Back to Life

Me and Majia (aka the cutest kid on the planet)

Once my kids left California, I had a couple more days to hang out in LA before I had to get on a plane back to Camden. After dropping the kids off at the airport I drove to Brett's apartment in Long Beach and we went to a bar on second street. When we got to the bar, I immediately became aware of how tired I was and, after about an hour, I decided to head home and get some sleep.

The next day, I woke up and met Brett and Jason and a couple other people at the waterfall that we sometimes go to in Mt. Baldy. Being at the waterfall really reminded me of how much I miss living in California. After the waterfall, we went back to Joey's and went in the pool. I then went back to my parents house, showered and got ready to go out for Cory's (college roommate's) birthday. I met Jake at his apartment in Azusa and then we headed to a liqueur store to do some birthday shopping for Cory. We then met Cory and his girlfriend and Chris Sevier (another college roommate) and his wife Lindsey for dinner at a Mongolian BBQ. It was so much fun to have everyone back together and reminisce about our ridiculous college days at "The San Dimas House". After dinner, we went to T. Phillips which is a bar we frequented when we were students at APU. I had a blast catching up and hanging out with the guys. Sunday I went to a movie with my parents and then my dad and my uncles bought me dinner at Island's because I kicked their butts in our NCAA Tournament bracket.

Me going down the waterfall

On Monday I got on a plane back to Philadelphia. I arrived around midnight and went to bed. We had a pretty good week of camp and it was nice to be back in the normal routine after spending some really quality time with some of my kids in California. The weather was nice so we took the kids to the park for baseball or kickball most days.

Camp night at Chick-Fil-A

On Friday of my first week back, one of my co-workers convinced me to go salsa dancing in Philadelphia. There was a class at the beginning of the night and we learned enough to pretend like we knew what we were doing. There were a few guys there that were really terrible at it which I was thankful for because it made me feel a bit better about not really knowing what I was doing. I was at least able to fake it when dancing with other beginners.

I don't recall what I did the rest of the weekend (other than playing basketball on Sunday) because that was too long ago. Last week we had another really good week at camp. The weather was nice once again so we spent alot of time with the kids at the park. We had a work group of high school aged kids helping out at our camp which isn't always as helpful as you might think but it is nice that they take the time to come out for a week. At one point a kid was talking to Jeffrey (Riblet not Plankton) and Jeffrey asked him what video games he played. The kid said Call of Duty and Gears of War. Jeffrey laughed and then the kid said, "Why? What do you play? NBA?". Jeffrey kind of tilted his head to the side and then looked at me and said "Was that racist?". I responded, "Ya. That was a little racist". I knew the kid didn't mean it to be racist but I also knew that Jeffrey realized that it just came out wrong and wouldn't be offended. Jeffrey then proceeded to make fun of the kid for the rest of the week. He even brought NBA Live to camp the next day and started chanting "What do you play? N.. B.. A.!". At one point Jeffrey gave the kid so much crap that I thought the kid was goiung to cry. It was hilarious. At the end of the week the kid couldn't help but love Riblet and even got his contact info when he left.

Riblet being Riblet

Phillip (orange shorts) is back at camp playing basketball after having been shot.

On Friday night a group of us went camping at the Delaware Water Gap. We got there around 10pm, set up camp and then went for a 3 mile night hike to a waterfall. The moon was huge and lit up the sky pretty well. It was beautiful. We woke up on Saturday and went for a 10 mile hike to some lake on the Appalachian Trail. When we got back at like 9pm we went to a Bar in Philly that had the best burger in Pennsylvania (according to the food network). We got some truly delicious beers, some fabulous calamari and the angus burger with smoked Gouda, bacon and chili's. It was definitely one of the top 5 burgers I've ever had in my life and we are absolutely going to have to go back there before our time here in Camden is over.

On Sunday, we visited a church in Morristown that supports Urban Promise. Three other interns and I got to talk to an adult Bible study group about Camden and Urban Promise. One other intern and I sort of dominated the conversation and spent the whole hour and a half answering questions, rambling about stories we had from Camden and giving our personal opinions about things relating to Camden (dangerous territory considering both Mike and I tend to be very liberal compared to most church folk). Luckily for us, this group of about 20 people ate it up. They all said they were very moved bymuch of what we had to say and they are even now planning on organizing a day in the next couple of weeks to come visit our after school programs. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit and wish we could have done more Q&A's for small groups at church's throughout the year. It seemed to be a very effective way to promote the ministry.

On Sunday night I played basketball with a bunch of men from the neighborhood (like I do every Sunday), watched a movie and then went to bed.

I am beginning to get a little stressed about what I am going to do in a month when my time here is over. I am incredibly excited to be going back to California but at the same time I am extremely sad to be leaving some of my kids. I do not know exactly what the next step for me is, whether I will be back in Camden or who knows where. It's exciting to have such freedom to decide what I will be doing next but I also have bill's to pay so it is a little nerve racking. Please pray for me.

