Immokalee: "My Home"

A lot of individuals and groups visit Immokalee. College students come down for “alternative break” trips. The Student/Farmworker Alliance has summits and encuentros (meetings) inviting young fair food activists down to plan with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. There is an ongoing flow of groups that come through the Coalition of Immokalee Workers Community Center to receive presentations about the organization. As volunteers, especially when we are working at the Coalition, we interact with these groups all the time.

Upon meeting me, people are often curious about my experience living in Immokalee. The question commonly asked, sometimes subtlety, other times right out, is “how do you live here?” I have never been offended by the question, as it is sincere and often in awe of the commitment I have made.

Each time I am asked, I reflect on the answer before responding. I think about how much I love big cities, having spent the first eighteen years of my life in the heart of Saint Louis. I think about the fact that I am, for the first time in my life, living in a community where I am a racial minority. I think about how the closest Target is at least a forty-five minute drive.

Without any hesitation, though, I tell my inquirer that I know that Immokalee is where I need to be right now. I do not say this in the sense of “Immokalee needs me.” Immokalee is a town of great need, and while I know my work here is appreciated, I have no illusions about single-handedly reversing the devastation of poverty.

I need to be in Immokalee because it does put me out of my comfort zone. I could never have predicted the multitude of ways in which Immokalee has challenged me. Every single day I grow from simple encounters I have with people in the community. Sometimes these exchanges are in Spanish, sometimes in English, and most often, somewhere in between. I am asked daily to do things that I have never done before and am amazed by what I never knew I could do. But above all, I live in a community that I am invested in and that supports me in return. A place this special is hard to find, and even if it is not always the most convenient in terms of location or resources, it where I know I need to be in order to grow to become my best self. (Oh, and the sun isn’t bad either! J)

In Solidarity,

Julie

Singapore

My family moved to Singapore this summer, and I had the opportunity to visit them for the first time this Christmas. It was really great seeing my family again, and despite the two days each way spent travelling, it was a fun, relaxing vacation.

In a nod toward my status as a self-proclaimed geek, I will say that one of the things I enjoyed most about this trip was visiting the history portion of the national museum of Singapore. Now for those who don't know much about Singapore, it is located in continental (as opposed to island) Southeast Asia, on the southern tip of Malaysia. It is both a country and a city, slightly smaller than New York, with a population of around 5 million people. Singapore is currently a major financial capital of Asia, and has its roots as a British trading port. Because of these origins, Singapore is an incredibly diverse country, with Malays, Chinese, Indians, Arabs and Europeans all calling it home during the heyday of its trading port days.

National Museum of Singapore

Despite this diversity, or because of it, the national museum does an amazing job of representing ALL of these ethnic groups, instead of focusing, as many national history museums do, on the ethnic group in power. Walking through the exhibits, I encountered a traditional Chinese funeral procession, next to a redone British parlor, next to a famous journal of a merchant's life in Singapore, written in Arabic. Other rooms featured the lives and stories of women, while others told the stories of the poorest of the poor and those who fought on their behalf. As I progressed through the exhibits, I stood entranced by one room after another as I listened to real voices from history tell their stories through the complimentary audio guide. I heard voices tell stories of great suffering, as I gazed on pictures of Chinese slums. I also heard stories of the great comfort and respite from the heat that the newly invented electric fans provided the European elite. I heard the stories of Japanese soldiers, and the opposing Malay volunteers who fought and were captured when Singapore fell in World War II.

Slowly, little by little, these stories began to form a much larger story; the story of a nation. A nation where it is perfectly normal to hear snippets of English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and Tagalog as you walk along the street. A nation where cultural differences abound and yet peace and mutual respect prevail. Though Singapore is by no means a perfect nation, there is a lot that we Americans can learn. I hope that the Nepali's, Sudanese, Burmese, Iraqi's and Somali's that we are welcoming to this country, may one day see their stories and cultures reflected in our American story. That despite our differences, mutual respect will prevail.

-J.P.

Click here to view more pictures of the museum.

Speak. Listen. Respect.

Here in Florida we are in the midst of Republican Primary chaos. With the election set for Tuesday, soon we will all have a better sense of who will be challenging President Barack Obama this November. In the meantime, the airwaves are saturated with attack ads by Romney and Gingrich. I was struck by the back-and-forth between the two leading candidates during Thursday night’s debate. At times, I felt as though I were watching little kids arguing on a playground.

