It was KHADIJAH!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Memorial Day!!!!!!!!!

Most of us had the day of today, everyone except for John Deans, Brandon, and David Womble. Everyone else pretty much chilled at the house all day to catch up on reading, chores, and rest. I'm almost halfway done with Nickel and Dimed and so far I have mixed reviews about what I've read. I feel like Ehrenreich puts out a lot of important information about the various struggles that low-wage workers must endure on a daily basis. However, I feel that she has given herself certain advantages that a normal person actually living in her situation would never have. It's an interesting read and I'm hopeful that maybe I'll enjoy it more as I read more.

For dinner tonight we had....BREAKFAST! John Deans and I took turns manning the bacon while Khadijah killed some pancakes with our giant box of Bisquick. Alice prepared the eggs for us and we each made our own order that we preferred. I think everyone would agree that this dinner was absolutely delicious and one of the favorites so far.

After dinner I introduced a new game to the group called This Is A...., which everyone seemed to liked (except for Alice...lol) and the girls DOMINATED the guys in a round of Cranium. But the real fun came when we decided to play Mafia. I never knew that Khadijah was such a deceptive person...she completely fooled everyone! Alice and John were the two prime suspects for the mafia until the very end when Khadijah shocked us all. She had played so well and rightfully won the game.

Tomorrow is my first day at the Troy-Johnson Center. I'm excited to get involved with the kids there and compare my experiences there with those I've had so far at the Center for the Child. I'll let you know how it turns out! See ya!

Critical Reflection #1

When I first entered the Richardson Center for the Child at Francis Marion University I was extremely excited to be working at a state of the art childcare and research facility. I entered the building after passing the beautifully crafted fountain in the center of the parking lot and the line of parked mini vans and sedans that were waiting for parents to return from dropping off their children. The inside is professionally decorated with the daycare center to the right main entrance and the “academic” research portion of the facility to the left. The first person I meet is Gloria, one of the receptionists on the daycare side. She seems to be expecting me and immediately takes me to the four-year-old classroom until my supervisor, Dr. Hester, arrives. The teachers in the four-year-old classroom, Ms. Rachael and Ms. Stacy, were welcoming and friendly when I first arrived, but I have to admit that I think they were a little confused as to why I was in their classroom. Ms. Rachael was definitely more receptive and just wanted me to have fun and play with the kids. Ms. Stacy, however, was a little more curious about who I was, where I came from, and what I was doing in her room – especially when I told her I was studying biomedical engineering. I tried to be as friendly and polite as I could without acting too weird and eventually just started playing with the kids as they continued their normal schedule. There was a fairly diverse group of children in the classroom, but the majority of them were white. I had learned from Dr. Hester that about half of the kids in the four-year-old class were a part of the South Carolina CDEPP (Child Development Education Pilot Program) – a state funded pilot program for at-risk four-year-old children. Their tuition is paid for by the government so that they can receive quality childcare despite their family’s impoverished state. I stereotypically assumed that all of the black children in the class were members of this program, and after spending a week in the classroom and asking a few questions, I think I have confirmed that all of the black children – along with a few others – are indeed a part of CDEPP. I would be very interested to compare the development of the children in CDEPP and those who aren’t to see if there are any disparities concerning their readiness for Kindergarten and any other educational disparities.

Dr. Hester and I had a really great conversation when we first met on Tuesday. He seems really excited to have me at the center and really has a plan for what he wants me to learn and experience while I’m there. We discussed both of our family and educational backgrounds, and we learned that we actually come from fairly similar families. I’ll be working with him and another professor named Dr. Farrah Hughes on their current research project on parental stress among low-income parents. I think I’m really going to get a feel for how social psychology research takes place and also for the extreme difficulties that the “working poor” has to endure.

On Thursday morning I went to Mullins to meet my supervisor at the Troy-Johnson Intergenerational Korner. Ms. Jackie is a very nice lady who is extremely active in her community and does anything and everything she can to help the less fortunate in her community – including keeping her facility open anywhere between 4AM and midnight! I think the people at the Center for the Child and at Troy-Johnson may have expected that I would be white because I was a Duke student. However, Ms. Jackie was the only one who actually stated that she thought her intern would be white! I guess she was surprised when she saw me, but I actually think my race will come in handy at my job in Mullins. The vast majority of the students and staff at Ms. Jackie’s daycare are African American. Perhaps I will be able to connect more with them than those at the Center for the Child. In any case, I think it will be very interesting to compare my experiences at both center over time.

So...

I really don't feel like blogging tonight....

We went to the movies yesterday to see Star Trek and explore Florence. It was great.

Today some of us went to the Methodist Church...then I went to the gym to get my membership and work out a little. We came back and finally broke into that watermelon before heading out for dinner at Zapata's. For a second there, we thought we were going to starve because all of the restaurants were closed but we eventually found something. Then we came back to the house to watch Madea goes to Jail, eat some pound cake and inquiry about all of our strange childhood habits and past/current relationships. Lol...

Hopefully I'll have more energy to blog later. Sorry for the disappointment.

