Update

So, sorry to everyone who has been checking this blog... with no new updates! My team and I are super busy all day, and usually do not have the chance to access computers very often. Right now, it is a quiet Saturday night. My five housemates and I are at a coffee shop in the suburbs. Our friend, Blair, just performed some muzak and poetry, and we came out to support him. I'll try to catch all you lovely people up on the past three weeks of my life.

First of all, the team met at our new home on Sunday, June 21st. Our house is located in the hub of the neighborhood, on the corner of two fairly busy streets. We are two blocks away from our director's house, two blocks from the CDC office, for whom are are working, across the street from a park, next door to our landlord, and about ten blocks away from the church where we hold daycamp (or is it daycare?!) Just recently, our house was the hotspot for drug activity, and the building next door staged as a laundromat but secretly was used in drug deals and the like. Our landlord, a Christian guy living out his faith in the neighborhood, bought a house next door to ours, to be close to the action and love on people. With time, our house became available, and he bought it as well. As for the laundromat, CDC bought it out, and turned it into a fresh produce store.

There are six of us living in the top half of a three bedroom, one bathroom duplex. It's very interesting. We have daycamp from roughly 7:30-3:30 daily, and at night we have various things planned. Our evenings consist of house worship night, studying the Word, studying a book we're reading, studying various articles on race/reconciliation, eating with pastors and other impactful people in the community, and personal devotion times. On the weekends, we are relatively free to relax and/or spend the time falling in love with the city. We receive $20 per person for a weekly groceries, and $25 as a weekly stipend. The grocery money does not usually carry us to the next week, so we usually spend our stipend on food as well!

Food provision in the neighborhood is a pretty big issue. There are no chain grocery stores in the entire city of Detroit, so we rely on small corner stores and other privately owned grocers to supply food. They gouge patrons pretty horribly, and the prices are comparable to a grocery store near a vacationing hotspot. We do not have transportation, so we have to borrow a car from someone to go grocery shopping every week.

We are now three weeks into the journey, and two weeks into daycamp. Daycamp is a tiring, tiring job. I, personally, am working with first graders. It is a crazy group of twenty-ish 5-7 year olds, and they usually cannot be contained. Many kids are not receiving structure or love at home, so it is a difficult task to break down barriers and love on them. The kids are provided with Bible time, Math time, Reading time, Recreation time, and Craft time. They seem to really enjoy themselves, but they have issues listening to authority, especially white young women. They almost always relate to men better.

We hold camp at various churches, and depending on the week, we may or may not have volunteer groups come in from the suburbs to help out. It is extremely helpful to have extra hands there. Unfortunately, my phone was stolen from one of the churches where we hold daycamp. Hopefully I will replace that soon.

Right now, the biggest things I am learning is humility. It is extremely humbling to ask for a car, or ask for a ride somewhere, or even to ask to borrow a phone now. For some time, we didn't have gas on in our house, so we had to ask to wash clothes or take a shower at someone else's house.

We also are faced with the fact that Jesus is already moving in this city. We are NOT some great missionaries. We are not the ones bringing the good news. It is imperitive that we realize how much we have to learn about race, religion, and this community. We must humble ourselves and accept our roles as observers. We will learn. We will be changed.


I'm going to leave it at that for now. We are all tired, and ready to go home and head to bed. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

-Paige