Saturday

Today we're going to Santa Monica - to the beach and the pier. Tonight is everything that we absolutely have to do before we leave, including a BBQ, the talent/no talent show (TNT), secret buddy final gift exchange, affirmations, and closing. Lots of preparations to be made. Everyone is sneaking off to have secret conversations with other people, and it's getting very confusing.
This morning, the Bulldogs (my group) are on cooking duty, making pancakes. I slipped into the sanctuary for a few minutes, for a tiny bit of centering time. Once inside, it was completely silent, even though the kitchen is right nearby. I walked down the center aisle to stand in a patch of light streaming in from the stained glass windows on either side. I closed my eyes and just stood there in the silence and light. When I opened my eyes, I looked around. Each of the stained glass windows represents one of the apostles. The pool of light that I happened to be standing in was a combination of light coming through the Peter window on one side, and the Judas window directly opposite.
Love, Rebecca

The Museum of Tolerance

In addition to Katie's description of our trip to the museum yesterday, I would like to share a little bit about my experience. Quite honestly, I couldn't offer any comments on the earlier part of the exhibit- on various horrible things that were going on all over the place- because the Holocaust section completely erased all of it from my head. The Holocaust exhibit was particularly difficult for me because all of my great-grandparents, and most of my great-aunts and -uncles on my dad's side were killed in the Holocaust. I almost chickened out, and did not go through the exhibit, but with tremendous support from Becca and Katie, I figured I could make it. It was a tour guided completely by light and sound that described the events surrounding the Holocaust. The tour ended in a mock up of a gas chamber, which was really scary because we actually felt like the could have gassed us if they had wanted to. It was, overall, a rather horrible (although educational) experience. The only really great thing was the amazing atmosphere from all the other work campers in response to the emotional stress.

In other news, secret buddy gifts have been flying around (some, quite literally, as Becca's was thrown at her by an unknown person) and we are absolutely going to be playing psychiatrist tonight.

Love,
Monica

The Bet

Jasper lost the Guys' Bet, and therefore has to wear the infamous Dress in the talent show. The bet is always between any of the guys who have never worn the dress before, excluding any freshmen. This year, the guys involved (Jasper, Michael, Lorenzo) agreed to not say the word "kids" or "kid" or any variation thereof. Each 24-hour period, one more synonym was to be taken away. "Children" or "child" was the second word gone. The guys had been doing really well... Then we were sitting around, and Alexa and Jasper were talking about this person whose parents called them T.K., short for "The Kid." Jasper, without thinking, blurted out "so how's the kid doing?" and lost.

Scarier Than Halloween

Lions and condoms and blood, oh my! Today was rather interesting. Lorenzo, Alice, Monica, and myself (Becca) were given the task of organizing a loft at All Peoples. The first thing I saw after climbing the ladder was a bloody saw. On further inspection, it turned out to be plastic, but rather realistic. That was just the beginning. The next interesting thing we found among the bloody halloween decoration was a used condom on the floor. After Lorenzo dealt with that, I discovered a large stuffed lion under a rug. The lion had a noose tied around its neck, so Monica had to be brave and pick it up. It was very heavy for a stuffed animal (Monica was surprised, having expected soft & fluffy), and its tail was ripped partway off. Next up, we found a burlap bag with other stuffed animals - we didn't look in it. Then Lorenzo found another used condom. There was a can of slightly toxic paint, and there were large pink and purple spiders.
The other thing that happened today (scaryness) was that Nicole accidentally sliced her leg open with a razor. Jasper did emergency bandaging.
We've all survived our tramatic experiences very well, and are having a great time here overall. All Peoples is great. We took a tour of the neighborhoods today, and heard stories about the area. I spectacularly lost Uno to a group of 4th graders, which was all because I had no green cards. And now we're having lasagna, so that's all for now.
Love, Rebecca

Accidents and tolerance

Hello to all! I hope everything is going well at home. Today in the morning everyone went to All peoples to do more clean, while I took a trip to the hospital. Yesterday around 230, I went with a teacher from the center to pick up the middle skool. During the second trip we got into a car accident. We T-boned a small silver car. Thank god me and the cildren were in a big van. Some of the kids were shaken up, as was I but no major injuries. The doctor said that I have a bad case of whiplash and muscle strains but I am doing well. The scariest part however wasn't the accident. I was given the responsibility of walking the children back from the site to the center through streets that we had earlier been told about the gangs who live in the area. But we returned safely.
Later in the afternoon today we all took a trip to the Museum of Tolerance. We all had been touched in different ways. The first part of the museum was about terrorism, civil rights and other intolerance's facing our world today. One of the things that stood out to me the most was during a video of the struggle for the rights of African-Americans. At one point a young black man was talking with a older white man. The young man wanted to pray in the same church as the white people. The white man told him to go back where he came from and to pray with his own people. The boy asked "but i dont understand, I want to pray WITH you, cant we all pray together?" The white man responded by calling him the N-word and told him to got the F home. This truly struck me. The next exhibit was the holocaust memorial. Although this wasn't as graphic, was just as intense. After the tour was over we had a time of reflection in the van on the way home. Today was a lot to handle. But thankfully we all had each other to support each other and to have a shoulder to lean on. Well thats all for now. Peace and blessings!!!
-Katie

Photos

Here are some photos of our work at All People's Christian Center.


Katie and her boys.


The rug doctors, Jasper and Michael.


Susan teaches.


Monica listens.

Pranks

Last night, the guys decided to pull a prank on the girls. One by one, Michael, Jasper, and Nick made lame excuses for getting up after everyone went to bed. Nicole and I were suspicious, so we followed them and asked what they were doing. They were in the middle of doing something to our bathroom. In the morning, we discovered that they had filled many, many dixie cups with water and left them in our bathroom stalls - after having locked the stalls. Back to the middle of the night: Nicole and I had to use the bathroom, so we went over to the one in the other building at Jasper's request. We had to stick a rug in the door on our way out, because the door definitely locks when it closes. When we came back, we told the guys that they had almost locked us out. 30 seconds later, the three of them ran outside to the bathroom in the other building (to continue their prank) and the door slammed behind them. Well, they had definitely locked themselves out while doing a prank on us, and they had definitely just told us to go back to bed. So we went back to bed. What else?! We left them out there for around an hour and a half to two hours, before we had pity on them and let them back in. Jasper was trying to use a roll of toilet paper as a pillow. Apparently, later that night, Jasper sleepwalked back outside - and Adam had to go respond to his urgent knockings.
In the middle of the night, after the prank had been completed, Katie got up to go use the bathroom. Having specifically asked not to be pranked, she was, shall we say, rather mad. She went into the guys bathroom and trashed the place in retaliation. Katie also peed in the boys' showers, given that there was nowhere else to do it.
The rest of the girls are still plotting revenge. This morning, we moved all of the dixie cups full of water to outside the guys' bathroom - blocking the door. But that was really just damage control. So more later, I promise. For last night, it was sufficient just to keep them locked out (we really considered leaving them out all night) and trashing their bathroom.
This morning, we also had to deal with a backed-up toilet, and I am very proud that Sarah and myself did plunging duty.
Today, we're off to All Peoples for the morning. Our afternoon will be spent at the Tolerance Museum. And our evening will be spent plotting.
Love, Rebecca