I wasn’t sure what to expect the first time I went to the Lord’s Gym (a CAP partner with whom I spend part of my time). I had heard a lot about it, but I didn’t really have a mental picture. What I found when I arrived was a slightly dilapidated old building that reminded me of a high school gym from an inspirational sports movie: you know, the one that becomes a symbol of the seemingly hopeless team that manages to overcome all obstacles and win the big game. In other words, I saw a gym that had seen better days, but I also saw potential. I felt like the coaches must feel in those movies, thinking “Well, there’s not a lot to work with, but I bet we can do something great.”

Working at the Gym for the first time was intimidating. Aside from Kerri, another CAP volunteer, I was the only female there, and I am admittedly very bad at making small talk even under the best of circumstances. I didn’t want to interrupt their basketball games and I wasn’t sure what to talk about when they were over. Tim (the other CAP volunteer there) had the distinct advantage of being male and therefore able to bond with the guys while shooting hoops. Eventually I summoned up my eighth grade basketball skills and will occasionally join in, but mostly I still feel bad subjecting everyone to my extremely poor ball skills. Because these guys are good. It was at the Gym that I first realized how big a deal basketball is in Kentucky. These were mostly guys who were not playing on any teams, but who still spent three hours at the Gym playing pick-up games and shooting around. All of them can sink three-pointers with ease and there are a few I’ve seen make shots from half court.

In addition to watching more basketball then I have in my life (including when I was actually playing in elementary school), I’ve been able to see growth in some of the guys that come to the Gym, which has been really awesome. The Gym is a place where people of all ages come to play ball, and the whole age thing doesn’t seem to matter. There’s one guy in particular who’s really good about letting the younger kids play and making sure that they actually get the ball. I’ve also seen some of the older kids giving pointers to the younger and less experienced players.

Part of what we do at the Gym is lead a devotion about halfway through the night. This means that we have everyone stop playing ball for 10 or 15 minutes and play another game with them, usually with some sort of lesson attached. Then we close with prayer and let them return to their games. The first couple nights we did this, our request to stop playing ball was met with a lot of groans. People were there to play basketball, and they didn’t want to give us any of their time. There are still some complaints, and there are inevitably people who justhappen to have to leave right before devotion, but there are also people who’ve started getting excited about devotions, and who eagerly participate in the games.

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen at the Gym has been very recent. About a month ago, the Gym’s board decided to make Tuesday “Ladies’ Night” in an effort to get more women into the Gym (and by “more” women I mean women, period). Since the Ladies’ Night started, there have been a few Monday nights when there have been women there – almost unheard of before. There are also several families that have started coming in and working out together. It’s so encouraging to see people utilizing the Gym and taking their health seriously.

The Gym may still be a little run-down, and it may struggle to pay its heating bills every winter, but it is an important part of life in Jackson County. It gives kids a place to go to stay out of trouble, adults a place to stay in shape, and families a place to start working on a healthy lifestyle.

“Sometimes the best way to figure out who you are is to get to that place where you don’t have to be anything else.” – Unknown

Erin C. is a long-term volunteer in Educational and Recreational Programming, a program of Christian Appalachian Project affiliated with Camp Andrew Jackson. She is a member of the Jackson Volunteer Community. 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how terrible the situation is for many kids in Jackson County, Kentucky. It’s something that I knew, at least abstractly, coming into my volunteer year, but after working in the schools for five months, it’s becoming much more tangible.

A study just came out that listed Kentucky 41st in the nation for the quality of their teachers. I’m sure that there must be some truth to this, but I can’t help but think that there are some much bigger problems than the teachers. The teachers I work with are all very dedicated to their students and very frustrated with some of the state requirements. Kentucky is coming out with new standards that teachers are expected to meet, but it hasn’t developed all of these standards yet, making it hard for teachers to create a curriculum. In addition to planning for these mysterious new standards, teachers have to integrate various subjects and document how they do it. They can’t just have a science project – they have to have a science project that combines science, art, and English, and they have to upload examples of student work into the computer. There’s also paperwork to fill out for students who get extra help. Oh, and teachers can’t even work on all these documents while students are taking a test or working on a worksheet because many students need questions read out loud to them. One teacher was telling me that she literally does not have enough time to do all the paperwork that she’s supposed to be doing.

