Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Disparities abound: Notes from the field
On our community walking yesterday, I noticed something rather odd while passing beneath the Skyway (I90). For such a large road, one would think they'd pay a little more attention to their intersections not even a block away...
"They do not care"
http://chicagoist.com/2010/06/27/grand_crossing_residents_demand_end.php
It was difficult to conceptualize the neighborhood violence that Bennie, Iysha, and Taniqua where describing to me while we sat together in the art studio of the beautiful Gary Comer Youth Center. Being surrounded by all the students' art made it difficult to remember the violence and suffering that's continuing outside its doors, but I was quickly reminded when I checked my email. My roommate had sent me this article with the warning "Be careful."
I brought up the article to Bennie and Iysha and I was overwhelmed by their amount of knowledge. How had Jason, Sarah, and I been walking down the same 79th street that people protested on and not know anything about the situation going on in the community we're here to serve? Are we not being aware, or is there a lack of connection between the youth and speaking out about this issue?
It was difficult to conceptualize the neighborhood violence that Bennie, Iysha, and Taniqua where describing to me while we sat together in the art studio of the beautiful Gary Comer Youth Center. Being surrounded by all the students' art made it difficult to remember the violence and suffering that's continuing outside its doors, but I was quickly reminded when I checked my email. My roommate had sent me this article with the warning "Be careful."
I brought up the article to Bennie and Iysha and I was overwhelmed by their amount of knowledge. How had Jason, Sarah, and I been walking down the same 79th street that people protested on and not know anything about the situation going on in the community we're here to serve? Are we not being aware, or is there a lack of connection between the youth and speaking out about this issue?
"They do not care." Iysha kept repeating when I asked how kids feel about the abundance of deaths and gang violence in the neighborhood. Obviously gang violence isn't conducive to a healthy community. Besides the visible effects, a violent neighborhood increases the stress of community members, which leads to an array of health problems. But how do we go about developing a service project that could address this problem? Is it too big an issue to tackle for the amount of time we have? Probably. But regardless, it raises the issue of apathy. In all service projects which require community involvement how do we combat apathy?
Reflections Week 1
I think one of the highlights of the week was being able to walk around the neighborhood and having the kids show us around. While only one of our students actually lives here, the other two knew where the local parks were, and certainly where the nearest “market” was located to buy flaming hot cheetos and soda. One thing that struck me right off the bat was the construction surrounding GCYC. There was a lot of noise and quite a bit of debris spread around the area, making it somewhat chaotic; however, after passing this section of the neighborhood we were able to see a lot more assets.
One asset is that people seem to be friendly and do not mind waving and greeting you kindly as you pass by. Another cool thing I noticed was that many people have planted gardens and flowers all along the street to beautify the neighborhood. The fact that people have such an investment in their community is incredible, and I think any project involving “bettering the community” would really boost their overall mentality.
Upon conclusion of the week I think the most focused we have been able to get, in regards to choosing an area of interest, the only thing our students have suggested is stress. They state that being in school, living in the area, family, all cause them to be stressed out, and a big problem is that they are rarely ever taken seriously. Therefore, a proposed project idea might involve dealing with stress in a peaceful way, and investigating further what the physical effects of stress are on your body.
Another possible topic of interest arose from our community walks, where nutrition takes a backseat and it can be quite difficult to come across fresh fruits and vegetables. We’ll see where things go from here, but so far so good.
One asset is that people seem to be friendly and do not mind waving and greeting you kindly as you pass by. Another cool thing I noticed was that many people have planted gardens and flowers all along the street to beautify the neighborhood. The fact that people have such an investment in their community is incredible, and I think any project involving “bettering the community” would really boost their overall mentality.
Upon conclusion of the week I think the most focused we have been able to get, in regards to choosing an area of interest, the only thing our students have suggested is stress. They state that being in school, living in the area, family, all cause them to be stressed out, and a big problem is that they are rarely ever taken seriously. Therefore, a proposed project idea might involve dealing with stress in a peaceful way, and investigating further what the physical effects of stress are on your body.