P.S. The spring break video is finished and can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/chad.otoski?ref=search&sid=56900826.304958250..1#!/video/video.php?v=563432435211&ref=mf

I spent alot of time last night helping chad pick music and edit it. Enjoy!

Spring Break 2010.

Group Prayer

I got on a plane for California on the Tuesday before our kid's spring break started. My arm was still all bandaged from the gruesome skateboarding wound. I bumped it on the seat while getting one the plane and then it proceeded to bleed threw the bandage dripping blood onto my jeans. Other than that, the flight was nice and the blood washed out of my pants so it all worked out. Upon arriving in California, I went and chilled with some close friends who I had not seen in a while and then had dinner with my parents and went to bed.

On Wednesday I woke up, picked up Jake (college room mate who is still at APU and was on spring break) and headed to San Fransisco. Jake had decided to come with me for my interview and make a road trip out of it, . My cousin, who lives near San Fransisco, agreed to let us stay at her house to save us some money. We dropped our stuff off at her house and went to meet Jake's dad, who also lives in the area, for dinner. After dinner, we had a few drinks at my cousins house and went to bed early because I had to be up at 8 for my interview. On Thursday, we woke up, got breakfast at IHOP, and then I went to my Interview. The interview was for a job as a probation counselor at a juvenile hall in Martinez Ca. This job is exactly the kind of work I would love and I feel like the interview went really well. Please pray that the background investigation also goes relatively well.

After my interview, we went into spring break mode and found the nearest happy hour. Originally we had intended to head home Thursday night but we ended up meeting another friend from college (thanks for coming out Amanda) for dinner and staying the night. On Friday there were another couple of girls from college that wanted to meet us for drinks so we decided to stay another night. The girls ended up bailing on us but Jake called his friend Alexis, who told us she was having a girls night at her house in Vacaville, and we decided to stop bye. We had such a good time crashing the girls night, that we ended up staying and hanging out with the girls until Sunday morning when we had to rush back to be home on time for Easter lunch at my parents house. Easter was great and I truly enjoyed being back with family for the afternoon.

On Monday I woke up to several text messages that I had received in the middle of the night from excited kids telling me that they were boarding the plane to California. I then drove to LAX in my cousins Toyota Sequoia (thanks again Brett) to pick everyone up. My parents followed in their truck to pick up the luggage. When the kids got off the plane, I think I was just as excited to have them their as they were to be in California. After the kids fought over who got to ride with me in Brett's car and we rented the 15 passenger van for everyone else (we brought out 15 kids, 7 adult staff members, and one celebrity photographer) we headed to In-N-Out for lunch. The kids loved it. We then settled into my parents house, which they vacated for the week so that we could take over. After everyone was settled in, we headed to Boomers in Upland for some go-cart racing and some miniature golf. The kids absolutely loved the go-carts and at about 8pm we took them home, ordered some pizza, and let them swim in the freezing cold pool at my parents housing complex. At 11pm we called lights out and everyone went to sleep.

Albert aparantly smoking his french fry

Jeffrey AKA Riblet pretending he can drive

On Tuesday we woke up at around 9am, ate breakfast, and headed to Azusa Pacific University to play some football and basketball. After dunking on my after school program director, we took a short tour of the campus and the Alumni office bought all of our kids lunch at the cafeteria. We then headed to Burbank for a special tour of Nickelodeon Studios that was set up by Jerry (the celebrity photographer/former intern that set up our fundraiser in New York and accompanied us on our trip). The kids loved the tour and we even got to watch a couple of episodes of shows that hadn't aired yet. After the tour, we drove to Hollywood so that our kids could be in the audience of a Nickelodeon game show called Brain Surge. Only two adults were allowed to accompany the kids for the game show so all of the interns and Jerry wondered around Hollywood Blvd and waited for them to be done. Once they were out of the game show, we ate pizza at Shakey's and headed home. We got them to bed around midnight.

Going up to dunk on Albert

Jeffery, Duwayne, and Dave at APU

In the Hollywood Hills

This one is self explanatory

On Wednesday, we woke everyone up at 7am and made it to Lake Elsinore at about 8. When we got their my dad had already launched the boat and the Sea Doo and was waiting for us. We loaded about 7 kids into the boat and after a quick demonstration from yours truly, we let them try to wakeboard. One of my kids, who is tiny and a talented skateboarder, got up on his first try and road for 4 minutes, going outside of the wake and looking extremely comfortable. Between me doing spins and flips and Jeffrey being such a natural, it made it a little discouraging for the rest of the kids who struggled to get up (as one would expect them to). We then dropped off the first group of kids and let my dad get off the boat to take a break from driving. I loaded up the second group of kids and went out again. Two more kids were able to get up this time out, one of my 8th grade girls named Aliesha, and the only 5th grader we brought on the trip named Sandy. Luckily the kids did not get too frustrated with not being able to wakeboard and just enjoyed being on the lake. The whole time we were there, Chad was taking people for rides on the Sea Doo which really helped out a lot. The kids loved the Sea Doo and it assisted in keeping the people left on the shore entertained. In the end I was able to get 3 good runs in on the wakeboard which made me very happy and we packed up and left the lake around 3pm.

