It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Actually it is not always sunny in Philly. It is generally overcast, especially around this time of year. and in keeping with my blogging tradition when it rains, I update my blog (at least this appears to be the trend). And my oh my is there much to update upon!
+Come and See Weekend! This last weekend my sister Lindsey and my friend Anne came to Philly for the weekend to visit and see what life in Mission Year is like (kinda). They visited my community service sites, Esperanza, the medical center in Kensington (www.esperanzahealthcenter.org), LOGAN Hope, my after school program (www.loganhope.org), and quickly walked through Indo-China where I do GED tutoring (I don’t know their web address…). We spent the day Friday being tourists, seeing the Liberty Bell, running the Rocky Steps, walking around Love Park and City Hall, drinking coffee and catching up, and enjoying a great Afghani dinner together at a restaurant (you would think that living in Philly, I often go out to eat, but that is not the case. This was my first time being in a sit-down restaurant in some time). Saturday was a community day true and true. We grocery shopped, attended the Friends of The Library meeting at the Logan Branch, visited neighbors and chatted, and hosted a dinner for neighborhood friends and visiting family, including great games of Boulderdash, home-made hummus, and laughs had by all. They left Sunday after a brief visit to the Cambodian church and I am still uber-glad that we were able to be together.Good times indeed!!
+Friends of the Library meeting! I while back I posted about the Philadelphia libraries and their potential closings. I am excited to post an update now. The libraries are still open, for now. After the initial protest by many within the affected communites and some legal manuevering the libraries were declared ‘untouchable’ until June. The city has dropped its claim, but is reworking some new claim to find the solution to their dire budgetting crisis. And this is where the amazing thing starts, the library is beginning to foster a neighborhood community. At this last local branch meeting of the Friends of the Library, a group of local residents of the Logan neighborhood met together to discuss and dream as to what could be done to not only keep the branch of the library open, but to bring it to a point of community livelihood. The group envisioned programs running from within the basement of the library (a wide open area suitable for any form of community gatherings), they debated volunteer labor to help repair some of the libraries structural flaws, they dreamed of gathering local businesses to help support the library and the library in turn to help the businesses. It was an amazing meeting to sit in, for it was a time when the neighborhood where I have lived in for the last 5 months now, began to dream for itself. I couldn’t have been happier.
More to come ans soon, (i hope)!
Grace and peace
