Bruce Main and Tupac Shakur

Since I am currently back in southern California for a couple weeks, I don't have much to write about. For those that rely on this blog for some sort of weekly entertainment I decided to post a few videos.


This first video is from the Urban Promise Banquet last year. Bruce Main talks a little bit about what it is that we do in Camden. I know almost all of the people in this video and there is one scene with Garret Poper who is my friend from APU that encouraged me to go to Camden.

These next two video's are from the Documentary "The Poet of Poverty" which is a documentary about Father Michael Doyle. Father Doyle is the priest at Sacred Heart Church in Camden. I have done some work with Sacred Heart during my time in Camden. Father Doyle has been in Camden for over 40 years and has an incredible story. And yes that is the voice of Martin Sheen.





This last video is an interview with Tupac Amaru Shakur (2pac) during the Christmas season, which I thought was fitting. He has some interesting things to say about poverty and the inner city. This interview was conducted when he was just 21 years old. There is a great little moment at the end where he calls you out.... "YOU need to do something!". I love it.



Hope you enjoyed the videos. I'll get back to posting actual material in a couple of weeks.

I suck at tag

Last Saturday I went to New York with a handful of other people. We didn't do a whole lot there but it snowed which was cool for me since I hadn't had any snow here yet. The one memorable part of the trip (other than the snow and the splendid company) was a burger place that someone here at urban had recommended. It was called the burger joint and it was in this posh hotel that no one would ever expect to house a establishment of this sort. In the very back corner of the lobby of this hotel one finds a door with a sign above it that reads: Burger Joint. Entering through this door is like entering another world. All of a sudden there is the chatter and laughter that one would here in a crowded dive bar. All of the walls are scribed with the names and drawings of every former customer who happened to have a pen in their pocket. The menu consists of 1/2 pound burgers and pitchers of Sam Adams. For someone who isn't overly keen on the "Manhattan scene", this is definitely a hidden gem that needs to be checked out. We of course got a pitcher and some burgers and they were both absolutely delicious. Now that my little restaurant review is out of the way, on to the rest of my week.



This week camp went really well and I was able to get all of my kids to do their homework during the time designated for them to do homework, which was something that I needed to focus on. On Tuesday I took a group of kids to McDonald's after camp and on the drive home I saw yet another homicide crime scene. The kids don't even act as if its a big deal. They point it out casually as if its just a fender bender on the side of the highway. I asked them to pray for the family of whoever it was that was killed. When we pulled up to on of my kid's (Jeffrey's) house, I jerked my wheel and pulled my emergency brake sliding to a stop in the middle of the street. When Jeffrey got out laughing, I noticed that his neighbor was outside and that she spoke with Jeffrey before he went in. The next day I asked Jeffrey what his neighbor had said (assuming it was something along the lines of "why is that guy driving like an asshole on my street?"). He told me that she just asked why he was in the car with a white guy. He told her I worked for urban promise and she was satisfied and went back inside.

Tarre doing homework

On Thursday's we do what we call cell groups in our classes. This is where we plan some sort of lesson and talk to our kids about God. This week I decided to tell my kids a little bit about my life story and allow them to ask me questions. At first most of the questions were about what drugs I've done, what I've been arrested for, and the like, but after those were out of the way they started coming with the good ones. They asked a lot of questions like, "What made you decided to stop doing drugs and Why did you stop doing bad things". The one topic that we ended up spending a lot of time on was, "Why would you quit a job where you made decent money to come work here?" They had a lot of trouble understanding why I would do that and absolutely refused to believe me when I told them that money doesn't make you happy. Many of the good questions I was able to answer came from the street leaders (high school age workers) instead of my camp kids. The street leaders are really the age that I enjoy working with the most and it is because they are really able to connect with my experience. The issues that I've dealt with are far more relatable to the older kids. I feel like the class went really well and all of the kids got something out of it.



On Friday I went down to Harrisburg PA to hang out with a girl who goes to Messiah College that I've been talking to quite a bit. There was actually snow on the ground there which was awesome for me since I haven't really had that since coming out here (or really ever outside of the mountains). We went to dinner and then out for a few drinks and I stayed in a hotel room which meant I got to sleep in a king size bed for a night rather than my little lumpy twin that I don't even fit in (I also got to watch sports center which I often fiend for since I don't have cable here).





