12 February, 2007

Warmer Weather

The weather was a little bit warmer this weekend and more people were outside walking around. The last few weeks it has been pretty freaking cold outside. A taste of warmer weather and sunshine brought anticipation for springtime.

The last few weeks we have got our foot in the door at the hispanic community center on the west side. Typically when I pull up, people pour out the doors and flock to the car to pick up a lunch and go back inside to eat. This week I really wanted to bring the lunch all the way inside and hang out with them for a little while. When I pulled up, we all grabbed the food and started inside. It was all smiles as usual when we started handing out lunches. I felt comfortable and welcomed being inside, which was a relief because I was a little nervous about how it would be once I was on their turf. They seemed to be comfortable, we communicated as much as we could to eachother, and then we took off.

I feel like we made a big step this weekend. We are on the inside. It has been slow going building a relationship with anyone and it feels good to see something forming there.

There are always a lot of people walking around on the east side. As the weather gets warmer there are even more. I don't exactly know how I am going to form relationships with anyone up there, because I don't see the same people very often. I became curious about a small group of people standing outside what looked like a small abandoned building. They didn't appear to be the most welcoming people, but when I talked to them they were nice and appreciated the lunch. I am going to try and see what they are all about. I don't think I will make any efforts to go inside their building though...it looks like dangerous territory.

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