Family Resource Centers are an important part of all the schools. They try to make sure that students have all the support and resources they need in order to succeed academically – things like clean clothes and lunch. Unfortunately, their funding keeps getting cut, making it impossible for them to help as much as they would like. One of the issues that the Family Resource Centers deals with is attendance. I was recently at a meeting where one of the elementary school Resource Center directors remarked that she had at least five students who had missed at  least 50 days of school (and the schools just hit their hundredth day). The middle school director responded that she had students who had missed 70 days. “Don’t the schools have some sort of absence policy?” you might be asking, and the answer is yes, they do, but those policies tend to deal with unexcused absences. In a lot of cases, these students come in with doctor’s notes.

If students aren’t even in school, it’s impossible to teach them, and imagine how they must feel when they do come. If they’re only around about half the time, I’m sure that they’re completely lost, which won’t make them want to come back. I can see the results of constant absences in many of the kids I work with. A lot of the fourth graders have handwriting that is nearly impossible to read, and sometimes I can only tell what they’re trying to say on their tests because I know what the answers are supposed to be. Many of them don’t know how to read. And I don’t mean that they’re not reading as well as they should be – I mean that they actually can’t read. I was helping one boy with his Power Point presentation, and I was supposed to be writing down his thoughts as he told me the information. I quickly discovered that he didn’t know the information, and he couldn’t read in order to find it. Where do you even start with a student like that? I tried coaxing the answers out of him, but in the end it felt like I was just telling him things and then he would tell me to write them down. It’s so hard to learn new information when you don’t have the basics of reading and writing down.

There are so many underlying issues with the quality of education that it can seem kind of hopeless. How can you teach students who aren’t even coming to school? How can you help kids learn when they don’t have any support at home? How can you enforce attendance policies when kids come in with doctor’s notes? Sometimes I think the most important thing that I do for these children is show up every week. I get to be the “fun teacher” that they see for an hour, and it’s something they look forward to – it makes learning fun for them. Sure, we’re teaching them important lessons on bullying and budgeting, but we’re also showing them that someone cares.

And there is hope. There are school backpack programs that provide a bag full of food on Fridays to families that might not otherwise be able to feed their kids over the weekend. There are mobile health units that provide some dental and medical services so kids don’t miss school for doctor’s visits. CAP has a school readiness program that makes sure children have all their essential school supplies. Perhaps most important, there are a lot of people who care: people who are working to get students to school and keep them there.

“At the end of the day, love and compassion will win.” – Terry Waite

Erin C. is a long-term volunteer in Educational and Recreational Development. She is a member of the Jackson Volunteer Community.

I must apologize for my neglect of my blogging duties last week.  The internet at the house has been out for about two weeks so any internet usage means that I need to hang out at work.  So, this blog post is going to be a very simple, no-frills, rundown of what has been going on over the past couple of weeks in the order that they happened, and not the order of importance.

1.  Embracing the History of Fried Chicken Joints:  We’ve been going to church in Corbin, which also happens to be the location of the original KFC.  The building that is there is not the original KFC, but it’s apparently on the same spot.  It is the same as a regular KFC, just with museum exhibits sprinkled throughout.  Apparently it is a favorite haunt of Japanese tourists.  Who knew?  Check that off of my list.

2.  A Winter Hike:  I don’t think I’ve ever gone hiking in the winter.  Hiking in the winter in Michigan would generally mean trudging through snow and slipping on ice, which is, of course, not fun.  I went hiking with my housemate Kate and her fiance Josh who has come to KY to visit Kate/be a short-term CAP volunteer.  It was a pretty nice hike.  It was a little muddy and required us to ford a stream a few times but it was very pretty to see the icicles hanging off the rocks.  Fresh air and outdoors-y-ness = happy Elizabeth.

3.  Work week:  I had a great work week.  The kids at SPARK made some fantastical inventions in honor of Benjamin Franklin’s birthday.  I played Just Dance for the first time ever.  I was a little hesitant since I um, never dance, but I survived!  And the kids really like it.