Saturday I drove back to Camden and took Jeffrey and Eman (one of the street leaders) to the mall in Cherry Hill. I then went to a dinner for the street leaders and afterwards three other interns and I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Atlantic City. We arrived in Atlantic City at around 10pm. I was rather unimpressed with the city and its casinos but it is pretty bad ass that it is literally on the beach. The other interns decided it would be fun to play tag in the casino. At some point I was tagged and didn't immediately find someone else to tag so I went up to the bar, ordered a beer, and played some video poker while watching the Purdue Alabama game. This allowed me to enjoy myself while all the others got to believe that they were doing a tremendous job of hiding from me. When they did find me out however, they weren't overly happy. We headed back to Camden after a short stroll on the beach and got to bed in time to get a few hours of sleep before having to get up this morning.

Ceasar Agustus gettin in the holliday spirit in AC

This morning we got up at 7:30am and picked up about 20 kids from each after school program and took them to the Dollar Tree for a shopping spree. Each kid got ten items for their families and then we brought them back to Urban to wrap the gifts and eat pizza. After pizza, Santa came and gave all of the kids presents. It was a ton of fun helping the kids pick out gifts at the dollar store and it was definitely worth getting almost no sleep.

Me, Tarre and Angel after the shopping spree

About a month ago my mom sent me out the two skateboards that I had left in her garage. I gave one of them to one of my 8th graders (Angel) and told him that alot of other kids wanted it so he better use it often. Today I saw him with the skateboard and it was so torn up you couldn't even tell it was the same board. I said it looks like he'd been getting alot of use out of it and he said, "You told me I had to, I use it everyday". It really made me happy to see that he had been getting so much use out of it. Also some of the older kids that skateboard in the parking lot at Urban have told me that skateboarding everyday is one of the main things that keeps them from selling drugs so it is good to know that Angel now has that same activity to keep his attention.


Also the statistics from 2008 cam out and Camden NJ was ranked as the most dangerous city in the United States. This is sad news but I thought I provide the link if anyone wants to read the article. So here it is..... http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20091124/NEWS01/911240338/-1/towns04/Report-ranks-Camden-most-dangerous-U.S.-city

Last week we had Thanksgiving dinners for all of our afterschool programs (all 5 of them) which was alot of fun but actually made me sick of turkey by the last day. On Tuesday night my parents flew in and on Wed. morning we headed up to the Poconos for Thanksgiving. As soon as we got there they started feeding us and didn't stop untill we left on Sunday. I literally don't think I went more than a half hour without eating for the entire weekend. Joey, Diana, Brett and Brandon all flew out as well. It was great to see them and really fun to hang out with the east coast side of my family.



My parents decided to fly out Sunday instead of Monday which worked out well because I had a date planned for Sunday night. I took my parents to get cheese steaks at Geno's in Philly and then dropped them off at the airport. I went to Cheesecake factory on my date which was awsome because I hadn't eaten there since moving (and when I am home my family eats there at least once a month). After my date I went back to the house and hung out with all the other interns and to my suprise I was actually really glad to be back. On tuesday night all the interns did kareoke and it was rediculously funny. Of course I can't sing so I just did rap songs which tended to be far more inapropriate than the others... which i guess kind of suites me.

My roomate and teaching partner for my class moved back to St. Louis last week so this has been the first week that I have had my 8th greaters to myself. It's gone really well so far. One of my kids did get suspended for getting in a fight with a 5th grader which was a little disapointing.

Yesterday, we had our devotional time in the morning and all of the interns went around and prayed for each other. It was pretty intence and it was crazy to hear the things people were praying about for me. It was alot of stuff that I have been really struggling with but haven't even talked to anyone about. It was things like what I am going to do after the intership and stuff that I am still dealing with from the past. It was shocking. It is really nice to be back into the swing of things and have all the crazyness from the past couple of months behind me. Our schedule gets a little less intence from here on out so I am really looking forward to that.