Jeffery AKA Plankton

Kids at the lake

Me showing off

Driving kids in the boat

After leaving the lake, we headed to my uncle's house where he had heated his pool and had prepared a BBQ for us (thanks Joey). The kids may have had more fun in that pool than they did the entire rest of the trip and the staff loved the tri-tip that they cooked for us (I think half of the kids might have preferred hamburgers but it's not always all about them). We then had a camp fire on Joey's balcony with an incredible view of the city below and Albert (my camp director) lead our spiritual discussion for the week. It was a great day and probably my favorite of the trip. We left Joey's house at about 9pm and got the kids to bed at about 10:30.

Rock Band at Joey's

On Thursday Chad and I woke up early with a car full of kids (we had a drawing to see which kids got to come with me in Brett's car) and headed to Disneyland to buy our tickets. After all kinds of drama and difficulties associated with buying our tickets, we were finally able to purchase them. In the end it worked out perfectly because, despite the 2 hours of struggling to get the tickets, we finally purchased them about 5 minutes before the rest of the group arrived. We took everyone to Space Mountain to start our day and the kids loved it. The problem was that Space Mountain is really the only legitimate roller coaster at Disneyland and the kids were thoroughly unimpressed with the rest of the park. After a couple of hours, we took the kids to McDonald's for lunch and then they waited patiently as Jerry argued with the Disneyland customer service staff for two hours until they finally switched all of our tickets over to California Adventure. As the kids went into California Adventure, Boston (the other after school program director) and I went back out to the van because he had lost the key. I called AAA and waited for about an hour for them to come out and make us a new key. Once that was taken care of, we headed back into the park and met up with the kids. The kids had an amazing time at California Adventure and when the park closed at 11, we finally headed home. We got the kids to bed at abut 1 am and decided to sleep in on Friday.

Excited to be at Disneyland

This is what happens when you bring a profesional photographer

California Adventure

I bought that sweet hat at Disneyland cuz my head was burning

They loved Califonia Adventure

Tower of Terror

We got up at about 10 am on Friday and let the kids swim in the pool before packing up all of their stuff and heading to the beach. We parked at the pier in Newport and let the kids hang out on the beach for about an hour. My parents came with us and bought everyone cheese on a stick from Jane's Corndogs. The kids were more impressed by the beach than I expected them to be. After the beach we got back in the cars and headed to Universal City walk for dinner. This is when everyone got a true taste of California as it took us 2 and a half hours in traffic to drive the 50 miles from Newport to Universal City. We had intended to eat dinner at a restaurant at city walk but because we were pressed for time, we ended up just eating at the food court. After we ate we drove back down to LAX and everyone (except for me who stayed until Monday) boarded the plane back to Philadelphia. The kids had an amazing time and all of them were sad to leave. One girl even said, "I'm not getting on the plane, I am staying in California and becoming a hobo". I told her that that was some good motivation to do well in school so that she could come back for college. She agreed.

Newport Beach CA

Playing catch with Plankton

I can't even relay effectively through words how incredible this trip was for our kids. We took two different groups of kids on this trip. One was from south Camden, the other was from East Camden. These two groups usually do not get along. By the time we left, they were a family. The week after we got back, the camp from south came to east Camden to use our gym. It was amazing to see how, instead of the usual complaining, the kids we so excited to see each other and were jumping up and down and hugging. That sort of thing really makes you realize how important these trips are. Some of our kids had never been outside of Camden before and never realized that the way they are forced to live isn't normal. It's not like that everywhere. It's trips like this one that give them that little bit of indignation about their circumstances that is needed to inspire them to change them. It is also incredible for them to experience white people (like Joey and Diana and Brett and Jason and my parents) who love them for who they are and don't immediately judge them because of where they are from. Prior to this trip, I thought that it was going to be great to take these kids on a fun trip that they would otherwise not be able to afford to go on. I never could have imagined how effective and important this trip was for so many deeper reasons.

I'd like to give some special thanks to a few people who helped make this trip as incredible as it was. First I would like to thank anyone who donated money (including Russel Simmons who came out to Jerry's New York fundraiser). Also I would like to thank my parents who sacrificed their house to give us a free place to stay and bought us breakfast everyday and put in so much work to help us out. I can't say thank you enough for everything they did for us that week. Thank you to Joey and Diana for letting us use their house and barbecuing for us, as well as for being so incredibly nice and accommodating to our kids. Thank you to Brett for letting me use his car. The kids were fighting over who got to ride in the Sequoia every single time we got in a car to go somewhere. Brett saved us a ton of money in not having to rent another van. Finally I would like to thank Jerry. Jerry was an Urban Promise intern 6 years ago and is now a famous celebrity photographer. He took it upon himself to help us with this trip and without him it would have never been possible. He helped us raise the money we needed and payed his own way to come hang out with our kids for a week in Califronia. He also provided us with some pretty kick ass pictures from the trip.

