The New Jersey Experiment: 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.