Surprise

What A wonderful day! I was able to get eleven hours of sleep last night which is a huge improvement from the two i had had the night before. It was 85 degrees out today and the sun was out! Absolutely beautiful summer day. I was having a fantastic time listening to Ingrid Michealson, Jason Maraz, and Jon Foreman this afternoon as i unpacked everything from school and separated everything that i want to take with me to Sacramento.

I was able to talk with Dave, the pastor of Bridge of Life church,and learned a little bit more about what my internship will look like this summer. The day after i get to Sacramento his family and i are going to get up early and spend the day in Yosemite national park, Sunday we are going to have an outdoor church service, and then Monday we are going to either take the day off, or jump right into the work that i will be doing.

There is a lot that i am going to be doing with the community. Right now i am planning on working with an organization called the Green House. This is their mission "Cultivating a thriving community by nurturing the emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical development of our youth and inspiring them to grow to their full potential" They work with and build relationships with inner-city kids and their families to help bring renewal to the area that is saturated with urban poverty.

Below is some information on the demographics of this care-needing community:

"The 2000 census paints a disheartening picture of the Gardenland/Northgate area, illustrating the needs of these children and the community at large. The picture includes a diverse population, widespread poverty, many immigrants, many unemployed, many broken families and a very, very large number of children. The average family size in the apartments where The GreenHouse is located is six, and over 550 children live on that one square block alone. The ethnic makeup of the people living in the apartments is roughly divided into thirds – about 31% Latino, 31% African-American, 31% Slavic (Russian and Ukranian immigrants) and 7% other, including Caucasian and Tongan. In the Gardeland/Northgate neighborhood just east of the apartments, almost 30% of families are living below the poverty line and 50% of families are without an adult male. Almost 23% of households make less than $10,000 per year and more than 50% make less than $25,000 per year."

Out everything today, one thing that really made me smile was a surprise that was on my desk when i came home from GR. I had to go pick up my bike that i had left at Boer Bennink. I was tired , but excited to be back home where the AC was working again. But nothing was as great as the surprise in my room where on my desk was a vase with six red roses. I wondered who they could have been from and was hoping they were from Eric, but wasn't sure...i thought that maybe my parents had given them to me because they were glad i was home (which might have been a little silly), but i opened the card that was next to them and it said "Happy six month Anniversary"

Pretty much was the GREATEST part of my day :)

Living Under The Influence,

Kristen