5/6/14 - Day 3 - Lucky

I could only go for two hours my last day [I expect to go next semester to continue filling the void in my life left from a lack of manual labor and outdoor activity, I just mean the last day I could this semester]. Had to do finals bullshit. There was a lot of students there just starting their volunteer requirements for their various classes. I opted to enjoy the nice weather and turn the compost alone. Didn't really talk to anybody. To be honest nothing really happened this time that seemed worthy of mentioning. Alex continues to build a community with his gardens that low-income areas like North Philly desperately need, and if his idea for student housing goes through then I suspect he will receive a lot of praise for that as a way to bind together what is currently two opposing forces in the area. But I wonder how far gardens can take us. The world is in increasing need of a sense of community, and in order to make legislation that benefits our society [social mobility], we need to be less individualistic. I know I'm grasping at straws here, but honestly, nothing different happened and since I couldn't be there for long all I experienced was the smell of garbage for two hours and then I left. So, uh, you know. Education...and things. Love ya Mr. Siler.

4/22/14 - Day 2 - Big Ideas

The second time I volunteered with PUC we didn't spend much time at Life Do Grow, the main garden. No one was there but me and two other Temple students, both of whom kept pretty much to themselves. One guy, whose name was also Nick, was a decent guy and seemed fairly disinterested in whatever he was doing. I didn't catch the girl's name but she seemed equally apathetic. But the most apathetic of all was the girl running the place that day. While everyone watered the same plants to look busy, she didn't even keep up appearances. I watered the beds whose irrigation systems were still faulty and the new plants in the greenhouse, and barely finished before she told us she was leaving. It was 1:30. Fortunately she offered to drive us to another garden on Carlisle, where apparently Alex, the main co-founder guy, was working. I anticipated much more fruitful experiences here, but enjoyed the reminder that in every community, there will always be some who don't pull their weight.

The other garden was a space owned by the church across the street, and when I got there it was just Alex and Devon, another co-founder and friendly handyman I had met at my first session. They were erecting a new greenhouse. That became the focus of my four hours. It was the kind of manual labor I'd been robbed of, so naturally I wasn't very good at it, but I was enthusiastic. Later some high school kids with some program came and they tossed the beds. The preacher, a short old man, sat and watched, or he would stand in the street handing flyers out to the cars that passed. He seemed to know everyone. Religion is another from of community. 

I didn't spend too much time with the kids but they were friendly. I suppose if I were intently focused on making connections to the course I would have asked them about their school but I doubt they would have enjoyed that. Instead we talked about shoes. Lots of them had very nice shoes and some refused to step in the soil. Some refused to do work altogether, which I found surprising because they did not seem to come there by force. A white van with posters all over it circled the block, blasting old RnB with a guy on a megaphone talking about some lady campaigning for mayor. I thought about Osage Avenue. I'm a pessimist. But I did enjoy the sense of community here as well. It seemed like everywhere I followed PUC there was a stronger sense of it than anywhere I had been before. Was this what all of North Philly was like? I thought foolishly. When the rain came all the kids left in a huff, and so did the other Nick. I opted to stay and help put the roof we had built on the greenhouse, which was a difficult process with only four people. 

Later a homeless guy tried to sell us adirondack chairs he had stolen from Temple's campus. 

"I bought these both for 30 dollars, but you can have em for ten."

"You stole these from Temple." I said.

"Bargain. No. Bargain." he said. 

"Homeless people don't buy chairs." Gentrification has its ups and downs. 

After all the work I decided to chat with Alex, a guy I only knew by email and who was busy talking with potential business partners or holding up the other end of the roof for most of my time there. He was friendly and cool. He asked me if I had housing for next year, to which I replied I did. He told me about an initiative he was planning where Temple students could find affordable off-campus housing in planned areas while participating in the community and "getting to know who you live by", which he said would decrease violence. It seemed like a great plan, and would definitely ease the tensions that can come along with college students moving into North Philly. It wouldn't change the problem of the rising price of housing in the area, but I didn't say all that, because I'm not a dick. 

As I walked back I met a guy who claimed to be named after the cross-street. He said he was the watchful protector of that block. "I love Temple students, man. I won't let nothin' happen to you here. Anybody give you trouble you just tell them you know me." I don't remember his name, but I wish I could offer him the same protection from Temple, a force I had begun to think was much more formidable than some angry North Philly kid. 

4/12/14 - Day 1 - From the Ground Up

I remember walking past it twice before I finally realized what I was doing. My recent communique with various volunteer organizations had me looking for something more official, bureaucratic. But I should have known from Alex's email that this was something a lot more casual. "Hey, can I volunteer here?" "Sure, come any tuesday or saturday" is a stark contrast from handing your fingerprints over to the FBI. When I stopped looking for an office building and just walked straight to the garden I knew immediately what misstep I had taken, and the folks there knew it too.

"I saw you pass us and I figured you were lost." A tall young man told me, to my embarrassment. I would later learn his name to be Denzel, a high school senior, who as a co-founder of the Philadelphia Urban Creators had already done more cool shit with his life than I had, including meet Nick Cannon...who I suppose isn't too relevant anymore but damn did I love his show in the 90s.

Anyway, they started me with compost. I got the feeling they started everyone with compost. I had to sift it all so that it would break down into soil faster. When I got done with three heaping piles of shit I started watering flowers. Around this time I started wondering how I would relate this experience to a class about education. But of course finding this place on a list provided by the professor was sort of solacing. And when Ping came a bit later his charisma and inquisitive nature helped me see some relevance. When he came a lot of others came after, some volunteers, many neighborhood folk. I learned through Ping's questions that most of them had been coming for years, after hearing about it through other various community incentives. We all began to talk, and I think I learned the most when we all enjoyed a break in the shade, not one of us working. PUC was not about making North Philly pretty, or reversing ecological damage wrought by the city, or creating a source of healthy produce in areas where it was scare, though of course these were all factors in its creation I am sure. It was about building communities, enabling connections that would not have otherwise been made. In an area where schools haven't the capacity to be communal hubs for children, PUC offered an alternative. Most of the people there were children from the area, who with or without knowing it were being instilled with societal values, something beyond the individualist good, which makes for a better society. I oculd see how a garden could make North Philly a better place, and I will say now I did not see that before. I thought back to my communication with Congreso, a place I know I could offer much, but was rendered unable by bureaucratic restrictions. Thinking of the connections lost from that made me a tad upset. I was losing something, the kids I would've encountered were as well, and for what? Quantifiable data. Reminds me of NCLB. Sure, bit of a stretch. But you see what I'm getting at.

At the end of the day Ping showed me a beautiful cherry blossom he found on his way there. It was one of the most disgusting streets in North Philly, but one of the most beautiful trees I'd ever seen. It seemed symbolic.

Here's a picture of me and Ping.