At one point, however, Romney said something that I hope all the candidates will take into consideration in the future: “It’s not worth getting angry about.”

I think we should all take that lesson into our own lives as well. Too often, we become so passionate about our views that we lose the ability to effectively communicate them to others. And at the same time we fail to listen to the opposing perspective in a cordial, rational manner because we become angry at that opposing perspective. Instead, we need to take advantage of the ability to exchange views and, when possible, mutually educate one another on a path towards consensus. EVERYONE has a lesson to teach us. EVERY situation has a moment of enlightenment.

We are all tired of an inefficient political system that is holding up legislation (on immigration!), judicial appointments, and countless other matters. Let’s start listening to one another respectfully and reaching for common ground in our society—especially in the daily conversations of our personal lives.

--Adam

No time to think. Time for sleep now. Time to sink way into the blue.

It’s been an intense and rocky start to the New Year. However, keeping in mind that some of the most amazing roads are a little rough to travel, I’d like to share some snap-shots of the remarkable “rest-stops” I’ve past through these last couple of weeks on Route 2012.

• Receiving a sincere hug when you need it is most.
• Feeling the full support of our community.
• Witnessing an astounding change of heart, and having the power of love reaffirmed.
• Hand-drawn pictures on our refrigerator.
• Laughing as a community, till our sides ache through all hours of the night.
• Working together despite sleep deprivation, adversity and injustice.
• Walking with one another through the doldrums and patiently plodding our way back to normality.
• Recognizing when the waves get rough, sometimes we need to let go, stop fighting and simply ride out the storm.
• Soaking up the serenity of our garden.
• Painting our friends’ new house beautiful, bright, vibrant colors on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
• Holding hands.
• Listening to crickets.
• Dancing, which in this case is actually just bouncing around, with your roommate in the living room to C’est La Vie at 1:30 in the morning until you are re-energized and breathless.

This list doesn’t do justice to the beauty of each moment it tries to capture. That’s fine though, everyone reading this has these own mental postcards from their travels this month. Besides the real beauty comes from being present, fully alive in those moments. The list is just a reflection, a reminder of how incredible it all is. In the busy weeks that will compose the rougher terrain we travel, grace is found in not losing sight of the scenery.

V

Hospice

Happy New Year

It is a beautiful snowy, cold day in Ohio. Last night we had a white out and temperatures dropped to 8 degrees. The sun is now shining....

Life on the farm continues to be good - recent days have been spent in the greenhouse seeding a variety of flowers for spring and tending to Easter lilies. I also did a little house keeping and cleaned and painted the farm garage kitchen.

My post today will take a different path - I have been a Hospice companion volunteer for 3 years. Each month I spend one day at Hospice House visiting patients and their families. Hospice House is a 16 room "home" complete with library, kitchen, fireplaces, play area and beautiful gardens. Some patients compare it to staying in a five star hotel with all the comforts. It is a peaceful place for respite care or to spend your final days.

In addition to my monthly visits to Hospice I have a patient at a skilled nursing home. My first friend Alma threw me out of her room on the first visit!! It took a few visits to convince her I was harmless and we became friends. Our friendship lasted 6 months until she died one Saturday morning. Fortunatley I live close to the nursing home and was able to spend a few mintues with her before her departure. Over time I have met new patients and their families but our time together was very short. Of course this is the nature of Hospice - being present to someone in their final days. In March 2011, June and I began a friendship that lasted 10 months. June and I visited several times a week, in the beginning we had great conversations about her life and all that she loved to do. We would go outside to sit in the sun and watch the birds or look at the flowers. As time went on her desire to be outside faded and we spent time watching the world from her window. Our conversations became fewer with me talking and June listening. Many times we just sat in silence holding hands.

On January 13 as I was driving to the farm I received a call that June had passed away in her sleep. I had been with her two days prior and sat with her while she napped. Did the call take me by surprise? No but there was still that moment that can't quite be put into words. When I arrived at the farm I shared the news with the farm crew and cried. I know that the crew is my community when I can be comfortable enough to share and cry.

"In being with dying, we arrive at a natural crucible of what it means to love and be loved. And we can ask ourselves this: Knowing that death is inevitable, what is most precious today?"

