick them up for jobs form a union and develop a worker task force center. The parking lot manager and Home Depot don’t appreciate their presence. Being from a Puerto Rican background, I understand Spanish fluently but speak minimally. I’m hoping to be fluent by the end of the semester. I will also assist in organizing and teach ESL classes, campaigning for worker rights, and community support and development.

I am taking two classes at Howard University, a highly respected and predominantly African American university. I am taking Seminars in Community Development and Public Art Inter-Media. My first experience alone on the Howard campus was a bit intimidating. I’m not used to being the minority to such a large degree but after walking through campus and sitting in the waiting room of the health center for three and a half hours, you tend to forget the color of your own skin. It’s a worrisome yet empowering feeling. On one hand you don’t want to lose your identity and on the other it is amazing not being the majority yet still being welcomed and accepted.

On my fourth day here, the entire house everyone had finally moved in and settled in the house. I was a bit overwhelmed after living by myself for the past year. I admit I may have cried myself to sleep that night but I’m learning to cope. I am learning that my housemates are also not out to get me but are all coping as well.

The new students have arrived! As I write, Director Doug Hertzler is guiding the students in a safety workshop. Classes and internships will begin on Monday. There is good energy in the house, and everyone is looking forward to the canoe trip on Friday.

-Emily Benner, Assistant Director