Elizabeth Blog Post 1

The first week of Summer Service Fellowship has been a really encouraging and exciting week of engaging with people who are passionate about Memphis and affecting positive change here in their communities. This summer I am working at Su Casa Family Ministries, which is an outreach to the Hispanic community in Memphis. During the school year, Su Casa offers adult English classes (with over 200 students), Zumba classes for women, Bible studies, cooking classes, computer literacy classes, weekly soccer games for men, and childcare during all of these events. They also periodically hold health and legal clinics and translation services throughout the year. 

During the summer, Su Casa hosts Camp SuperVacas (super cows) for four weeks for children in Pre-K through 8th grade and continues English and Zumba classes for their moms. I get to help plan camp activities and I am specifically in charge of the arts and crafts rotation.   This week, we have planned and organized each day of the week, bought supplies, moved furniture, and decorated the entire building.  In addition to the SuperVaca mascot, the theme this year is sailors, so all of our decorations are aquatic.  Thanks to Pinterest, our two hallways have blue plastic hanging in waves from the ceiling with cutouts of fish, turtles, and an octopus on them, which gives the illusion of being underwater. It has been so much fun this week to exercise my creative side and be involved with hands-on arts and crafts! 

 I am loving my work environment so far! I am one of six interns and am surrounded by a small staff of only five people, but everyone there is so passionate about what they do and serving this community to the best of their ability. The primary language in the office is Spanglish (my preferred language) and elements of Hispanic culture come into play in everything from lunch to the activities we plan for camp.  I am really excited to learn about the culture of the Hispanic community in Memphis and how it mixes aspects from different countries all over Latin America but also from American and Memphian culture.

One episode from this week that particularly inspired me came from a conversation with my supervisor about an idea I had for a craft. Next week's Bible story is Noah's Ark, and i found an online craft that made a dove out of a child's painted handprint. I wasn't sure if the staff wanted me to do paint, knowing it would be messy and require a lot of prep work and cleanup for the staff and volunteers.  But, my supervisor said, "No, the kids will love that craft and we definitely need tondo it!" I was surprised at her enthusiasm but also struck by the fact that the people at Su Casa want to give the very best to these kids, no matter the effort it will take on their part. These kids are immigrants or children of immigrants and most are living at or below the poverty line. Most have not had access to these kinds of simple crafts, and if we can give them joy by teaching and helping them to make something we will do our very best to give them that. Service is not simple, but it is much more meaningful and enjoyable when you put your all into it.

I am so excited for the kids to come next week and for camp to start! I am looking forward to meeting members of the community, speaking Spanish, and building relationships. I can't wait to hear about other fellows' experiences!