Reality

Last weekend I flew to San Fransisco to take a test for a job as a probation counselor in the bay area. It would be my dream job so anyone who wants to pray for me for that feel free. On Monday and Tuesday this week we had a fundraiser at Chick Fillet. I spent most of my time there on both days, either taking kids to eat (as we got part of the profits for our spring break trip this year) or standing in the back encouraging people to donate to Urban Promise. This all came quite natuarally to me having been in sales. On Monday I had a conversation with a friend that had me feeling pretty shitty. No one noticed that I was having a bad day (as I wouldn't expect or want them to) untill I picked up some of my kids to take them to Chick Fillet. One of them immediately asked me what was wrong. I explained the situation to him on the way to Chick Fillet and then really had my spirits lifted just by hanging out with my kids and having fun with them. It really made me start to think about how I get just as much and learn just as much from these kids as they do me.

Eman making a stupid face to cheer me up

This last week or so, the reality of what these kids go through living in Camden has become increasingly apparent to me and it makes me sad. At the same time it makes me realize even more how important it is that we are here. On the way home from our Chick Fillet fundraiser one of my 8th graders got a call from his cousin who had just gotten out of jail. He was so excited that his voice was squeeking on the phone. It was kind of cute. I asked Tarre if his cousin had been in jail or prison and then had to explain to him the difference between the two. When he informed me that it was infact prison, another one of my 8th graders proceeded to tell me that his father and both of his older brothers are all in prison. That essentially means that every influencial male figure in his life outside of Urban Promise is in prison. I cant even imagine what that would be like. These are such great kids and you'd never suspect the things that they have gone through or are going through at home.

Jeffrey explaining something to Suzie

I also had a good conversation with my Site Director this week. He grew up in North Camden and has been involved in Urban Promise since he was a small child. He then went to Eastern University, and after graduation, came back to work for Urban. This is really the model we need to strive for. We need to instill in these kids the value of helping their own community. Its great to provide an environment that allows kids an opportunity to "get out", but it's not enough. My director is a prime example of how much this city can change (and is changing) if we are working ourselves out of jobs here and being replaced by people who are actually from here. He also explained to me how traumatic his childhood was. It's to the point where he can't even talk about alot of stuff. He did tell me, however, that he whitnessed his first murder at 6 years old.

Our director playin with the kids

On Wednesday of this week, my house was broken into and my laptop and ipod were stolen. It's just stuff and not a big deal but its the second time someone has broken into our house while no one was home (no one being home for an extended long period of time is rare). This probably means that someone has been watching our house to see when we all leave. They changed our locks and took some steps to make our house a little more secure so hopefully that helps. One good thing did come of the theft however. I told one of the high school kids that skateboards in our parking lot about it and it led to a really good conversation with him. He basically unloaded his life story on me. I am not even comfortable relaying most of the things we talked about on the internet but this kid is 16 years old and he's been through inconcievable things, including being shot in the leg. At one point he stopped in the middle of his story and said "Man, its so nice to finally have someone I can talk to about this stuff". At that moment I was thankful that my stuff had been stolen because it provided the opportunity for me to connect with someone who needed that.

A man got shot on the corner of my street Wednesday night and it's things like that that make you realize how much these kids see and go through on a daily basis. These are such great kids and it's incredible to see how well they handle their situation.

Angel (one of my 8th graders)


Some of you probably have recieved my news letter by now, along with the letter from Bruce Main about donating to the ministry. Please don't feel like, because I sent you the letter, that I expect you to donate money. My mom informed me that some people who have been reading my blog have asked her if there is something that they can do for me. I am glad to provide those who WANT to give with the opportunity to do so, but I would never want those who don't want to give to feel pressured to. I will continue to send a news letter once a month. If you recieved it and don't want to recieve anymore, just let me know. Also if you would like to be added to that mailing list you can give me your adress and I would be happy to do that.

