Friday, July 20, 2012

Day 21 - Productivity Part 2

Today was another extension of productivity.

In the morning, after a short convening with everyone in the main auditorium, the human rights group headed off to ReStore, which is a store owned and operated by Habitat for Humanity. In general, I honestly was a little confused by our role there for the most part, but events that unfolded there led to lively discussion later.

For example, when our guide was giving us instructions on what to do, he specifically said that girls should organize because we "were good at making things pretty", while the guys should do the lifting "because it makes them feel manly". While this seemed to be a mild attempt at humor, the fact was that he was completely serious, and kept on recruiting "guys" to lift. To my mentors' credits, they kept on recruiting a mixed bunch of students. Later, this incident would inspire spirited debate about the boundaries of feminism and sexism.

Also, often times, we just seemed to be shifting things from one place to another without any reason. I was initially kind of reluctant to do this, because there seemed to be no purpose. However, later, I realized through discussions that nonprofit organizations, are, in fact, mostly undercover, behind the scenes work. Just because the activity was not as organized nor as interesting doesn't mean that it was crucial. I guess I will never know whether my work actually was important, but can only hope that it was!

After getting back late, we split off into different groups. First, the American fellows convened to plan a surprise that I will discuss later. Second, the human rights group convened to plan another surprise for later.

My host family has decided to go to the beach tomorrow! I'm very excited. Tonight in downtown Winston Salem was also very exciting, though, however. After doing some thrift shopping, we went to eat at the local Mellow Mushroom and go to an outside concert. It was just a nice, normal day--one in which I realized that I've become quite close to my host family. It really was almost like having another family.

Organizing, organizing, organizing

"To funk, or not to funk?"

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