Jerry playing football with the kids

Jerry also got our kids some free shoes from South Pole

Better Late Than Never

I took a few weeks off from writing because 1. I was very busy and 2. I was getting a little burned out on writing these every week. It will probably take me 2 or 3 posts to get back up to date but I am going to attempt to do that this week.

I will start where I left off which I believe was the Jr. High Olympics. On the first day of the Olympics we had a few work groups create signs for each of the five teams. Each of the interns was assigned to a team and given a work group to watch over. My team was called the Black Bus (team names were assigned). We were instructed to create a banner for our team and to pick a Bible verse that would encourage team work or working together or something along those lines. Given my competitive nature, I suggested that our sign be a black bus running over the other team mascots and our verse be Revelations 6:8 which says, "And I saw a pale horse (pale horse was of course changed to black bus) and the man who sat on it was death, and Hell followed with him". The work group, not knowing any better, took my advice and created the a pretty sweet banner. Next, I took a sharpie and wrote black bus across my knuckles as if it were a tattoo, which immediately made all of my kids want to be on our team. Once the kids were placed on teams, I helped all the black bus kids follow suite with temporary knuckle tattoos. After the kids were on their teams and had their tattoos, we had the kids design a team flag and write a team song.

Our Banner

For the second day of the Olympics, we headed to Camp Grace in north Camden. We had a full day of events in the Basement of their camp and as we were leaving one of the 5th graders from my camp came up to me and said, "Matt, you are the kid best a friend can have". He then tilted his head to the side like a confused dog, realizing that what he had just said was jibberish, and ran to the bus. I have absolutely no idea what he was trying to say but I was touched none the less.

The third day of the Olympics was the day with all of the athletics. I knew that we had an advantage on this day because we had many of the athletic kids. The first event was knockout (for those who don't know, this is a basketball game). They announced that one staff or work group member was aloud to participate in this event. I of course told all of the other staff and work group on my team that they weren't aloud to compete since this was MY event. I won the knockout competition and then my team preceded to win the relay and other athletic games of the day.

The last day was the closing ceremonies. We ate pizza and they announced the winner of the Olympics. The black bus finished second. I don't see any way that another team could possibly have had more points than us. I think we got robbed but pretended that I was happy with second place for the sake of the kids.

Some other interns and I had planned to go on a road trip to Buffalo after the Olympics. Though originally about 10 inters had planned to go, by the time the actual day came around, everyone but me, Chad, Mike and Charlotte had bailed. My camp ended up having our staff night out after the Olympics and so we did not get on the road to Buffalo until about 11 pm. We drove through the night, drinking energy drinks and blasting music to keep ourselves awake, and arrived at Mikes aunts house in Buffalo at about 6am. We got about 4 hours of sleep (I only got about a half hour because of the energy drinks) and headed to Niagara Falls at about 10am.

We ate breakfast at Tim Horton's and arrived at Niagara Falls around 11am. After wondering around a bit, we decided to check out the Canadian side of the Falls. When we got to Canada we were sent to a long line in customs. When we got to the front of the line, the customs women started interrogating me about something I had been arrested for when I was 19. I told her it had been expunged from my record. She did not know what that meant. The customs woman was a bitch and kind of incompetent. When I explained these things too her, she sent us back to United States.

Despite what the sign says, the falls were not in that dumpster

We went through those turnstiles

When we got back to the U.S., we went to a bar for some buffalo wings, then to an ice cream place for desert, and finally to a hot dog place for a night cap. After a full day of eating, we returned to Mike's aunts house and went to sleep. The next day we got up and went to a Greek diner for lunch where I had the most amazing burger I have ever had in my life. We then took a walk on some river walk trail that was in the river between the United States and Canada, threw rocks at a dead fish, and piled back in the car to head home.

The Falls

The next week we had a fairly typical week of camp. Wednesday night we went to the karaoke bar in Philly that we had discovered a couple of months ago. It was possibly even more fun than the first time. On Friday we had our Math Dare competition. Math Dare is a competition where the kids have to compete in math related events that also include gross tasks. There was all kinds of slime and different things that a work group set up for the kids. It was great and camp spirit (my camp) dominated the math portion of the contest. We did not, however, win the title. A lot of the points awarded were dependent on athletic activities and our kids were at a slight disadvantage when it came to this portion of the event.

Pookie outside of the karaoke bar. Not sure what a shaved noodle is.

On Saturday, Chad and I took about 11 kids to the skate park under the overpass in Philadelphia next to FDR park. Pretty soon after we got there, one of our kids sprained his ankle and had to be taken to the emergency room. Chad took him in his car. Realizing that we might be stuck at the skate park for longer that anticipated, I went and bought us all some McDonald's. At some point during the day I fell on my elbow (I fall often and can not remember any one specific fall). I realized this when I took off my sweatshirt and one of my kids pointed out that I was bleeding. I put my sweatshirt back on and skated the rest of the day. When I got home I noticed that the elbow of my sweatshirt was soaked in blood. I took off my sweatshirt and as I was looking at the cut on my elbow in the mirror, my room mate came in and asked what the white was that was bulging out of the cut. As I examined it, I quickly realized that it was the bone. I drove to the store and bought some peroxide to clean it, some butterflies to close it, and some gauze to wrap it. After I bandaged it up, I spent the next couple days being extra careful not to let it split open again. The following Tuesday, I got on a plane to California for an interview with the Contra Costa Probation department and to prepare for our kids to come out for spring break.