Roshi Joan Halifax.

Blessings

Beth

Papayas, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Doilies, and a Crayon Created Piece of Art. . .now that's something to smile about

What do a papaya, a bag of cucumbers, and a hand crocheted doily all have in common? They were all gifts given to my by the woman I teach English to in her home (see Sarah’s previous blog about School on Wheels). At the end of our second lesson she asked me if I liked papayas. When my answer was yes, she led me out to a tree in her yard and proceeded to hand pick a fresh papaya from the branches to give to me. A few lessons later she had a bunch of cucumbers that she had received from a friend. When asked if I liked cucumbers my response was another yes. She told me I could take some if I liked. I chose two from the top of the pile at which point she informed me that that was not nearly enough and began to hand me more. I left with a plastic shopping bag full. The most touching of these gifts came during our last lesson before Christmas. I showed up to her trailer on December 21^st with nothing but a smile and a lesson plan. After our lesson I had some extra time so we sat and talked about our plans for Christmas. I told her about how I was going back home to see my family in Michigan but that I was sad that my brother would not be able to be there. She then told me that she was also sad because she could not see her brother who lives in North Carolina—or the rest of her family that still lives in Mexico. We spent the next twenty minutes telling each other about our families. Before I left she went over to a box on her kitchen counter and pulled out a doily that she had made just for me. I left her that day with a smile and a keepsake to remember our conversation.

Then there was the time when the volunteer house as a whole was having a rough day. What exactly we were upset about I don’t remember. What I do remember is hearing a knock on the door and seeing our neighbor standing outside with a smile and a bag of fresh tomatoes. He had gotten a bunch from the fields and he wanted to share them with us. During our conversation with him he informed us that he was so glad that we were all down here in Florida. He and his wife love having the volunteers as neighbors and it really means a lot to them that we would spend a year living and working in Immokalee. Hearing that and having a tangible experience of the community we are a part of down here was exactly what we needed that day. He left us all in the kitchen with smiles on our faces.

Another part of my community is my classroom. One of my students in afterschool is still in the process of learning English. At the beginning of the year she didn’t speak to me or her daytime teacher at all. After about a month she began to speak some Spanish to me. We are at the point now where she freely speaks in Spanish to me but is mixing in some English. Seeing this progress has been a beautiful experience for me. One day last week the first thing she said to me was the full sentence, “Why were you not here yesterday?” This alone would have been enough of a gift to me. Then while she was waiting in the bus line at the end of the day she called me over to show me the picture she had drawn that day. I told her that she had done a good job and that it was beautiful. She then looked at me, handed me the picture, and said, “It’s for you.” Two full sentences in English and one picture later and I couldn’t help but smile.

The point I am trying to make here is not that life is great because I am receiving physical gifts. It is that I am truly a part of the community here in Immokalee. These tokens are only outward signs of the connections that I have to the people here and they cannot begin to show the depth of my ties to this place. While I strive to share my gifts with this community, the truth is that the gifts it shares with me are far greater than anything I as an individual can ever hope to return. I am one small part of this greater whole and in many ways I need this community more than it needs me.

Peace Out

Love,

Babs

Organize!

If I could describe what I do in Immokalee in one word it would be “organize.” Among my various jobs here, I organize in many different ways.

At Student/Farmworker Alliance, I help students across the country organize workshops, actions, and other events. I correspond to the students via phone and email and often send them packets and materials used to teach people about Immokalee and the struggles farmworkers face.

As an afterschool teacher, I organize activities for my students to work on in the classroom. Each day, I plan four “learning centers” for the children to rotate through. I have a homework center, language center, math center, and computer center. The activities at each range from worksheets to educational flash cards to games that reinforce the lessons they are taught during the school day. Making sure I have things for the kids to do during afterschool takes a lot of organizing and planning each week.

Another job we have as HM Volunteers in Immokalee is organizing four week-long immersion trips for groups for colleges and high schools. This takes an incredible amount of planning. We budget for the groups every meal, all the site visits, sleeping and showering accommodations, as well as transportation. While it is rewarding to share Immokalee with these groups, it takes a lot of hard work and organizing to make sure the experiences are good ones.

