The Dark With The Light.

Life has been heavy as of late.

At the end of February, the mother of a friend in Senegal passed away. Two weeks later my teammate Tia's father died, resulting in her leaving our team at Mitchell and quitting City Year. Last week, the mother of a close childhood friend died after years of struggle with Multiple Sclerosis. And yesterday? I found out that one of the guys I work with has HIV.

Whew.

I feel too young to have so many friends be losing parents, or to be losing friends myself.

In all of this, I learned that 41% of black Milwaukee men who have sex with men (MSM...a more general term than gay, for those who prefer not to be labeled as gay or who are bisexual, etc) are HIV positive. Let me reiterate: there is a 41% chance that a black man in Milwaukee who practices MSM has HIV. That's a higher rate than for a black, MSM-practicing man in Soweto, South Africa where 17.8% of ALL adults (15-49) have HIV.
(http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/southafrica_statistics.html#76)

And you know what else? My plans for a school garden were rejected by our principal. Apparently a sustainability plan through 2013 just wasn't detailed enough for her.

Needless to say, morale has been low on Cramer Street as of late.

However, my high school friend Kristine is getting married next weekend! Deji and I are going to the wedding and I'm so happy for her. Spring has been slow-coming to MKE but the sun is out today with ample amounts of blue sky. Shenanigans with Governor Walker in Madison continue. Our faculty was notified last week that lay-offs would be announced Thursday or Friday for 2011-2012. We didn't know anything as of late Thursday, so it'll be coming this week. It's a tough situation for everybody.

Last week City Year volunteered with a group in Milwaukee called Growing Power. This guy Will Allen bought three acres on the north side of the city and converted it into a full-fledged farm. There are 12+ greenhouses, goats, turkeys, bees, and some very large fish tanks for perch and tilapia. They grow all kinds of vegetables, herbs, and fruit and sell a lot of this produce during the summer. Growing Power also runs camps for urban kids, exposing them to dirt and grubs and seeds they would never see otherwise. A very cool place, check it out if you can:

http://www.growingpower.org/

Wishing you all well in your various parts of the world.

My apologies for the outrageous delay. Obviously I'm not great at writing in this regularly. Also obviously, lots has happened.

Five of my thirty students have left Mitchell, some for different cities in WI, some for different schools in Milwaukee. We gained one completely new student (he moved here from Florida, poor kid) and two transfers from the more dysfunctional sixth grade class next door. Currently, we have 27 students.

All of the Scott Walker shenanigans have effected us as well. Many teachers in Mitchell are vehemently pro-union, or at least pro-worker's rights, and have been wearing red for weeks. (I still don't know why the color of this protest is red. Is it because it's attention-grabbing? Or because it's Badger colors? Is it a state color that I just don't know about??) Mrs. Koscielak (the teacher I work with every day) has started looking for new positions in other states because the outlook is so bleak for teachers.

I've been crazy busy as a member of City Year's "CE Team" (Civic Engagement). We plan and execute volunteer days in the community and in April Mitchell will be hosting one. I'm trying really, really hard to get a school garden planted during this day but have to jump through all sorts of hoops to even get an approval. There will be more to tell later this week on that. Cross your fingers for me.

....I'm getting kicked out of my planning room for a Teacher's Aides meeting with the Principal...gulp. Adios!