My bone sticking out before I knew it was sticking out.

I thought Jeffery had this.

And then this happened.

Spring Break Post Coming Soon.

F@*# Virginia! Johnson City TN is ok though.

Last Wednesday I had to appear in court in Marion, Virginia for a speeding ticket I got in January. I had asked my Samantha (ex girlfriend) if I could stay at her house in Johnson City TN. She had told me that I could stay but that she was going to be in Texas visiting family that week. Seeing as how we hadn't talked in about a month, I sent several text messages the week before reminding her that I would be staying at her house for a night while she was gone. I left early in the morning and arrived in Johnson City around 6pm on Tuesday night. As I walked into Samantha's house I heard a voice say "hello?". As it turned out she had just gotten home from Texas and was not expecting me at all. She said that I could still stay but was clearly unhappy with my presence, so I decided to just get a hotel room instead.


I decided to get dinner before finding a hotel and while I was eating at the bar of a place called Jack's, I met some incredibly nice people including a man who recommended the Best Western down the road. When I checked in at the Best Western, I noticed that the hotel bar was pretty lively. Since my room came with a coupon for a free draft beer, I put my stuff in my room and headed to the bar. While watching the Ohio State, Illinois basketball game, I met quite a few more incredibly nice people. Between the two bars, I talked to several people who said that they do not, under any circumstances, drive in Virginia for fear of getting pulled over. This seemed strange. After a few hours at the bar, I went back to my room, watched sports center, and went to sleep.


The next morning I got up and drove to Marion, Virginia to appear in court and pay for my speeding tickets. When I appeared in front of the Judge, he informed me that because I was going more than 30mph over the speed limit, it was a class 1 misdemeanor and I could potentially face up to 12 months in jail and a 2,500 dollar fine for EACH offence (there were two because the first officer was traveling the opposite direction on the highway and called the second officer to pull me over a few miles down the road where they arrested me and each gave me a separate ticket). I asked for a public defender and when I was appointed one he told me that because I was going over 30mph over the speed limit, there was likely no keeping me out of jail. At first I thought he was joking. He was not. He told me to tell the judge what I was doing here in Camden, admit guilt, and ask for mercy. I did this and then the Judge sentenced me to 4 days in jail and a 2,000 dollar fine. I was taken to a holding cell where I was to wait for a van to pick me up and take me to county jail. Shortly after, another man from the court room was brought to the same cell. He was going to jail for 6 days for a speeding ticket, despite having had a lawyer and having never been pulled over before in his life before this offence. He was a small Indian man and as they loaded us into the van to take us to jail, I noticed that he looked terrified. I looked at him and said "who would have thought you would be going to jail for speeding huh?" and then laughed. I saw some of the terror leave his face and I talked to him most of the way to the jail. I couldn't help but think that maybe I had to go jail so that the poor little Indian man wouldn't poop himself out of fear.


When we arrived at the jail and the officers were booking me in, they informed me that in Virginia, you only have to serve half the time that you are sentenced. Because my paperwork said that I was only sentenced to two days, they thought that I would only be there one day and left me in a holding cell (essentially solitary confinement) instead of booking me into population. This was a mistake in the paperwork and I did, in fact, have to serve a full two days. Had I been booked into population this would not have been so bad, but since I was in a tiny cell made of 266 cinderblocks (I counted many times) by myself, I nearly lost my mind. Even if I had to fight every second of the time I was there (which is generally not going to happen to someone that looks like me in county (especially in a place where they send people to jail for speeding)) it would have been far better than losing my mind in that tiny cell.


I was finally released on Friday morning. I was taken back to the court house and the officer driving the van told me that he would not even drive through Virginia if he didn't live there. He said he would drive around it unless he had somewhere to be that was actually in Virginia. When I got back to the court house, I paid my fine (which was slightly more than every penny I had. My parents sent me the difference so that I wouldn't have to return to jail) and got in my car to get the hell out of Virginia as fast as possible (without speeding of course).



Just when I was ready to start a petition to make Virginia secede from the United States, I stopped to get gas by James Madison University. As I got out of my car, I noticed that 5 of the 8 people pumping gas were attractive young women, all of whom smiled at me. When I went into the mini mart to pay for my gas, I noticed a basket full of ping pong balls next to the register (for those late night emergencies when someone steps on the last ping pong ball while playing beer pong). I said to the clerk, "This must be a college town" and then a voice from behind me said, "What gave it away? The ping pong balls?". I turned around to find yet another attractive young woman wearing a James Madison sweatshirt. I pumped my gas and continued on my way, but from the small sample size at the gas station, I determined that 60% of the people who go to James Madison University are pretty girls (all of whom will either smile at you or strike up a conversation with you, making you feel good about yourself). I am now strongly considering attending grad school at James Madison University.