Even within our own community in our house we must organize. Every day we have to discuss how we will share the vehicles to get to our respective work sites. Since we live about an hour away from Naples and Ft. Myers, we are careful about budgeting our trips out there and always try to do several errands at once.

Organizing is a huge part of what we do in Immokalee. I am grateful for the chance to develop these skills in various settings. There is no doubt it will help me in the future.

Lessons Learned

Within the last five months I have experienced the joy and challenges of many life lessons. I have been gaining much perspective into my life and what is truly important. I feel very fortunate to the experiences that have prompted these lessons. Below is a list of just many lessons and renewed perspective that has come to mind as I have entered the "real world".

1) Palmolive soap isn’t a good substitute for Dawn dishwasher soap

2) The difference between subsidized and unsubsidized loans

Good reference for those battling loan debt: https://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/SaGlossary.do

3) How to make a Tina certified edible omelet (thanks JP!)

4) Loan companies aren’t always on your side. Cross check companies and speak to two representatives for each company. Keep a log. Make sure they give you consistent information.

5) Lesson planning isn’t as easy as it looks

6) Grad school mission statements are hard to write. Give yourself more than a week to write them!

7) How to use public transportation (yay RTA)

8)How to grate cheese with perfection (my kitchen duty)

9)How to use mail merge and make pretty labels!

10)There is no more precious gift than your siblings

11) Most of the time what you are looking for is right in front of you (aka keys) and God gives us what we need everyday

12) When disciplining a high school student to consciously make sure I am using an adult “voice” and not a parent “voice”. Language use is essential to starting a good conversation. I will give the name of the book below.

The Parent Voice:

Authoritative, directive, judgmental, demanding, sometimes punitive

- You shouldn’t (should) do that

- It’s wrong (right) to do_____.

- Life’s not fair. Get busy.

- You are good, bad (any judgmental, evaluative comment).

- Why can’t you be like__________?

The Adult Voice:

Non-judgmental, free of negative, non-verbal, factual, question format questions

- In what ways could this be resolved?

- What factors will be used to determine the effectiveness, quality of___?

- I would like to recommend_____________.

- What are your choices in this situation?

- Options that could be considered are________.

- I am comfortable (uncomfortable) with___________.

13) Lecturing is sometimes one of the least effective ways to teach

14) The GRE exam is created to make most college educated individuals feel inferior

15)Finding joy in the simple things is an easy way to increase your happiness and enjoy life!

16) Stepping out of your comfort zone can give you needed perspective on your life and your future

17) Just because friendships end it doesn’t mean you can’t look back on them with happiness and smile

18) Take the road not taken

19) People deserve second chances, but not always third, fourth, and fifth chances

20) You never have to settle. Not in a relationship, job, or anything. If your unhappy find a solution as soon as you possibly can.

Payne, R. K., Ph.D. (Fourth Edition). Discipline. In a framework for understanding poverty (Fourth revised ed., p. 84). Highlands, TX: Aha! Process, Inc. (Original work published 1996) Number 12 information derived from this wonderful book!

I'm sorry for the late post! I hope all is well.

Love, Tina

NAFTA, Smithfield Farms, and Immigration

I first learned about the story of Smithfield Hog Farms while watching the move “Food Inc.” a few years back. However, I recently stumbled upon another great piece of journalism that sheds even more light on the Farm’s controversial practices. Throughout the article, you can find encapsulating themes of environmental degradation, oppression of organized labor, neoliberalism, and immigration. You can find the article here

I would like to briefly discuss the latter issue with which I deal on a daily basis. I'm sure the Immakolee volunteers would also have some great thought on this issue. In short, the effects of Smithfield's practices on immigration can be summed up this way, “In the mid-’90s, Mexicans pushed by the effects of NAFTA to leave the Veracruz countryside began arriving in North Carolina and going to work at the Tar Heel slaughterhouse” Once the neoliberal reforms of NAFTA went into effect, Smithfield dumped cheap pork on the Mexican market, forcing small farmers out of work and choose between two options; stay in Veracruz Mexico in immense poverty, or migrate to the U.S to work... wait for it.... in the Smithfield hog farms in North Carolina.

Once the migrant workers (many of which were undocumented - a fact that im sure Smithfield was compliant to ignore) began to empower themselves through organized labor, Smithfield basically called Immigration Customs Enforcement on themselves. Much of the workforce was scared into submission by the company as many migrant workers were thus deported.