I'm shipping up to Bostonia

Friday night after the Urban Promise Summit ended here in Camden, Jessie, Mike, Charlotte and I jumped in a car and headed for Boston. On the drive, we all took turns asking questions and making everyone in the car answer them honestly. It was quite interesting and made for the quickest 6 hour drive I have ever been on. When we arrived in Boston on Friday night, Jessie had to visit some friends so the rest of us decided to head into the first bar we saw and try to finagle a place to stay for the night. We sat at the bar and ordered drinks. After about ten minutes two guys sat down at the bar next to me and I struck up a conversation about what there is to do in Boston. The first guy, Pete, was a distributor for Miller/Coors and had a ton of advice for us about what to do and where to eat (he also bought all of our drinks for us on his Miller/Coors credit card). Mike wrote down Pete's suggestions on his hand so that we would not forget them. At some point we got to talking about where we might be able to find a cheap place to stay and the second guy, Kyle, blurts out, "Fuck it, you guys can just crash on my couches if you pay for my cab ride home". We couldn't have asked for a better scenario. Soon after this, after Pete had left, I saw that Kyle was talking to a couple of young women. Not wanting him to forget about us and leave, I walked over and joined their conversation. I convinced them that Kyle is the greatest guy on the planet for letting us stay at his house. I also tell them about what we do in Camden and they dub me Missionary Matt. I made sure that Kyle got a kiss from each of the ladies before they left and that we made it back to Kyles house with him.

Once we arrived at Kyles house, we played some ping pong before he decided to show us all of his cooking utensils (in his bedroom and not the kitchen), about which he was obviously quite passionate. He showed us some of his knives and his special potato masher. He then stops and informs us that he is about to show us the best cooking item he owns. He proceeds to reach into the drawer and pulls out a turkey baster... not any special turkey baster...the turkey baster that every single one of you has in your kitchen. He then proceeds to explain to us how a turkey baster is used as if none of us had ever heard of such a thing before in our lives. He was entirely sincere and it was rather surreal. At this point I informed Kyle that I needed to go to bed. Mike, Charlotte and I went to sleep on the couches in Kyle's living room.




Mike playing ping pong at Kyles



The next morning we got up and walked to the train station to take the Orangeline back into the city. We found a little farmers market and stopped for breakfast on the way. We got off the train in Boston and walked through little Itally where we got some coffee. We saw a big ass statue of Paul Revere, walked some more and saw some more touristy landmarks, and accidentally planned our walk on a map from 1852. . We then decided that the north end of Boston was a bit too touristy and headed to the south end. We soon found a little pub called JJ Foleys where we were able to get clam chowder, half a sandwich, and salad for 7 dollars. I was great. Our waitress had virtually the exact same tattoo on the top of her back as Samantha which freaked me out a little for some reason, but she was also possibly my favorite person from the entire weekend. We then ordered Irish Coffees which, combined with our lack of sleep, put us all in a sort of haze for the next several hours.



We walked in our haze to a gigantic, incredible church where we spent some time before heading to Starbucks to find wifi so that Mike could use his computer. After a couple hours at starbucks we were finally awake again and headed back toward the north end of Boston. As we were looking for some place that the waitress from earlier had recommended we go for dinner, we stumbled upon one of the restaurants Pete had recommended called Beantown Pub. Mike consulted his hand to make sure it was the right place and then we went in for dinner. We ordered boston baked beans and the steak tips that Pete had recommended. They were good not great and we had a horrible shrew of a waitress (the one and only unpleasant person we experienced in all of Boston). We then headed to another bar near the one where we started our weekend. We watched some ridiculous, over the hill cover band named Deizel and then Jessie picked us up.



Saturday night we stayed at some huge house that Jessie used to live at and is owned by the Salvation Army (the New Kids on the Block also used to live there). We had breakfast in the morning and then headed to Harvard Square. It was a beautiful day. We had a pitcher at a bar. Mike slipped on a rock and fell in the river. We sat and listened to a guy play guitar at a park. We ate dinner on the patio at Charlies Beer Garden and then headed south to Rhode Island.



