There is alot to be said about the rest of the staff of World Impact that I have met so far. In their faces I swear I can see joy and some traces of hope but it is if they are streaming through metal bars of despair and exhaustion.
The apartments that we as a staff are staying in are located on top of a World Impact planted church/school. It has a full metal fence with barbed wire around it which I believe whole heartedly relieved my parents when they saw me off yesterday. The apartments that we are living in I like alot. Mostly everything has been donated or bought second-hand which I think I like alot more. I was afraid I would feel like I was living in a hotel but I find that used second hand stuff makes me feel more at home.
The church/school is almost directly off the 105. The passing of cars will probably be a kind of lullaby by the end of the summer. It is also right across the street from the Rosa Parks/Wilmington and Imperial Metro Station. To think I often stood at the station waiting for the train and I was staring at the place I would be living this summer is funny.
The view from the kitchen window:
Though we seem secure here I consider this location still pretty legit. haha There are four maybe five housing projects here in Watts which make what they call "the four corners". These different housing projects are known to host different gangs that normally rival one project against another. The apartments we live in are directly in front of the Imperial Courts projects which is one of the main four corners. In fact I found out yesterday that Imperial Courts was the original home to the founders of the notorious gang called the "Crips". Wow.
Imperial Courts from the balcony:
This morning we went into World Impact headquarters to do some paperwork and receive a history and education on what it means to work for World Impact as and organization. It was great to put a face to the people I have been e-mailing for the past couple months.
We also got to meet the President and founder of World Impact Dr. Keith Phillips. Being my natural lovely self I honestly expected to not like him. I thought he would come and try to sell us a bit about how lovely working for World Impact was and how romantic it almost is to work here in Watts. Fortunately there was none of that. I guess what I didn't want to hear from him was a formula and how his formula for ministry worked. Instead he seemed so humble and sincerely honest about what life is like here. For the president of a big organization I really appreciated how much he spoke of empowerment being so directly entangled with grassroot church efforts. I could also see traces of what his work here has done to him on his face-and I think he was aware that these traces were there.
Tomorrow we are going to see The Oaks which is a summer camp owned by World Impact. The camp was founded as a place for the children in the Watts and inner-city LA community to escape their urban lives during the summer. Tomorrow we are just getting a tour but soon we will be taking the kids there ourselves!
Also we are supposed to be living off of 40$ a week. After grocery shopping and buying stamps I am down to 16.00 hahaha. Oh well. I think being poor suits me.
One last thing: Today we went around doing some service projects for the church and as I was sweeping I noticed the sound of an ice cream truck coming down the street. Though this is a very natural and common occurence what wasn't natural was the song coming out of the large cone on top of the truck. As it drove through the Imperial Courts projects the cone projected the sound of the old civil-war hymn "Glory Glory Hallelujah" also know as "The Battle Hymn of The Republic"...how funny is that?!. The song was interrupted for a couple seconds as little kids came running with change in their hands. It was cute. Only here would this be completely worth noticing.
