When I heard that we were building a fence, I thought to myself, "Wow, this is going to be so cool! I am definitely telling my friends what I did after." I never built a fence before, nor have I ever did any real construction work, so I was really looking forward to this project..
On the first day, we started tearing down the fence. The fence that they had were those wire-y gate ones, and enclosed in it was a garden full of weeds and various plants and trees. We also moved the trees to different locations, ripped out the weeds, and flattened the soil. It took a lot more work than I expected because the metal posts of the gate were solidified in concrete, and not to mention, it was extremely hot!!
The next day, we started building the fence with wooden planks and posts. There was a lot of teamwork involved because one person would hold up the wooden post, another person would position and hold the post in the place, and the third person would hammer in the nail. Every time I looked back to see our progress, the fence was coming closer and closer to enclosing the backyard. Before I knew it, we were finished and celebrating with tortas and fruit that the family provided for us.
It amazed me to see how grateful the Macias family was. They were so cute! The neighbors often brought over food and told us to take a break. They gave us sweet bread, tortas, and fruit! By the way, this was my first time eating watermelon with lemon, salt, and pepper, and it was amazing! They continually to greet us with smiles, and within that I could see their appreciation.
After the whole experience, I realized that finishing the fence wasn't the important part of the experience. Instead, the more important part was what we accomplished by building the fence. We beautified someone's backyard, and we provided them with something that they couldn't afford. Of course, we would not have been here without the organization that we paired up with, Fresno Urban Neighborhood Development (FUND). Basically, what they work with a neighborhood to see what houses are in need of fixture and remodeling. The community themselves get together and decide which house is in need of the most, and they prioritize which house gets worked on first. This showed me what a community should look like. So really, it wasn't the fence that I'm proud of but of the people that we helped with. It inspired me to see what we could do in so little time and how we could change other people's lives in the midst of, and it's all thanks to God.
- Joyce Wang, UCLA junior.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
FUI Photos!
Students Michael, Josth, and Lauren just finished exploring the Fulton Mall.
Students sit outside the Pink House waiting for Todd to give them some important details about the project.
We make a stop at Evangel Home during our driving Tour. Lauren and Lissah (standing in the front right) will both be interning there this summer.
Marissa and Carrie go over some important details about the project. Our staff sure work hard :)
Driving Through Fresno
On Thursday the FUI team took a driving tour of Fresno - these are observations from Glenda, a second year from UCSB:
"Today all the FUI team went on a tour of downtown Fresno. By observing the buildings and the type of people there, I was able to get a better understanding of what the city needed and what life was like for the people in these communities. The first thing I noticed were the many closed down businesses and empty plots of land. It was like this for most of the tour. I observed that there was only one bank and instead a lot of bail bond businesses. I found that the area had a lot of businesses that weren’t needed by the general public in their everyday lives. They didn’t have a lot of grocery stores and supermarkets so the people around could go shopping for healthier food options rather than buy food from mini marts on the corner of their blocks that don’t have a variety of foods to choose from. There was an unequal distribution of development in downtown. The places around the convention center (areas more for the middle class) had better restaurants and had more businesses open. Some areas like Chinatown didn’t even have any Chinese restaurants or Chinese businesses. It was all empty plots of land. After we passed tents that had homeless people living in them, I thought that there were already a lot of tents in just that block. The next block, however, had the Poverello House, a camp that housed many more homeless people. The downtown area was just filled with many apartments that housed the homeless temporarily but the Motel Drive seemed to be the largest. Some people in these motels have lived more than five years in these apartments and even consider them their homes. This is all because they find themselves returning to these motels because they can’t find affordable housing. There doesn’t seem to be many job opportunities for these people with all the closed businesses either. Everything just makes it difficult for the poor to live comfortably with their families. If it weren’t for the various charities and ministries that help house the homeless and give them hope by giving them advice and training them for jobs and other helpful life skills, the city would not be making the progress that it has made with dealing with all this poverty and homelessness."
"Today all the FUI team went on a tour of downtown Fresno. By observing the buildings and the type of people there, I was able to get a better understanding of what the city needed and what life was like for the people in these communities. The first thing I noticed were the many closed down businesses and empty plots of land. It was like this for most of the tour. I observed that there was only one bank and instead a lot of bail bond businesses. I found that the area had a lot of businesses that weren’t needed by the general public in their everyday lives. They didn’t have a lot of grocery stores and supermarkets so the people around could go shopping for healthier food options rather than buy food from mini marts on the corner of their blocks that don’t have a variety of foods to choose from. There was an unequal distribution of development in downtown. The places around the convention center (areas more for the middle class) had better restaurants and had more businesses open. Some areas like Chinatown didn’t even have any Chinese restaurants or Chinese businesses. It was all empty plots of land. After we passed tents that had homeless people living in them, I thought that there were already a lot of tents in just that block. The next block, however, had the Poverello House, a camp that housed many more homeless people. The downtown area was just filled with many apartments that housed the homeless temporarily but the Motel Drive seemed to be the largest. Some people in these motels have lived more than five years in these apartments and even consider them their homes. This is all because they find themselves returning to these motels because they can’t find affordable housing. There doesn’t seem to be many job opportunities for these people with all the closed businesses either. Everything just makes it difficult for the poor to live comfortably with their families. If it weren’t for the various charities and ministries that help house the homeless and give them hope by giving them advice and training them for jobs and other helpful life skills, the city would not be making the progress that it has made with dealing with all this poverty and homelessness."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