4.  Good-byes and Upcoming Hellos:  Our lovely housemate Olga left CAP this weekend and went back home to Chicago.  She’s missed by all of us but I’m sure that there are a lot of good things in store for her back home.  We welcomed a new volunteer to take over her job at the preschool this weekend.

5.   A Poorly Planned Lexington Trip:  We all decided that it might be nice to do something in Lexington after dropping off Olga at the airport.  However, we didn’t really have any specific plans.  We looked at a “Best of Lexington” brochure at the airport.  Most of the things that we were interested in doing were outside things that would have to wait until the spring.  In short, we ended up visiting a chocolate shop, a used bookstore, and a cupcake shop that were all not really what they were expected to be.  It was a nice, but kind of quirky trip.

6.  Work week #2:  I didn’t have the best work week.  There was something a little bit discouraging that happened pretty much everyday of the week.  But, that happens.  The week ended on a nice note, though, with a Mexican/Scottish themed celebration of my housemate Janet’s birthday.  Ahh, chocolate brownies and ice cream.  How do I love you?  Let me count the ways.

Elizabeth L. is a long-term volunteer in CAP’s Child and Family Development program. She is a member of the McCreary Volunteer Community.

I have decided that all children should be equipped with mechanical pencils.

This past week was my first week of being back in the schools after the Christmas break and last week’s snow days.  Monday was a fantastic day.  My lesson went really well, I had some great discussion with the kids, and SPARK (Scholastic Preparation and Arts & Recreation for Kids, an afterschool program I help run) was jolly good fun.  Then Tuesday came.  And the Great Pencil Crisis struck.

Anyone who has ever taught a group of kids knows the importance of classroom management.  Without it, everything crumbles.  And today I learned this lesson yet again.

It was time for my anti-bullying lesson.  The classroom teacher stepped out of the room to go and make some copies.  The kids were kind of chatty, but that happens sometimes.  I started my lesson.  Then came time for the kids to do some writing on their own.  A hand goes up.

“My pencil is broken.  Can you sharpen it?”

“Can you sharpen it yourself?”

“No.  We’re not allowed because we broke her other pencil sharpener.”

So I take the pencil and she follows behind.  Another kid joins the ranks as I make my way up to the electric pencil sharpener.  As I sharpen the pencil, I discover that there is one of two problems here:  Either A:  This pencil sharpener sucks.  or B:  I do not know the secret of using this pencil sharpener.  (Or both.)    Nevertheless, I managed to sharpen the pencil to what I thought was a reasonable state.  I send kid #1 on her way and start sharpening pencil #2.

Kid #1 returns.

“When I started to write, it broke.”

After more pencil fiddling, I made the executive decision that this pencil sharpener wasn’t cutting it.  I looked for some pre-sharpened pencils on the teacher’s desk that I could just let the kids borrow, but there weren’t any.

“Is there another pencil sharpener you all can use?”

“There’s that one.”  (Collective, helpful children point to the hand crank one screwed into the wall.)  “”But it doesn’t work very well.”

“Well, try that one, because this one just isn’t working.”

The kids troop over to the pencil sharpener.  I notice that my two dull pencil students have turned into four dull pencil students.  After some work with the pencil sharpener, one of the kids walks up to me.

“That pencil sharpener isn’t working.”

The teacher is still out, but I look in her desk for a simple, hand held, hold-it-over-the-trash-while-you-sharpen kind of pencil sharpener.  I found one, and handed it off.  I decided that it was probably time to move the kids on to the next part of the lesson, even though my dull pencil kids wouldn’t have this part done.  I looked up at the clock.  11:20.

This is the part where I have a mental “crap!” moment.  I was twenty minutes into my lesson and I had no idea where the time had gone.  (I expect that the pencils know where it went, though.)  The kids were also even chattier than before.  The problem with giving so much attention to a couple of students is that you tend to lose your hold on the others.  I salvaged the lesson as fast as I could and finished up.  It had been kind of a hectic lesson and I walked away with a sigh.