When I hit Washington DC, it was about 3:30pm. This meant that I would be sitting in rush our traffic in both DC and Baltimore. I got back to Camden at about 8 o'clock, just in time to catch the end of the 3 on 3 basketball tournament we had for our Jr. High Kids. I would have loved to have been a part the basketball tournament but I was just glad to be home.


When I got back to Camden, Albert (my after school program director) told me that he went to my class the first day I was gone and his exact word to them were this: "I'm not gunna lie to ya'll, that nigga's in jail". This made me laugh and it was nice to be back with people. My kids prayed for me while I was in Jail and they told Albert that he should take the money from the change drive we are doing, to raise money to build a basketball court for a church in Kenya, and use it to bail me out of jail.



On Saturday I went with Mike and Charlotte (other interns) to Philadelphia and went to a couple of used bookstores. After Philadelphia, 8 other people and I went to dinner at Denny's and then hung out at the other intern house till about 2am.



On Sunday I went to church in the morning and then watched Michigan get killed by Michigan State, which would have been depressing if I hadn't already given up on Michigan's season. I then shaved my head into a mohawk and got all dressed up for our intern Oscar party, and I gotta tell you, I looked pretty damn good. The Oscar party was fun and when we got home at about 1am, my roommate Chad asked me to cut his hair. We shaved the top of his head so that his beard connected to what looked like another beard on the back of his head. Chad is crazy and it looked ridiculous. Video of the process can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=558251981881&ref=mf





Back beard





Chad named him Frank





Yesterday we did not have camp because we had to set up for the Jr. High Olympics that we are having this week. Last night we had another camp fire in our backyard. This time about 15 people showed up. It was a lot of fun. Today we started the Jr. High Olympics but I will save that for next weeks blog.



We got some great news this weekend. There is a former intern that Albert has remained friends with who is now a famous photographer and he is going to have a fundraiser for us at a club in New York. This is something that we have known for a while. The big news is how big the event is becoming. ESPN has gotten involved and is supposedly going to provide us with Disneyland tickets for the whole group. Also the legendary rap group Naughty by Nature is going to host the event and several other celebrities are expected to attend. There is also now the potential for some media coverage of the event. This event is going to be on April 1st and I am really looking forward to it.

Martin Luther King snowboarding and shot in the leg

Last week we only had one day of camp. Monday we had a typical day of camp. My basketball class is starting to run a little more smoothly. Tuesday we had the Martin Luther King Speech Contest. This is where a number of kids from all of the Urban Promise after school programs here in Camden write speeches about a civil rights leader and then present them in front of parents, Urban Promise staff, and a panel of judges. A number of the speeches were very touching. I helped one of my 8th grade girls with her speech and thought about pulling a Kanye when she didn't win by running on stage, taking the mic and ranting about how Alishia deserved to win but decided against it when one of our 7th graders won instead.


On Wednesday all of the interns went to Washington DC to learn about a program down there called Little Friends for Peace (I know what you're thinking but no it is not a program for midgets). Little Friends for Peace is a program at a school in Washington D.C. that is run by a totally awesome older hippy woman named MJ. The program revolves around teaching kids an attitude of peace and non-violence. The presentation was a little corny for me and for that reason I don't know that a lot of it would work with our Jr. High kids but the idea's behind everything were great. I may even use a few things (presented slightly differently) with my kids for a cell group (Bible lesson) on Thursday.


After the peace workshop we got to walk around the city for the rest of the day. I had been to D.C. a few times before but it was still cool to see some of the monuments and there was even a new one that I hadn't yet seen. We then all met at some some crazy chicken joint (no not El Pollo Loco) for dinner and I ate an entire chicken before returning to Camden.

On Thursday it snowed enough for them to cancel school and so we also canceled camp. Garret, Chad, Kelly (girl who also works for Urban Promise), and I decided to head up to Kelly's house in the Pocono's Thursday night so that we could snowboard at Camelback in PA on Friday. It snowed all night on Thursday and snowed lightly most of the day on Friday. We got up bright an early and got out on the mountain Friday morning and we were practically the only ones there. We had some amazing powder runs and had the snowboard park virtually to ourselves for most of the morning. It the afternoon it got a bit more crowded but overall it was one of the best days of riding I've had in years. We got some video but not a ton because we were having way to much fun to stop and do many video sessions.

Friday night we barbecued at Kelly's house and went in the hot tub and just hung out. It was a lot of fun. We slept in on Saturday, cleaned the house and then got breakfast at a diner before heading back to Camden. We considered riding again on Saturday but decided it wasn't worth the money and it couldn't live up to the riding we did on Friday anyway.

