Tour de Nashville

For a lot of the year, my roommates and I have been talking about how we would like to take a day and visit one another’s workplaces. Today was the day. The only time any of us had ever been to see where each of us spends our days was in our first week here. That was the first time any of us had been to our workplaces, and the first time any of us had personally met those with whom we would be working. It was great to be able to actually see and meet the people and places that we discuss in our evenings together.

Here’s how our day of touring around the city went, after Tara and I made a quick trip to the Green Hills Starbucks for a little bit of waking assistance (not that we’re the two in the house that actually need it).

Stop 1: The Campus for Human Development
We spent about an hour at the Campus, where things were pretty quiet. I took everybody around on a little tour, showing them all of my hang-outs, from the support desk, to the mail room, to my office. Speaking of my office, it has recently been cleaned out. I share it with my fellow intern Jana, who will sadly be finishing her internship in a few weeks, and we cleaned up our office for the first time this year two weeks ago during our Campus clean-up day. We have been having a mouse problem, and we realized that the cause may have been the big pile of popcorn kernels that was on our floor behind our lovely popcorn machine, which is kind of a nice conversation piece for our office. We also cleaned up some of the half-full coffee mugs and dirty dishes that were left by the previous occupant of our room when it was used for case management over a year ago. We added some additional artwork (made by our participants) to go with the scary painting of a former Jesuit volunteer whose teeth and gums were portrayed in a slightly unflattering manner. I accidentally pulled our curtains down, which were way too long for our window anyway and I think were bed sheets in a former life. Unfortunately, there have still been mice, so the exterminator has been called. Nevertheless, my office is in much better shape and I’ve probably spent more time in there in the last two weeks than I have in the last eight months.

Okay—back to the tour. The most exciting thing that happened while we were at the Campus was passing out lunch tickets at 10:00 in the morning. They also got to watch me help a woman get her state ID card, which was a thrill, I’m sure. I was a little disappointed that nothing else was going on or that my participant friends didn’t seem to have much life or personality, though Patrick got to have a pretty good conversation with Richard, one of our more unique people.

Stop 2: Conexión Americas
Tara’s workplace is slightly different from mine. Her office, which is very large, with nice paintings and brightly colored walls includes a window that looks out on the building across the street, which is the Nashville Music Writers Association office. She says that there is usually someone on the porch playing the guitar and singing. Music Row is a little different than the 8th and Division area. We got to meet a few of her co-workers, which was fun. Patrick got the chance to change the light bulb in Maria Clara’s office. She is one of Tara’s bosses, and a co-founder of Conexión Americas. Conexión is an awesome organization that works to promote the integration of Hispanic immigrants into the community. Tara organizes a conversation program (“Conversemos”) that pairs English and Spanish speakers for help in breaking down language barriers, or borders, you might say. Tara had us stuff some brochures that will be distributed at upcoming Cinco de Mayo festivals around the community.

Stop 3: Presbytery of Middle Tennessee meeting
Susan called me as we were driving from Conexión Americas to the Korean Presbyterian Church of Nashville near Brentwood to the Middle Tennessee Presbytery meeting we had been scheduled to give a presentation at. She let us know that the meeting was running about a half hour ahead of schedule. We had planned to get there about a half hour or 25 minutes before we were scheduled on the docket, so things were going to be tight. As we walked in the door, the end of the commissioning service for the Guatemalan mission trip participants was ending, which was the cue that we were next. Fortunately, we arrived with about 30 seconds to spare. Each of us, along with Susan, told about the program and the experiences we have had this year. Many people stopped to talk to us afterward. I met several people who had connections to the Campus, and it was nice to see many familiar faces there. Nothing gets me excited like a good presbytery meeting (really—I know it’s sad) so I was definitely in my element. The Korean Presbyterian Church prepared an outstanding lunch, which we washed down with a little cup of Presbyterian Coffee Project fair trade coffee.

Stop 4: The Toolshed
We changed into more comfortable clothes/shoes for the rest of the day. We also enjoyed some Diet Coke with Lime.

Stop 5: Martha O’Bryan Center
Chasie works in the middle of Nashville’s oldest and largest housing projects: James A. Cayce Homes. They are row after row of small red brick two-story apartment buildings. After dark, this is an area where shootings are common. We arrived at MOB, a Presbyterian supported organization, about a half hour before the after school program began. We saw “Ms. Chasie’s” office, which might have even topped Tara’s in niceness. Both of them have offices nicer than anyone at the Campus has, so I was jealous! I admired the nice pictures kids had drawn for her on her bulletin board, including an apology letter she received from a little kid. We met some of the staff members, and then went with Chasie and the elementary program director to pick up a group of children from Kirkpatrick Elementary School. We walked back with the kids, and I was very impressed by the way Chasie works with them and the relationships she has developed with them and their families. The kids were working on their homework when we left.

Stop 6: Preston Taylor Ministries
PTM, the after school program where Patrick works, just moved into a new building about a month ago. I left that beautiful new building with a great deal of respect for what Patrick deals with each day. He is challenged with somehow bringing hope and order out of some of the most chaotic kids I’ve ever seen. His boss, Chan, had us help with some of the reading groups. “Mr. Patrick” put me with the kindergarten kids, and I was a little overwhelmed. I was with a more regular volunteer, who was fortunately there, or I may not have made it out of the room alive. I had a few of the girls read me some books, which they did in between jumping up on top of the table and hitting me. It did make me feel a little bit better that the regular volunteer couldn’t control them any better than I could. I was thoroughly impressed with what PTM is able to do with such a small staff (pretty much just Chan, Patrick and a few other volunteers). We played jump rope with the kids before they left. I would probably take up drinking if I had to work with kids every day.

Stop 7: Second Presbyterian Church
After putting a lasagna in the oven, Tara and I headed over to the church for a lecture given by Rev. Mark Davis, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho. It was a very interesting talk about aesthetics and art in worship that involved a discussion of the level of thought we put into flowers in worship.

Stop 8: The couches
We ended the night a few minutes ago with a great talk about everything we had done during the day. What great people I have been blessed to live with, and what amazing things we get to do and see every day.

I better go to bed now, I have to get up early to make monkey bread to take to our Campus staff retreat tomorrow.