The article is a very good read and sheds light on some very controversial practices. However, some points of discussion stemming from this piece are clear. With immigration being such a hot political topic in the US, how far will Americans go in discerning their own role in forcing workers to migrate to the US? With the facts presented in the article about NAFTA's affects on Mexican migration, is immigration reform possible without a intense scrutinization of NAFTA and our current neoliberal trade policies? How responsible is Smithfield farms? Just some food for thought, and I hope you give it a read!

Cheers!

Anthony

In Immokalee, we have the opportunity to become tutors in a program called School on Wheels. As tutors in this program, we individually travel to a woman’s home to teach her conversational English one hour a week. This arrangement facilitates a very personal one-on-one relationship that, for me, has been and continues to be one of the most special interactions of my volunteer experience.

Perhaps because of the fact that (at first) only basic verbal communication was possible, I have learned that laughter, patience, smiles, and eye contact can reveal the general idea of what one wants to say. These movements can demonstrate kindness and personality. What is more important, however, is that that they also build a sense of trust as well as a sense of confidence in one another that smoothes the process of learning, breaks down teacher/student barriers, and slowly creates a nascent friendship.

To provide a better visual of how this looks, I would like to write about the woman who I tutor. When I first met her, it was after I had spent a half hour driving around Immokalee on the phone with her as she was patiently attempting to give me directions (in Spanish) to her home. With my basic Spanish, this was somewhat humorous from a retrospective point of view. After meeting her, I realized that she is, firstly, courageous for letting me come into her home and for putting herself out there to learn. Shortly afterwards, I realized that she is not only extremely bright but also has an astounding memory. In later visits, she proved herself powerful. She has raised several children and is in the process of raising a few more. She has sent her oldest son to college, and it is clear that her youngest children are also bursting to learn. Perhaps most importantly, however, she also is able to the find the humor in the small things in life, and my favorite memory is the two of us laughing for a good five minutes when it was me who messed up the model dialogue in English.

The lasting power of this experience with School on Wheels truly lies in this woman’s charisma and in the opportunity to see her each week, learn of her struggles and history, and see how she endeavors to learn a wholly new language all the whilst she cares for family and those around her. There is much to learn from her example.

(Picture was taken from Google Images/Printable Coloring Pages)

Sarah

There Is No Object; Service, Goal Orientation, and Production.

Goal orientation is a big part of our culture. There is this construct that to succeed in life, you visualize what you want, make a plan, execute the plan, and then you will obtain your goal. When taken under consideration, this is not the process of success, but the process of production. You work (not only work, but toil) and at the end of your work you have a finished product. This is an absolutely horrible way to look at service. There is no done. There is never done. This can be frustrating. It feels like you're going no where, or worse, that you're going backwards and at the end of the day you have nothing to show for it. In service, the need to “have something to show for it” will eventually drive you crazy.

I help manage a clothing donation room and sometimes I go in and find that the hours spent folding the day before have been undone or a delivery of donations has been made and there are a dozen new bags to go through. Every now and then my heart sinks, but it's times like these that have taught me to stop looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. This is not a statement of defeat. I've simply chosen to recognize that my service is not production. It's not about being done. I do as much as I can, I try to do the most useful things first and I understand the room will never be perfect. Instead, I acknowledge that I organize to make it easier for those coming to find a most basic need, clothing.

Rejecting the framework of production as success also helps maintain ones sanity when working in direct social service. I spend a few hours, a few days a week, with a child, for a few months. I cannot, in that time, make them actualized little people. I can't teach a toddler why biting isn't a good coping technique. Instead, I just have to work a little more each day to decrease the frequency with which s/he tries to bite someone. S/He tries to bite, I put hir in time out. S/He leaves time out. I put hir back. There is no goal, there is no product, only process.

Service is not production. When these children leave I will “have nothing to show for it.” As I say this I know there are people reading who will protest and say “of course you do” and will proceed to give me an example, but the child is gone and the clothes are a mess. Each day I serve I am encouraged to remember that it is not about the goal, but about the process. The worker building the brake system does not hope to see the car. I have no destination. There is no object. I have time, passion, and life. There is process, and journey, and joy. When one child leaves I will greet the next and when the tshirt piles begin to mount, god knows, I will sort them.

~Jennifer