It took Dorothy but a moment to realize she wasn’t in Kansas anymore. I realized before I had even left New Hampshire. I clearly remember that cold April day last spring, when the realization struck. I was sitting on the bus riding from Dover to Durham, just 8 miles up the road. I greeted the [...]
I’m not very good at endings. Sure, I like an adventure and moving on to new places and people, but I hate saying goodbye to those I’ve grown close to and the places I’ve come to call home. Unfortunately, I’m also the type of person who can’t keep her head out of the future, always [...]
Whenever I tell others about my year of service, part of the conversation almost always goes something like this: Stranger: Oh, so, what do you do? Megan: I’m a teacher. S: What do you teach? M: Well, I teach middle school–6th, 7th and 8th grades. S: Middle school, huh? Those were the worst years of [...]
Sitting in a rented room at St. Luke’s Episcopal, a young father breaks down in tears as he tells his story his separation from the mother of his two young girls and how much he misses them. He’s admittedly made some mistakes in his past, but has never given up on the hope of being [...]
Imagine: It’s rainy and cold. You just spent the weekend in jail for something you didn’t do. Your charges were dropped with no explanation. You are alone. You are alone because your husband– arrested at the same time for the same thing; the thing neither of you did– is still in jail. His charges were [...]
This Lent season I had more trouble than usual deciding what to “give up”. I made a list of potentials, yes I made a list (visual learner over here..). On that list were coffee, sweets, diary, spending money on coffee, and a few other things I now can’t even remember. The one thing that lingered [...]
Last weekend I became a farmer. All the EUIPers got to take a day off of our regular volunteer efforts (never work!) and go on down to the farm. Our much-anticipated group “quiet day” was at the Abundant Table farm project in Oxnard, where interns and community members come together to create organic produce magic. [...]
My job is split up into two (separate but equal) sections. In the morning, I work as the “officer of the day” in the Homeless Services Center. My afternoon is spent at another (fancier) building, doing case management. In the morning I can have lots of small interactions with people–about 180 or so; in the [...]
I just came back from the National People’s Action Conference in DC. At this conference, 800 community organizers from across the country came together to learn how to force ‘electeds’ to respond to public will. I went to the conference to help represent Housing Long Beach, a grassroots group I’ve helped lead during my EUIP [...]
I don’t know when I realized that ”from the community” was a euphemism for uneducated and brown and therefore stupid but it took me a while. I guess I wasn’t prepared for such obvious blatant prejudice in an organization full of people who clearly want to help and do good. Somehow intentions are not enough. Don’t get me wrong. It’s clear [...]