But I also walked away with a smile.  Because something else happened that day besides the pencil crisis.

When I walked into one of the classes that day I was greeted with “Hey, you’re back!  I’m so glad to see you!” and one little girl ran up to me and excitedly listed off what she got for Christmas.  And in the midst of my pencil crisis, while I was standing there thinking “This is not going well…”  one girl said to me “I wish you could come everyday!” while the new kid in the class said “Yeah, I like you.”

Oh, kids.  They’re the greatest.

Elizabeth L. is a long-term volunteer in CAP’s Child and Family Development program. She lives in McCreary Volunteer Community.

It’s been a really crazy month, as you might have guessed by the extreme lack of updates. I kept meaning to write a Christmas-themed blog, but there were just so many Christmas things happening that I couldn’t decide what to write about. So here are some of the highlights.

The biggest thing happening at CAP in December is called Christmas Basket. Families who can’t afford to buy Christmas gifts sign up to receive a “basket” and they are matched with a donor who then buys gifts for everyone in the family. Families and donors start signing up during the summer and people all across the country send boxes. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough donors for the number of families who sign up (over 100 in each county CAP serves), so someone in the Family Advocacy program has to purchase and wrap gifts for several. I got to spend one entire Monday in December wrapping Christmas presents for elderly participants. I actually really love wrapping, so it was the perfect way to start the Christmas season for me. Each participant filled out a sheet with their contact info and some ideas for presents, and then we did our best to give them what they wanted. Sometimes this meant that a person got exactly the towels that they asked for, but more often than not it meant that they got some plates even though they asked for pots and pans.  We did our best, but there are some things that just don’t get donated, or that don’t get donated as often as people ask for them.

Later in December, I was able to take part in the Christmas Basket distributions. This was something I had been looking forward to since I had learned about it. I loved being able to see the people getting the presents – so often with the volunteer work I do, it’s hard to see results. I know that I’m helping students learn important lessons, but I don’t really see how it affects their lives. Helping families carry their boxes to their cars was very satisfying. I had spent much of December wrapping Christmas presents and hearing about Christmas Basket and I was finally able to see the people who were taking home the presents.

One of the most exciting parts of this Christmas season was the Jacksonhood (that’s what we call the Jackson Volunteer Community) Christmas tree. I had never before had a real tree, so this was a big deal. One Sunday a bunch of us went out into the woods to find a tree. It was harder than you might expect – even though we live in the middle of the forest, there are surprisingly few pine trees. Finally, we found one that was full, not growing on the side of a hill, and not too tall – or so we thought. After using a hand saw to chop down the tree, we realized it was much taller than we had originally realized. Luckily, it didn’t have a very thick trunk, so we sawed off another foot and then dragged it back to the house. After shoving it through the back door we discovered that it was still too tall – even for the highest part of our ceiling. We sawed off another foot and finally it fit. We screwed it into the tree stand and started untangling the lights. As we strung the lights onto the tree, it fell over. We stood it back up, screwed it in more securely, and continued decorating. When it fell over a second time we realized that it was still too tall, so we sawed off some more of the trunk. It fell over one more time, at which point we tied it to the ceiling, where it remained for the rest of the Christmas season. There’s something very special about the Jackson House at Christmastime (all the time really, but especially at Christmas). In addition to the lights on the tree, someone strung Christmas lights around the living room, making it incredibly cozy and homey. I was really able to feel the Christmas spirit, something that was hard to do outside the house, since there was no snow and it wasn’t even cold. There was one night in particular where we were all sitting around, enjoying each other’s company for the last time before we all headed home for Christmas. A few people had made presents for the rest of the housemates – nothing big, but truly beautiful, thoughtful gifts. I could just feel all the love in the room, and it made me incredibly grateful for the four months I’ve spent here so far. There is so much to look forward to in the coming year – WorkFest, summer camp, another teen retreat… and I’m excited to find out where the end of my CAP year will take me. But for now I will just say Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year… and I promise I will do a better job of keeping up with the blog.

“Faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1

Erin C. is a long-term volunteer in Educational and Recreational Programming. She lives in Jacksonhood.

