Musings from the Coolest White Person You've Ever Met

On friday I went to Ocean City with a bunch of other interns and swam in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in my life. It was God damn cold. Saturday we went to New York City. We ate at Dallas BBQ, saw the typical sights, and then a few of us went to a comedy show at the Comic Strip and saw some pretty funny comedians. It was alot of fun except for the fact that there was a two drink minimum at the comedy club and drinks were 13 dollars. It was really nice to get some time in with other interns in a more casual environment. It's starting to feel much more like I have friends here rather than just co-workers.

On monday we had program and hung out with kids afterward and it was a pretty typical day. Later monday night, I was sitting on my porch, listening to music, being all pensive and melodramatic about somthing, when a guy walked up and introduced himself. He asked if Chad (another intern) was home and he was so I retrieved him. Chad and I sat on the porch and talked to this man, as chad had clearly done before, for a couple of hours. As it turns out, this guy is a minister at a local church. He is gay. He has not told his congregation about this little detail of his personal life but for some reason he feels comfotable being open about it with us. He is more passionate about the Lord than possibly any other person I've ever met. I am very glad to have met him and feel blessed to have heard what he had to say during the conversations that we had. It was raining so we gave him a ride home and told him to stop bye our house anytime.

On tuesday we had program like every other day and afterwards another intern, named jordan, and I took 3 kids to a restraunt in Collingswood for dinner. The three 8th grade boys that we brought were the only non-white people in the restraunt. Once we were seated, everyone in the restraunt seemed to be staring at us. I joked that they must have thought that me and Jordan were gay and that the 3 boys were our adopted children, but I very much doubt that was the real reason. It was kind of a shock for me. At one point during dinner, one of the kids leaned in and wispered "no offence, but you two are the coolest white people I have ever met". We took no offence. The kids also said that we were the coolest interns they've ever had and begged us to stay in Camden past the end of the year. It's going to be hard for me to leave these kids at the end of May. As we were walking to the car after dinner one of our kids (the one that is constantly giving us trouble but we love him) showed us that he had taken the silverware from the restraunt to be funny. We told him that it wasn't funny and he needed to put them back. He then started throwing up because he had eaten too much. Jordan said "thats karma for stealing" and then took the silverware back into the restraunt. About 5 minutes later in the car the kid asked, "So Jesus made me throw up?". We laughed histarically.

Last night we took all the 7th and 8th graders to a haunted house at the Eastern State Pennitentiary. It was fun. I wore my holloween costume (a dress and a wig) and the kids really got a kick out of it. Today the intern who usually takes the 5th grade class was sick and I sub'd for her class. It made me really apreciate my 8th graders. I'm not too fond of the younger kids. I even had a fight in my class. I sent the kids to our camp director and they both got suspended. One of the kids mothers came in and was ripping our director a new asshole when I walked up. Being that I have quite a bit of experience in management, I am accustomed to handling complaints and irrate people. I was able to help diffuse the situation and the mother left relatively happy.

Over the last week or so alot of the high school age kids have seemed to get more comfortable with me and they have opened up to me about life in this city. This week is initiation for Bloods in Camden. Alot of the high school kids have been telling me which gang their families are members of and that they have to resist pressure from their families to join these gangs. Can you even fathom what that must be like?!... the answer is no, you can't... and I can't either. These kids parents, the people that are supposed to be protecting them and guiding their decisions in a possitive way, are the ones pressuring them to join a gang. It has really made me realize how important what we are doing here is. Urban Promise Ministries does amazing things for this city and I feel so blessed that I am able to be the possitive adult influnce in some of these kids lives.... Holy shit!... who would have ever thought that I, Matt Williams, would ever be a possitive adult influence? It still sounds strange to say.

Brett gave my mom a few pairs of shoes to give to the skater kids that sakte in our parking lot. I got the box of shoes and other stuff that my mom sent yesterday. The kids were incredibly excited and thankful for the skate shoes. It was so much fun to give them to them.

5th graders doing homework

Jeffry(possibly my favorite 8th grader) making a stupid face

Eman wearing Bretts shoes

Cheese Steaks

It's been a long week. I last blogged on friday when I was still sick. On Saturday I slept untill 3pm and was finally feeling better. I awoke to a phone call from James and Michelle Shaddy, informing me that they were on the East Coast and wanted to come see me. They showed up in Camden around 7pm and we headed into Philly to get some cheese steaks, which was something I was still yet to do since moving here. We went to Ishkabibble's on a recomendation from my friend Garret. We arrived in Philly and it was pouring rain. The parking situation looked hopeless, untill out of no where some crack head was standing in the middle of the street directing me into an open parking spot. The man asked for a 5 for finding me the spot and considering that the parking structures were charging 18, I saw it fitting to give him what I had on me (which was 2$). We walked to Ishkabibbles and ordered our cheese steaks. Because it was raining outside, there were no open seats inside of Ishkabibbles. James and I hovered over a group of people for a minute untill they felt uncomfortable and got up (James is 6'5'' and 300lbs for those who dont know him). We were then able to sit and eat our cheese steaks which were every bit as amazing as we could have ever hoped. We then went to Fridays and had a few beers. It was incredibly nice to just sit and have a drink with people who know me inside and out and just truly relax with my friends.