On Sunday I just relaxed and watched the U.S.A. hockey team lose to Canada in a heartbreaking overtime thriller with a bunch of the other interns. Today we had camp again as usual. My basketball class went really well. I also found out that one of our 7th graders was shot in the leg yesterday. It wasn't even a stray bullet like you might expect. Someone just ran up to him at the bus stop randomly, shot him twice, and ran away. He is going to be alright, but he is still in the hospital so please keep him in your prayers.


I am leaving in the morning to drive back down to Virginia to take care of my court stuff. I have court at 1:30pm on Wednesday so please pray for me, that I can get all of this taken care of and that it doesn't completely bankrupt me.

Fire, Jenga, Chinatown, and No Look Eric doing a swing out sister.

This week would probably have been a good week to get two posts in as I definitely had enough to write by wed or Thursday but have now forgotten most of that stuff. Unfortunatley, I am simultaneously too busy and too lazy for that. I will do my best to remember the happenings of the last busy week.

Last Monday after I posted my blog, it started to snow again. Not wanting my car to be stuck for another month, I spent a few hours (with snow falling and a separated shoulder) digging our cars out of the back yard. After the cars were out, Chad and I borrowed a free standing fire pit from the extreme make over house and started a fire in our backyard. We cooked hot dogs, smoked cigars and just enjoyed the company of our roommates and the warmth of the fire as the snow fell around us. It was a pretty great night and reminded me a lot of being back home in California with my friends (except for the snow falling of course).

Tuesday we had our first day of camp for the week. The day went well and I had my basketball class which also went relatively smoothly. Playing basketball with the kids all week with a injured shoulder really gives me a lot of respect and admiration for football quarterbacks who play through a separated shoulder. It hurts just shooting a basketball. I can't imagine throwing a football as hard as I can down field and getting tackled by 280 pound defensive ends. I can't remember what I did Tuesday night because I have waited too long to write this and so much has happened since.

Lookin at me like I'm crazy (prob cuz I am)

The roads in Camden have been covered in snow for the past month and for some reason the city does not plow or salt them. Because of this, two Urban Promise buses got stuck while taking kids home from camp on Monday. With the roads (especially the narrow side streets with cars parked on the sides) so difficult and dangerous to drive on, all of the after school programs were canceled on Wednesday (except for mine because my director hates canceling camp and a lot of our kids walk home anyway).

While I was stuck in California, I missed my favorite street leader's birthday. Because he seemed somewhat disappointed that I missed it, I decided to take Eman and his friend to dinner after camp. We went to Friday's where we ordered the the course meal deal thing and ate more food than should have ever been able to fit in our stomachs. The meal only cost about 60 bucks for all 3 of us which seemed like a great deal for how glutenous we were able to be. After I took them home, I jumped in the car with a few other interns and headed into Philly for a concert at some bar. This is the second time that I had seen Rachel's sister's band (they are called Turning Violet Violet) and I enjoyed them even more this time than I did the first time. I also had a espresso beer that I really enjoyed but can now not for the life of me remember what it was called.

Eman


At the concert

Thursday we had camp as usual and I taught a lesson about forgiveness (with the a little help from my director) and I can't exactly remember what I did Thursday night.

On Friday I hung out around Urban Promise most of the day until the evening when some of the other interns and a couple other people that work for Urban and I decided to head into Philly to find a Karaoke bar. We were told about some Irish pub that had karaoke, so we headed there first to check it out. Jessie was driving the van and we decided to drive down the alley where the bar was to see if there was a cover charge. As we got to the end of the alley we came to a small one way street with the one way we were allowed to go blocked off. We quickly darted down the street in the wrong direction, expecting to pull back out onto the main road before a car came the right way onto the street. When we got to the main road, that too was blocked off. Jessie then decided to drive around the road block, over the curb, to get onto the main street. By the time I was able to inform her that the car she was about to cut off was a police officer, it was too late and the officer quickly turned his lights on and got out of the car. I rolled down my window, as I probably have more experience talking to cops than most, and he walked up and asked me what the hell we thought we were doing. I explained to him the predicament we had gotten ourselves into and as it turns out he was the nicest officer on the planet. He said,"Well lets get you outta here then." , moved the road closed signs out of our way and blocked traffic allowing us to pull out. I can only assume that this happened because we had a cute girl driving the car and will now forever assume that cute girls catch every break and resent them for it.

After all of this we finally parked near bye and headed into the bar. There was a two dollar cover charge which we all payed. I then ordered a drink just before realizing that this extremely over crowded bar did not, in fact, have karaoke. We asked one of the bouncers of there was a karaoke bar near bye and he told us that the closest one was in Chinatown. I quickly finished my drink and went to close out my tab when I was informed that there was a minimum of ten dollars to pay with a credit card. I ordered another drink, quickly finished that one as well and then I closed out and we walked to Chinatown.