A Beautiful Evening

Tonight was a great night, but let's back track a little since I failed to inform the public about what went on yesterday...

I arrived at the Center for the Child yesterday around 8:30 as usual and headed for the four-year-old classroom. They were busy playing at their various "centers" and having a great start for the day. I was playing with some of the kids at their grocery store center where I was spending a great deal of pretend money on plastic fruits and vegetables and empty boxes of cereal, laundry detergent, and baby wipes. I wanted to see how much the kids knew about different types of foods so I asked one child in particular to identify each fruit for me as I purchased it. However, I was both amused and slightly concerned when one child repeatedly identified each item as..........Egg Salad - in the most honest and adorable four-year-old voice you've ever heard. No matter which item I chose for him to identify, it was always.........Egg Salad. I don't really know what that was about but I had to try my best not to laugh right in the kid's face. It was really funny.

After hanging out with the kids outside for a while, Dr. Hester came to get me and gave me an interesting assignment for the next week. I was to undertake the role of a single mother of two kids (2 and 7 years old) living in Marion, SC with a full-time job at McDonald's Restaurant - a minimum wage job. I had to budget my expenses for an entire year, including child care, transportation, insurance (health, auto, life, etc.), taxes, groceries, and any other necessary expenses. I also had to figure out how I could get to work while making sure my children got to school and daycare safely, for the needed amount of time, and while still receiving quality care and education. So far, I know that I have less that $14,000/year to work with so....yea....this is going to kind of tough but I'm really excited to see how I can make it work. Dr. Hester's intentions are for me to get a good picture of the kind of situation that the "working poor" is in, not only in Marion, but across the country. Single parents are obviously even at more of a disadvantage since there is only one source of income. I'm excited to take on this project and what I'm going to learn from it. I've also started ready Nickel and Dimed and I look forward to incorporating Ehrenreich's experience with my own research and experience at the center.

After work, I came back to the house, took a quick run around the neighborhood, and took a shower before David Oberst and I took a trip to Food Lion to get the ingredients for the meal we're cooking on Friday. We plan on serving Oven-Fried Chicken for the main course and garlic mashed potatoes and green beans as the sides. Sounds yummy right? Hopefully it will turn out well. The rest of the evening was pretty low key....we did a mini ab workout (Khadijah, Alice, and I) and watched the season finale of American Idol...Congratulations Kris!!!!! (just in case he reads this one day....lol).

So now I'll turn to my day today...

This morning I went to meet Ms. Jackie and the Troy-Johnson Intergenerational Learning Center in Mullins. I got a little lost on the way there but it turned out to be a pretty easy place to find so hopefully that won't happen again :) Ms. Jackie seems like she'll be a really great superviser...she and actually her whole family are really involved in the community and try to serve it as much as they can. Ms. Jackie was some of the lowest childcare rates in the area and I was amazed to hear that her hours of operation can last from 4 AM until midnight!!!! She's struggling like many other small business owners but she has a relentless committment to helping those in need in her community and even though I just met her, I can tell that she does a great job. She invited me to the four-year-old class's "graduation" this Saturday morning so I plan on attending that and I'm happy she's already seeing me as a part of the center's family. She's closed on Monday (Memorial Day) but I'll start out there on Tuesday morning and be there for the remainder of the week. The rest of my day was spent back at FMU with the kids there. I talked more with another student/teacher who works at the Center for the Child and is also a student at FMU. She seems really nice and I hope we get to know each other more over the course of the 9 weeks.


After getting back home, Khadijah, Alice, and I watched The View online because we were missing it so much...lol. Then, thanks to the generosity of Dr. Demarco, John Deans, Alice, and I went to Florence to see a benefit symphony performance. A lady in Florence diagnosed with breast cancer has lost her medical insurance and as a result declared medical bankruptcy because she cannot afford to pay for her treatment. As an accomplished flutist and musical director at her church, the local Florence Symphony Orchestra, the Masterworks Choir, the Florence Little Theatre Singers, and other musicians performed at this benefit concert to raise money for this woman and her family. It was a beautiful concert and my very first symphony that I've seen perform! This family is very much loved in their community and I wish her all of the best. The emcee reported at the end of the concert that over $31,000 had been raised for the family so far so hopefully much more will come. It was nice to get up close and personal with small town South Carolina (even though Florence is bigger than Marion) and I'm sure much more of the will come later.

Well that's about all I can do tonight...I'M TIRED!!!! Goodnight :)

Hello Noelle from Joy and Momma

Noelle, read your blogs and sounds like you're having lot of fun! I'm very proud of you! Be safe and we'll talk to you soon! I love you!

Momma

Note to Daddy

Hey Daddy, how are you? I am glad that you successfully logged on to my blog. There's a place where you can comment on the blogs without actually writing one. They're at the bottom of the posts. I hope you're enjoying reading what's going on! Hopefully, I'll write another tomorrow! Talk to you later!

Noelle

HELLO

HELLO NOELLE, AM I OFFICIALLY BLOGGING. I DID NOT KNOW WHAT IT WAS. HAVE A GOOD DAY. I WILL BLOG YOU BACK LATER.