I have to say that snow has been missing in action this winter.  There hasn’t been any snow in Kentucky, and there wasn’t any snow in Michigan (gasp!) except for a couple days the whole time that I was at home.

However, I did experience my first ever Kentucky snow days this past week.  School officials are VERY cautious about snowy roads here, and the Child and Family Development center where I serve closes when schools are closed.  There was a thin layer of snow on the ground on Tuesday, so there was no school.  The next day, Wednesday, I thought for sure that there would be school because there was like, um, no snow except in a few places that the sun doesn’t reach.  Buuuut, I was wrong.  There was no school.  So I figured that there must be more snow than I thought.  I pulled out my magnifying glass and did some investigative work.  I counted exactly 75.3 snowflakes.  Snow day officially justified!!!

Well, to be honest, I can see some very good reasons for extra caution on these rural roads because I’m pretty sure that they would be death traps for school buses (and inexperienced volunteers) to drive on in the snow.  Too many curves.  And dips and hills, but not too many places to go off the road without much trouble. What qualifies as an eastern Kentucky snow day may seem ridiculous to some, but it’s simply a fact of life in the rural areas we serve.

Ah, well, I hate winter driving.  Bring on the snow days!  But not too many.

Elizabeth L. is a long-term volunteer in Child and Family Development. She lives in McCreary Volunteer House.

You can run in circles.  But it’ll make you dizzy.

You can turn into a couch potato.  But it’ll make you dull.

You can tackle a big job alone.  But it’ll make you wish you had someone by your side.

You can spend all day thinking about unfortunate things you can’t change.  But it’ll make you despair.

You can beat yourself up and analyze all your faults.  But it’ll make you a cripple.

You can be halted in your tracks by people who slap you in the face and make you cower in your chair.  But it’ll make you doubt.

You can cut out red and green letters that spell “Merry Christmas.”  It’ll make you smile.

You can watch some cool kids act out a skit and wrap up some presents.  It’ll make you happy.

You can joke around with your coworkers and exchange good-sprited jibes.  It’ll make you laugh.

You can watch snowflakes float to the ground and smell the clean winter air.  It’ll make you know that there’s a God.

You can let someone take you by the hand and show you the way.  It’ll make you know that life’s worth living.

You can appreciate the small things:  the person who smiles at you as you pass them by in the grocery aisle, the smell of cookies baking in the oven, the face of the moon shining down from a clear winter sky, the cows in the pasture amongst the mountains, a table surrounded by people singing “Happy Birthday”.  It’ll make you grateful.

Life comes with the good and the bad, the light and the dark.  Which are you going to mull over?

I’m changing my ways.  It might take awhile.  But that’s okay.

Elizabeth L. is a long-term volunteer at one of CAP’s Child and Family Development centers. She lives in the McCreary Volunteer Community.

Thursdays are my favorite day of the week. Here’s why:

Last Thursday started off pretty horribly. My car has been having problems shifting, so I planned to take it to a garage this morning, which meant I had to get up earlier than usual. Despite waking up early, I walked out the door about five minutes later than I wanted to, after realizing that it was going to take me longer than expected to get to the garage, where I was meeting my coworker Richie. I told myself that it was fine, we’d still be able to make it to the school on time, but when I got down the hill to my car, I discovered it was frozen shut (hooray cold mornings). I couldn’t even get the key into the driver’s door, and even after I’d managed to unlock the sliding back door, I couldn’t get it open. I was pulling with all my weight on the door, but the only progress I’d made was some creaking that sounded like the handle was going to come off. Frustrated, I headed back up the hill to see if anyone in the house had any suggestions. My housemate Tim agreed to help me and while he went to grab his coat I tried again to get the back door open. This time, I succeeded and was able to crawl into the front seat to turn the car on and unlock the doors. Unfortunately, it took me another twenty minutes to clean off the windows to the point where I could see to drive. By then, I was very late, which meant that Richie was also going to be late , and I hate it when I make other people late.