After asking some random girls on the streets of Chinatown, we finally were able to find the karaoke bar. We walked into this sushi restaurant and headed up the stairs to one of the coolest karaoke bars I have ever seen. We got ourselves a private room (thanks to Jesus (Castro not Christ) for paying for that), did some sake bombs and sang Karaoke for a couple of hours. I had an absolute blast. After we left the bar we went to a diner and got breakfast at 2 in the morning before heading home and going to bed.

Street sign in chinatwon. We had no idea what not to do in order to avoid a 300 dollar fine.

On Saturday I went grocery shopping for the house and then helped clean the walls of our kitchen, which we are sort of remodeling, so that they would be ready to paint. I was supposed to go out to the bar with some people who work for Urban Promise and some other people from Camden but I wasn't really feeling up to it so I just watched a movie and went to bed.

On Sunday I watched basketball on TV for most of the day and then headed over to the other intern house to see what they were up to. Jessie had some friends from college in town and they were about to head to Dirty Franks when I showed up. I tagged along with them to Dirty Franks and when we got there they were about to have a Jenga tournament at the bar. Just for fun, Jessie's Friend's boyfriend and I decided to enter the contest. We both ended up winning and advancing to the semi finals which will take place in two weeks. The guy that I played in the first round was absolutely ridiculous. Apparently he was one of the favorites to win the tournament. He used all kinds of crazy "jenga terms" like swing out sister and uptown sally. He also introduced himself as No Look Eric. It was extremely hard to keep a straight face while playing him, as he seemed like a character out of a bad B action film, but I actually managed to win.

This week should be a little less eventful than last week but if it's not I'll do my best to force myself to write a midweek update. Also be looking forward to hearing about the Jenga Semi Finals in two weeks.

We had a little scare last week when the school district threatened to cancel spring break due to all the snow days, but they ended up deciding against it. Our spring break trip is going to be to California and we need lots of donations to be able to fund this trip (about 13,000$). We also need people in the San Gabriel Valley/Inland Empire/Orange County areas to help us out by either providing a place for us to stay or cooking us a meal. There are going to be 22 of us (14 kids and 8 adults). Please let me know if you would like to help in any way.

Two weeks of snow and how it has kicked my ass in every way possible

It's been two weeks since my last post. This is because I have not been in Camden for the majority of the last two weeks.

I mentioned in my last post that we were starting classes for kids at the after school program and that I was going to be teaching basketball. I had my first class on Tuesday and it went really well. The divide in skill levels in the class was the only thing that made my task slightly difficult. The kids ranged from tripping over their own feet to playing for their Jr. high basketball teams. This made things a little frustrating for the latter group who had to wait for me to show the former group how to do things they learned 5 years ago. Over all the class went well though and I am looking forward to continuing it this week.

On Tuesday I flew to California for a test for a job in Ventura. I took the test on Wednesday. It was more difficult than the others I have taken but I think I did fairly well. I spent the rest of the week hanging out with friends and was scheduled to get on a plane to return to Camden on Sunday morning. However, on Saturday I received a call from the airline saying that my flight had been canceled due to all the snow in Philadelphia. I rescheduled my flight for Monday and decided to head up to Wrightwood to go snowboarding with Brett (who works there as an instructor) on Sunday. The first run of the day, at the very top of the mountain, I went for a backside 360 off of one of the bigger jumps at Mt. High. This was a pretty foolish thing to do as everyone knows you don't go for big tricks like that on your first run. In the course of my 360, I somehow managed to get a little off axis and came down on the nose of my board which then slingshotted me into the ground. It felt like getting hit by a truck and was on of the the most painful falls I have ever had snowboarding. I basically destroyed my right shoulder and my hip. I continued to ride (slowly and painfully) for the rest of the day and even taught a couple snowboard lessons with Brett while I was there (I worked at Mt. High as an instructor last year).

Me doing about the only trick i could do without wanting to cry like a little girl after the injury.

While we were on the mountain we had Jason turn on the hot tub and record the Superbowl for us. When we got back we watched the super bowl (sans commercials), went in the hot tub and then I headed home.

My flight was again cancelled on Monday, so I rescheduled it for Tuesday. It was cancelled on Tuesday so I rescheduled it for Wednesday. It was cancelled on Wednesday so I rescheduled it for Friday. Finally on Friday I was able to return to Camden.

On Saturday we took a trip to Baltimore with the street leaders to visit the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. It was pretty cool but very intense. The trip took pretty much the entire day and when we returned I watched a movie and went to bed.

Sunday I woke up and was basically stuck at my house, seeing as how my car is buried under the snow in my back yard and my shoulder hurts way too much to spend several hours digging it out. After a full day of boredom, five interns from the other house came and picked me and Chad up and took us to Dirty Franks (the sweet dive bar we discovered in Philadelphia). We played darts and hung out for a few hours and then returned home. We have today off for Presidents day, which means I am again stuck at the house and bored out of my mind. I am really looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow and actually getting to hang out with the kids again.

In the last two weeks snow has dislocated my shoulder, bruised my hip, derailed my travel plans several times, stolen my car, and made me slip and fall on my ass while walking home from 7/11. I am starting to be quite a bit less fond of it than I once was.