On sunday all of the interns were asked to sing in a Presbyterian church that supports Urban Promise. Considering that I have never sang for anyone who didn't just happen to walk in on me in the shower, It was a interesting experience for me. The nice, old (and apparantly near deaf) people at the church said we sounded great.

We only had two days of program this week because we had to prepare for the Urban Promise Banquet. The banquet is a meal and a show that Urban puts on every year for major donors in hopes of recieving funds. It is heald in the Ballroom in Collinswood. It was one of the coolest buildings I had ever been in. There is a baquet hall on the bottom floor and on the very top floor there is a huge theater. On Wed. we went to set up the stage. As we began to decorate the stage, I think they quickly realized the depth of my artistic ability becuase I was swiftly put in charge of raising and lowering the beems over the stage so that backdrops and courtains and things could be hung. In doing so I earned myself a part in the show (standing on the balcony above the stage pulling ropes to lower curtains and backdrops when neccisary). I was supprised to see how much preparation and detail goes into putting something like that on. The show was incredibly moving. The goal for the night was to raise 150,000 dollars so hopefully the people in the audience were as moved as I was.

James and Michelle at Fridays






My work space for the show






Moochie and Kareem (the kid that interviewed Diane Sawyer)

Week 1

So I have been here for over a week now and have gotten into the full swing of things. I had my first full week of the after school program this week. It seemed to go well. Apparantly my class is known for being pretty wild but they must still be scared of me cuz they have been pretty good. I'm sure that will change quickly. All of the other interns here are really cool but I definately miss my friends back in Cali. Plus it is god damn cold here now and its raining. I'm told that the mountains aren't even getting snow yet cuz they aren't high enough elevation. Rain that is not working towards making the mountains ready for snowboarding just seems like a giant waste.
They keep us rediculously busy here. We are pretty much booked from 9am to 9pm everyday between comunity service and the after school programs and meetings and what not and their are required events on most weekends as well. I have, however, gotten to play a ton of basketball which has been fun.

On Wed night about 8 other interns and I drove into Philidelphia to see a band called Hey Ocean at some bar. So of course as soon as we walked in I left the group, going streight to the bar, and got a beer. Seeing as how, as interns, we aren't supposed to drink ,I assumed I would be silently judged by the mojority of the other interns. But when I cought back up with the rest of the group, everyone had gotten drinks. It was nice to get out of the little area of Camden where we spend the majority of our time and get a few drinks. The band was rediculously good.

With the exeption of two kids from my 8th grade class, the kids that we took to the skate park last weekend were high school kids who have never been involved with urban promise. They just skateboard in the parking lot everyday. Yesterday, one of these kids came into Urban and asked about volenteering with the jr. high and elementary school kids. I thought that was really cool that we impacted him enough to where he wanted to help out. The last two days I have been getting sick and I feel like hell at the moment so I am going to end this here. Thanks to everyone who has been texting me or facebooking me everyday to see how things are going. Peace.

Sore As Hell

I arived in Camden on Thursday and was thrown into the fire imediately. I got here at about 2pm, was shown where I would be living, introduced to my roomates and then had my first day of the after school program at 3. The first day went pretty well. I am going to be taking over the 8th grade class for an intern who is leaving. The class seemed pretty fun and by the end of the first day they had learned my name and had stopped calling me "tattoos" or "muscles". I also was able to play basketball for about an hour against some random guy from the neighborhood who wondered into the gym after program (program is short for after school program incase you are half retarded and couldn't pick up on that). He won 11 to 10 on a pretty nice pull up jumper but i'll get him next time. Yesterday the entire Urban Promise staff took a tour of Camden. This city is pretty rediculous and really run down. Buce Main (founder of urban) sat next to me on the bus and I was able to chat with him a bit. He seems like a really amazing guy and it turns out he is an APU graduate. My roomates seem chill so far. A couple of the other guys in the house and I have gotten cigars and smoked out on our porch the last couple nights which has been nice. The kids here are so much fun and aparantly are extremely fond of batman because i've had someone pioint at my tattoo and say, "Is that the joker?... man, thats live!" about four times a day since I got here. Today two other interns and I packed two cars full of kids (8th-10th graders) and headed to a skate park that is under an overpass in Philidelphia. The kids were pretty awsome skaters. Most of them are far better than I have EVER been. They do, however, now all think that I am crazy because I have absolutely no regard for my health/safety and was trying things that they wouldn't dream of trying. Needless to say, I have bruises everywhere and am going to be extremely sore tomorrow. At one point I dropped into the 6 foot half pipe from a ledge that was two feet above the top and I fell in the middle slamming my shoulder into the opposite wall of the half pipe. I have a feeling my shoulder will be sore for at least a week. After the skatepark we took the kids to a church youthgroup service in Cherry Hill which is near bye city that is quite a bit nicer than Camden. We pulled up in our two cars, blasting System of a Down and Atreyu, banging our heads and going crazy. All the suburban chruch kids thought we were insane. We skated in their parking lot for a while, sat throught the service, went to Mcdonalds and bought the kids dinner, and then dropped em off at their houses. After that I sat down at my computer and wrote this blog... You are now all up to date. It's going to be a crazy, intence, difficult, amazing 8 months.

Philly Skate Park

Our kids skating

My House.

After School Program