In this blog I will focus on how the implementation of my project is proceeding.
Taking it slow, One step at a time
I think that I must take everything one step at a time. So far, I have consciously interacted and visited the children at the Bolden Child Development Center of Xavier University. There, I think that I have had an impact on the children and I feel that through my 3 visits I have accomplished everything that I have set out to accomplish. I was sort of like a study case that I was doing with the children there, which shows how children respond when you interact with them on a certain level. I learned that I have grown a bond with the children on a level that is very close. I feel that the children there are very loyal to me, in the way that they see me as one of their friends. I say this because it is the love that I received, after my first visit, every time I would walk into the building. The children would run towards me, tug on me, and then when I leave they would want me to stay and give me hugs good-bye. This was a comforting feeling and it made me want to come back for another visit. Another thing that I noticed is that when you interact with the children on the level that I have, they are more respectful of you and they are easier to deal with. I think that it is like parenting, not saying that I know much about it, but I think that the keys to parenting are being a friend to your child, but at the same time you must be their to discipline them and make sure that they correct their mistakes. It is as “simple” as just guiding them to making all of the right choices and staying away from the wrong choices.
More then just helping the children at the Bolden Child Development Center of Xavier University, I have subconsciously helped some other children of the New Orleans city area. It was on a couple occasions when I have taken a visit to play on the basketball courts over in Gurk Town. It was me and two of my other friends. They had started up to play a game of one on one so I had to wait to play the winner of that game. So, I started to play on the other hoop. While I was shooting around, a little boy about 9 years old came over to my side of the court and asked if he could play, and of course I said yes. So then we started to play, and I started talking to him, joking around with him and just acting as if I were one of his friends. So then, after a while 3 more other boys around his age came over and wanted to join in. They all wanted to be on my team, I don’t know but maybe it was because of my age and height. But anyway, they all ended up being on the same team and they played against me by myself. So we were playing, and as we were playing I would talk to them just as children would talk to each other while they’re playing basketball, and I could tell that they were starting to get comfortable around me. I learned a little bit about them and I made this one little boy think about how having his shoes untied with his pants sagging from his waist, and how this all didn’t make him look very nice and appealing. So, then as my time came up to play the winner on the other court, the little boys didn’t want me to leave, but I had to. So, I played the winner, and after the game, me and my friends were all shooting around. Then, one of the little boys, the one that I was playing against first came over towards me with his little brother and said “I got to go and kick this little boy’s ass again for showing my brother his dick.” This was crazy to me, not as if I have never heard anything like this before from a little child, but he said it as if he were my age, and like fighting was far from anything new to him, and he’s only 9. I have only been in about 5 fights in my entire life and I feel as though he has been in at least 2 times as many and he is half of my age. Well anyway, some how, through a lot of talking and diversion I convinced him not to fight the other boy and I gave him some alternative solutions. Then I told him and asked him not to use language like that, not just because of his age, but also because it’s not “tight. Cussing is very overrated.”
I didn’t know that the children of New Orleans were so adult. I had figured that they were a little rougher then “normal” children because of everything that I was told from other people, but I have never expected anything like that. I was told that they were going to be hard to manage, but as I interacted with them, it really didn’t seem that bad as it was set out to be, all they wanted was some attention, and when they got it, they were “normal” children.
What is strange is that this whole project thing started out to be just busy work that I was trying to avoid taking seriously. But I think that at the end of the day, it makes me feel good knowing that I have helped the children and I could make them smile and feel comfortable interacting with someone of my age. I have always like children, having 6 nephews and nieces and all, but when I am helping some random children out of the goodness of my heart, it feels even better. Now I feel that now that I have figured out how good I am with children, it has gone beyond this project and I feel that it is my duty to further reach out to them, and help to better the youth to the best of my ability.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 30th, 2005 at 6:57 am and is filed under Project Progress, Week 09: Implementation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.