I was also really intimidated by the task of taking my car to a garage. I had never even seen my dad talk with a mechanic, so I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say or what questions I was supposed to ask. Luckily, the man at the garage was incredibly nice, and I felt good about leaving my car with him. Richie was very understanding about my rough morning, so I was already feeling better by the time we pulled into the school (only 10 minutes late).

Teaching always manages to pull me out of whatever sad or tired mood I’m in. The 4th graders I teach are so excited to see Richie and I, and they’re always willing to participate in whatever activity or discussion we have planned. They also always have stories to share and I love being the person that they want to tell about their Christmas list or what happened on the bus. I’ve realized that there is a very special way of listening when you’re a teacher. When you ask a question, you have to be prepared for nearly any answer. Sometimes the kids are absolutely right, sometimes they’re on the right track, and sometimes you wonder if they even heard what you asked. The trick is, you can’t just say “no, that’s not right.” If you do that, they get discouraged from answering again, so instead, it is the job of a teacher to find some grain of the correct answer in whatever it is the child has thrown at you. The best example of this happened today, when Richie asked the class what it means to consume. One girl said. “It’s like when you’re hiding stuff… you know, so others can’t find it.” His response: “Well, not exactly… but it does have to do with stuff – you’re right there.” I love trying to find the correctness in seemingly completely wrong answers.

My day further improved when I went back to the garage to pick up my car. I was bracing myself for a very expensive repair bill, but the mechanic told me all he’d had to do was tighten a couple bolts, so I didn’t owe him anything. I was so happy and relieved that I nearly hugged him. I had been really afraid that the mechanic would take advantage of my complete lack of car knowledge, and instead he fixed my car without charging me.

My beautiful Christmas tree

So my day had completely turned around by the afternoon, when I found myself painting a giant Christmas tree outside one of the classrooms. The students had written poems on ornaments and the teacher asked me if I minded making the tree for her. I’m not particularly artistic, but I figured I could handle painting a tree. While I was painting, all the 4th graders had to walk by me to go to the gym. As they went past, almost every single one of them made some sort of comment about the tree. “Did you paint that yourself, Miss Erin? Cool!” “Miss Erin, that looks so pretty!” “Miss Erin, you’re such a good artist!” “Miss Erin, that looks really good!” Let me just tell you – if you ever want to feel good about yourself, do something slightly impressive in front of a group of 4th graders. One boy even asked me why I couldn’t be an all-the-time teacher.

And that is why I love Thursdays.

Erin C. is a long-term volunteer in Educational and Recreational Programming. She lives in the Jackson Volunteer Community.

Thanksgiving at Jackson House near Berea, KY. Sarah is taking the photo but she’s part of the blessing!!!

Part of volunteering at CAP and living in a volunteer house is sharing a meal and a devotion four times a week. Devotions are reflections put together by whoever cooks dinner and they can be pretty much anything. They’re a way to get to know one other and think about why we’re here and how we’re growing through our time together.

Last week two CAP employees from Christian Partners came and cooked a delicious dinner for us (soup and homemade bread – yum!). Afterwards, they led a devotion about being thankful. One of the main points was that there are so many little things we take for granted, like heated houses and clean water. It got me thinking about how so many things that frustrate me or stress me out are tied up in things that I am truly grateful for. This was an especially important revelation after my trip to Chicago last weekend. Going back reminded me how much I miss it and how much I love the people that I left there – but even though missing people is not a good feeling, it sure beats the alternative of not having people to miss. So here is my [unfinished] list of things I am thankful for… some are fairly obvious, and some I have to work a little harder at.

• having people to miss
• living in community
• the ability to travel
• volunteering
• hot showers and warm blankets
• good conversations
• people who listen to me and want me to listen to them
• caring about things enough to worry about them
• small, unexpected acts of kindness
• inside jokes
• 4th graders
• the internet
• Thursdays
• long car rides with good music
• generous hearts
• “working” for an organization where I can eat lunch and talk about deer with the CEO
• having many options for the future
• genuine people
• hugs
• the ability to read and write
• experiencing new cultures
• television shows that make me laugh out loud
• having many places to call home

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward

Erin C. is a long-term volunteer in Educational and Recreational Programming. She’s also thankful to live in the Jackson Volunteer Community.