Another possible topic of interest arose from our community walks, where nutrition takes a backseat and it can be quite difficult to come across fresh fruits and vegetables. We’ll see where things go from here, but so far so good.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Reflections from Chinatown
"My Day with the SSP Group: Chinatown"
We went to Chinatown yesterday and had a lot of fun. The whole group played games and waited for the "magic school bus" so we could leave. We arrived at the restaurant and tried a lot of new food. Bennie and I had to stay away from the seafood so Jason wouldn't have to work under pressure to save us ha ha ha! Then after lunch we took a tour of Chinatown and went to another restaurant that sells bubble tea. It was really good but a few people didn't like it. Bennie looked like he was going to puke. Alex and Whitney were so grossed out. Then we went to some Chinese grocery stores and let's just say they are very different from regular grocery stores. So after all of our fun we got back on the "magic school bus" and went back to the school.
- Taniqua
"Big Day!! Chinatown"
Today we had a great time. We tried new foods and drinks. Some liked them and others didn't. For instance, me I loved the drink but I hated the tapioca pearls that were in the drink. It started by me asking, "What's this?" Well, that is tapioca pearls. "Aww." Try them, you might like them. Iysha tried them and loved the tapioca pearls. "These are good," she said. Then it was my turn, I slurped my drink cautiously and slowly. Two tapioca pearls came up. They were gushy, slimy and hard to eat so I was just going to swallow them and then I just said forget it and spit it out. It was disgusting and gooey. I believe honestly that I will never try tapioca pearls ever in my life. Even though I didn't like the tapioca pearls I'm glad I tried new things and I really enjoyed the other dishes such as the noodle dish, rice, vegetarian eggrolls, and my fortunes. It was really exciting. I'm thrilled that we went to Chinatown.
- Bennie
"Chinatown"
On Thursday we visited Chinatown which was fun and a bit crazy at the same time. We ate different kinds of foods, which were all good to try. After that we all walked around Chinatown, when walking around we saw different kinds of animals, such as dog, monkey, horse, etc. The animals were to resemble you; for example, the dog was to resemble me which I thought was really cool. After that we tried drinks which I thought were going to taste nasty, but which turned out to be very tasty. After that we walked around and went into some stores that didn't smell so well, and I saw so many sea animals which were cool to see. After that we boarded the bus and went back home.
- Iysha
Friday, June 25, 2010
Community Outing
Here are some of the pictures I took from Wednesday. I do NOT claim to be a photographer, just tried taking pictures of some of the parks we walked around.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Welcome SSPers!
Hey Everyone!
This will be our blog for the Greater Grand Crossing site during the summer of 2010. We will be able to post reflections from projects, field trips, or just overall topics you feel interested in. This summer we will be exposed to plenty of incredible things related to community health and medicine, so we want to make sure that you keep track of everything on this site.
Things to remember:
1) Be respectful and courtesy to your peers and SSP mentors (both the medical students and the UChicago undergraduates).
2) Use proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc while writing either a post or a response to somebody else's post. We ultimately would like to use things written here for our final projects, or students may be able to incorporate it into their personal statements someday. We would not want "sUmtHInG WrOte lIKe 'dis."
3) Feel free to be as open and honest about things we learn on this site. This is a space of expression and respect, so we would like to hear your honest opinions about the things we are doing.
Sarah or I will often respond to posts or make announcements on here, so please try and keep up with the blog when you are able to. We cannot wait to get to know you better and loof forward to having a great summer!
Cheers,
Jason and Sarah
This will be our blog for the Greater Grand Crossing site during the summer of 2010. We will be able to post reflections from projects, field trips, or just overall topics you feel interested in. This summer we will be exposed to plenty of incredible things related to community health and medicine, so we want to make sure that you keep track of everything on this site.
Things to remember:
1) Be respectful and courtesy to your peers and SSP mentors (both the medical students and the UChicago undergraduates).
2) Use proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc while writing either a post or a response to somebody else's post. We ultimately would like to use things written here for our final projects, or students may be able to incorporate it into their personal statements someday. We would not want "sUmtHInG WrOte lIKe 'dis."
3) Feel free to be as open and honest about things we learn on this site. This is a space of expression and respect, so we would like to hear your honest opinions about the things we are doing.
Sarah or I will often respond to posts or make announcements on here, so please try and keep up with the blog when you are able to. We cannot wait to get to know you better and loof forward to having a great summer!
Cheers,
Jason and Sarah
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