Melissa McLamb's Blog
the need for exposure. / 05.22.08, 01:54 PM
There are children in the neighborhood who have never been outside of N. Lawndale and some who do not know about Lake Michigan and how close it is. Chicago is such a great city! There’s so much to do that’s fun and free and open to the public (and that kids love too!) but it’s like those opportunities are still from ‘another world’ for some families living just outside the city.
We all had a day off of school and so some of the kids from the apartment building, Aswan (*remember the first newsletter? This is the funny, friendly boy who asked Sam and me to tutor him/ who also just recently moved but we have kept up with one another. I made him an awesome mix c.d and he called to tell me he loves it) and I went to the Field Museum downtown. A simple trip right? Just me and 4 kids, a few hours at the museum and then back home mid-afternoon…Yeah, right. I realized that day how different and easier it would be to have a car at times, getting to places with other people. I had to make sure all the kids had fare cards with enough money on them to get to and from downtown and if not, that we could make up for it with change, and what about transfers? Will we get food, will that be an extra stop? What time will we get there, how long will we be at the museum? And with travel time back, what time do you guess it will be? As a house, we have set aside money as ‘ministry fund’ and it can go towards things like transportation to do good things with our neighbors. We had a great time together. This was back in February.
We walked through this evolution exhibit at the museum. And I found Yakira staring at and standing in front of an early hominid. (it was inside a glass box). So I said something to Yakira about the idea that we have evolved from these creatures and I asked her what she though of that.
Y: I would kill myself.
M: But what if everyone else you knew looked similar and people as we know them only looked like ‘this’ and you weren’t really aware of how you looked…like there are no mirrors or clothes?
Y: I don’t care. I wouldn’t want to live.
She wouldn’t even think twice about it.
LOOK! It’s Keante, Yakira and Telia playing in the snow while we wait f.o.r.e.v.e.r for the bus to come. THe kids are so funny. it’s all about immediate sense experience with them – either we are having the time of our lives or we are bored out of our minds. so we had to make fun as we waited for the bus. they were literally questioning why they had come at all after we had waited over 5min for the bus. it was cold and we were tired.
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