We went to Rhode Island because Mike had never been there and wanted to say that he had. For him to be able to make this claim, something out of the ordinary had to occur there. When we got to Providence we walked around a little and then found a bar where Mike convinced the bartender (who happened to be a hot brunette) to give me a free shot and let us keep the shot glass. She took a shot with me and then informed us that there was a beach somewhat nearby that we should check out. She lied. The beach was not nearby. We went anyway. It was about an hour out of our way but it was an enjoyable experience. We all peed off the jetty into the Chesapeake Bay and then headed back to Camden. All in all, it was an incredible weekend and just the vacation that I needed.

From Prison to Messiah

Chris Skating in Bretts Shoes (thanks brett)

I have been so busy that I have not been able to get to my computer since my last post. I apologize for the longer intermission. Last Wednesday we took our 8th graders to a haunted house at Eastern State Penitentiary. It was basically on par with Knott's Scary farm but it was fun to watch all my kids get scared and I wore my Halloween costume which the kids got a kick out of.




My Halloween Costume



Last thursday we had a Harvest Festival for the kids and that was blast. I ran the booth with the plinko and there was one little asian kid that spent his entire day at my booth. He would play and then walk directly to the back of the line. After the carnival we had a raffle in which we gave out tons of prizes to tons of kids. It was alot of fun.

Kid that spent his day at my booth (sad cuz he lost)


Hosting Plinko

Last Friday we loaded up busses with all of our 3rd-5th graders and headed for hershey park. Thankfully I got to ride in the van with other interns and not in the bus with 100 little kids. We arrived at Hershey Park and I was assigned two 5th grade boys to follow around for the day. The kids had a blast and I did as well. When we first arrived they were telling me how scared they were and I told them that that makes it more fun because it gets your adrenaline going. At one point after a rollercoaster, Quincy looked at me and said, "I don't know what my adrenaline is, but I sure like it".

After hershey parked we took the kids to a nearby hotel and checked everyone in (the staff must have hated us). We then proceeded to take all of the kids to the indoor pool at the hotel which of course sent the people previously in the pool running for their lives. After we swam for a couple hours we returned to our rooms and went to bed.

5th grader doin back flips

The next day we headed to Messiah College, where these poor college students were assigned groups of our kids to take on a scavenger hunt. I was assigned to wait at some bridge for kids to arrive there as a part of the scavenger hunt. When I saw the first group arriving, I couldn't help but laugh at the group of kids that this poor girl had. She had somehow chosen to take the most difficult kids we have all in one group. I could tell that there was a far greater need for me with this group than at the stupid bridge so I spent the rest of my day tagging along with this group and making sure they didn't eat this poor girl alive.

5th grade boys at Messiah

We returned home from Messiah on Sunday night and had camp Monday through Wed of this week. We then had the Urban Promise Summit in which the staff from Urban Promise Locations all over the world come to Camden and we have guest speakers and workshops and all sorts of fun. The summit took place on Thursday and Friday. The speakers that I remember best were Duffy Robbins and Brian McClaren. McClaren was amazing.

After the summit on Friday I hopped in a car with 3 other interns and headed to Boston. Our weekend in Boston was absolutely rediculous and requires its own post..... Boston Post Coming Soon........

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

Nothing to Say Just Yet

I am leaving in 3 days to drive to New Jersey for an internship with Urban Promise (http://www.urbanpromiseusa.org). I will be working with inner city kids there untill the end of May. This is going to be a drastic change in lifestyle for me and hopefully a life changing experience. Because of this, a friend ecouraged me to start a blog (thanks lindsey). The decision to pack up my life and leave for something fairly unkown did not come easy to me. My cousin threw me a going away party that was soon dubbed the "Matt's a tricky duechebag party" when I wavered in my decision and he didn't want to call off the party. After much thought and prayer I then changed my mind once again and it returned to being the "Matt's going away party." The party was incredible and made me realize what amazing friends I am leaving behind for these 8 months. In the end I felt like this was the right decision for me and I am incredibly excited to attempt to impact the lives of the kids in Camden New Jersey. I don't really have much to say yet since I havent even left but this is going to be a place where I can attempt to keep everyone updated on my life in Camden. I promise that I will try to make these posts more entertaining in the future for those of you who only kind of give a shit.

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."