Dear world that reads my blog,
I’m
back! Sorry about that super long hiatus, but guess what? It’s a
new year, and part of my new year’s resolution is to start blogging more
consistently--meaning at least twice a month! Get pumped! A lot has
been going on with me over the course of the past two months, which is why I’ve
been distracted from writing, so I’ll give you all a quick update on my
life:
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| From left: Hannah, Alyssa, Me, Anna Leigh, and Alex enjoy lunch at Antoine's! Yum! |
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| Jim, Cheryl, Colleen, and I are pumped for Preservation Hall!! |
• I
went to see my family at Christmas and then I went to the college conference at
Montreat! Having not been to a conference at the beautiful Presbyterian
retreat center since I was 9, I was excited to return, but in spite of the
awesome culture and scenery of the black mountains, the conference itself was
disappointing. Focused on the interfaith movement, it featured a bunch of
college aged Presbyterians being…Presbyterian. There was representation
from a few other Christian denominations, but alas! there was one lone Muslim
woman to teach us the value of interfaith cooperation! Yikes! Come
on, Presbyterians! If you’re going to have an interfaith conference,
invite some folks from DIFFERENT FAITHS! You know, so we can form
relationships and learn from each other and actually interact? That would
be helpful next time. Just a thought.
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| Rare reindeer/alligator hybrid spotted at City Park's "Celebration in the Oaks"! |
• I found
a new passion! As though I needed another one, right? So, just
before I went to Florida for Christmas, my friend Crawford and I started plotting about scheduling a
service day for the youth group he oversees through the Presbytery of South
Louisiana to be held on Martin Luther King Jr. day. Of course, because I
work in a garden, I was excited about the opportunity to teach the kids about
food justice, while Crawford was excited about the opportunity to teach them
more about the civil rights movement. We decided that I should teach two
Sunday school classes on Food Justice and Race in the weeks prior to the
service day.
Perhaps
I’m just a big idiot, but when I started doing research about the relationship
between these two subjects, I was agog at how intertwined they are.
Reading Will Allen’s awesome book: “The Good Food Revolution” (which I highly recommend), informed me of all
kinds of limited accessibility issues that I was completely unaware of, that significantly impact farmers of color. I knew food deserts were a problem, but
not until I checked out the incredibly awesome USDA food desert map
(available here) did
I realize how much they affected the community I currently serve in Pigeontown. The address of my school is 1800 Monroe Street, New Orleans, LA 70118, just in case you want to check out the stats yourself, but if you don't, here's the deal: in Pigeontown, almost 50% of my neighbors don’t
have access to vehicles, and over 80% are considered low income. The
nearest grocery store that sells vegetables is over a mile away, and the bus,
which is the only transportation many of them have, doesn’t run on Saturdays!
Who knew a map could provide that much information about social justice
issues I’m passionate about?! Way to go, geographers!
Anyway,
the Sunday school classes went really well and reminded me why I love teaching
adolescents, while stimulating my interest in how we as a society need to break
down the barriers of privilege and race so that everyone in our nation and
world has access to the basic right of healthy food.
And of course, the workday was fabulous! We had 12 youth (which is
a big number for this group!) and 5 adults come out and shovel mulch, weed,
enjoy the weather, and play games in the garden. Mission accomplished!
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| Zeppelin and Genevieve help paint signs during the MLK Jr. Day of Service at the Garden! |
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| My food justice bulletin board on display at Lakeview Presbyterian Church!
• I almost broke my foot last week! So not exciting. I went to get a cup of coffee, my foot had fallen asleep, and I put my entire body weight on the side of my foot to walk because I didn’t realize I wasn’t walking on my sole. YIKES! Anyway, it’s not broken, and my foot continues to change colors daily, which is actually kind of nice to look at.
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| See that enormous bruise? Well, imagine it raised an inch because it's full of blood, and you'll have a complete picture of the disaster that was my sprained foot. On the upside, don't my toenails look beautiful?! |
• Finally,
I applied to Princeton Theological Seminary in early December, on what I thought was a
whim, and not only did I get accepted, I got offered a fellowship to cover my
full tuition! Since submitting my application, I’ve realized that I
didn’t apply on a whim at all—I’ve actually wanted to go to seminary for a
really long time, I just haven’t gotten around to it. So, unless something
drastic happens and I need to defer, I’ve committed to spending the next four
years pursuing dual Master's degrees in my home state of New Jersey! Any
of you from PPC that read this blog, get excited, because you're going to be
seeing A LOT more of me!
Okay, so that’s it for now. Stay tuned
for the next 7 months of this fabulous year of my life, enjoy the blessings and
opportunities 2014 unfolds for you, and try to avoid Polar Vortexes whenever
possible! Love and lettuce to you all!
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| Look at this beautiful image of my homegrown lunch! (Well, the lettuce was homegrown! |
