I have been in Buffalo for one full week now and what a week it has been! I'm getting used to the alarm system on our house and the street parking and I'm learning how to get around slowly but surely. We had a busy Orientation schedule which included getting aquainted with the West Side, the downtown, and yesterday we hit a few key spots on the East Side, which is predominately black. (The West Side, my neighborhood, is very multicultural and the home of many refugee families.)It was exciting to think about the African American Heritage here and the part that Buffalo played in the Underground Railroad given its proximity to Canada. I look forward to learning more about that.
I have had a few opportunities to experience the multiethnicity of the West Side-- There is a Karen church which has just started meeting in the church attached to the rectory where we have been meeting and we were able to be at part of a Wrist Tying Ceremony that they were having. The Karen people are primarly from Burma and Thailand and there are many Karen refugees in Buffalo. We weren't able to stay very long, but it was very cool to be welcomed in and to see a piece of their culture.
My second cultural experience was today when I decided to attend a Spanish Salvation Army church which meets around the corner from my house. It was wonderful. The service was predominately in Spanish, and mine is admittedly a little rusty, but they had a translator and the people were so welcoming! It was humbling to be the outsider and to not understand very well.
I start my placement on TUESDAY, not Monday as it is Labor Day, but I'm excited!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Embarking
I have moved to Buffalo.
I will be spending the next year living in the city and working through the Wesley Service Corps (a combined venture of Houghton College and AmeriCorps) with the Family Justice Center. I will learn more about what exactly that means soon enough, but for now I have moved into my new house on the West Side and am getting settled here. I love it. It's an old house and it's a relatively poor neighborhood and it's perfect. I have two apartment mates who live inthe upstairs with me, and three more housemates who live downstairs and we are going to have an awesome year of living and serving together. In addition to the six of us, there is another house of seven whoare also part of the WSC program.
Today we went downtown and had a little tour of the city. We met with Councilmember Rivera in the City Hall and talked with him about the Westside and Buffalo in general and then he went with us up to the Observation Deck of City Hall where you can see the whole city. It is really quite beautiful in its own way. I seem to be finding beauty in everything these days. So we oriented ourselves to the city from above and then dove in and toured it on street level. We stopped by two rallies-- one by PUSH Buffalo(People United for Sustainable Housing)speaking out against the National Fuel proposal and advocating for dialogue and the rights of the poor who are being screwed by the current proposal. (check it out http://www.pushbuffalo.org/index.html?id=20100902141257 )
The second rally we were at was VOICE Buffalo announcing the findings of a study done on public transportation and following it up with a call to invest more of the city's funds into the public transportation system. ( http://www.voice-buffalo.org/ )
After eating lunch downtown we made our way back to the Westside and met with County Legislator Maria Whyte, who had also interestingly spoken at the PUSH rally, about her passion for Buffalo and the work she is doing here.
There is a lot of really good work being done in the city and it's very exciting.
There is more to say and much more already learned and experienced, but for now, that will be all. :)
I will be spending the next year living in the city and working through the Wesley Service Corps (a combined venture of Houghton College and AmeriCorps) with the Family Justice Center. I will learn more about what exactly that means soon enough, but for now I have moved into my new house on the West Side and am getting settled here. I love it. It's an old house and it's a relatively poor neighborhood and it's perfect. I have two apartment mates who live inthe upstairs with me, and three more housemates who live downstairs and we are going to have an awesome year of living and serving together. In addition to the six of us, there is another house of seven whoare also part of the WSC program.
Today we went downtown and had a little tour of the city. We met with Councilmember Rivera in the City Hall and talked with him about the Westside and Buffalo in general and then he went with us up to the Observation Deck of City Hall where you can see the whole city. It is really quite beautiful in its own way. I seem to be finding beauty in everything these days. So we oriented ourselves to the city from above and then dove in and toured it on street level. We stopped by two rallies-- one by PUSH Buffalo(People United for Sustainable Housing)speaking out against the National Fuel proposal and advocating for dialogue and the rights of the poor who are being screwed by the current proposal. (check it out http://www.pushbuffalo.org/index.html?id=20100902141257 )
The second rally we were at was VOICE Buffalo announcing the findings of a study done on public transportation and following it up with a call to invest more of the city's funds into the public transportation system. ( http://www.voice-buffalo.org/ )
After eating lunch downtown we made our way back to the Westside and met with County Legislator Maria Whyte, who had also interestingly spoken at the PUSH rally, about her passion for Buffalo and the work she is doing here.
There is a lot of really good work being done in the city and it's very exciting.
There is more to say and much more already learned and experienced, but for now, that will be all. :)
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