Rugby

Not the clearest picture, but you get the idea. Yay for contact sports!

Best Books In The History Of Time....

So I was feeling a little nostalgic (along with wanting to avoid my homework) last night, and I decided it was time for a re-read of my favorite books of all time: The Queens's Thief books by Megan Whalen Turner. YES!

There are several reason why these books are awesome, but the main one is her writing style and ability. The most nuanced and sneaky plots (especially in the 3rd book), the funniest dialogue, and the most clever main character of all time. Did I say of all time already? Well, it's true. And I am a book person. A very critical book person.

LOVE.

Sometimes my heart is broken.

Sometimes I think about how screwed up the world is.

Sometimes I think about becoming a socialist.

Sometimes I think about trying to ignore the burden of injustice.

Why did I choose this subject to study? It makes me cry. It makes me feel helpless and small.

Sometimes I think about Elia and the Longview trailer park.

And my Kindergartners, who are now First Graders.

And I want to change the world, even though that sounds dumb.

conservative "facebook friends" and the things they post sometimes..

Kimberly Icebreaker Rixon can feel the feminism, socialism, and (probably not really at all) righteous anger bubbling up inside her... that means that it is time to get off facebook and instead watch Dr Who.

(See the post somewhere down below about not being able to communicate post-Mission Year ideas...)

So, the history of social welfare in the US is sort of depressing. Just finished the chapter on Child Welfare..

Listening to: Land Of Talk - It's Ok

SU + Service

I started school this week!

It has been fun. I am going to be very busy and possibly tired, but I am excited about my classes.. Especially the service learning portion of my Intro To Social Work class.

Seattle U is a Jesuit school, which means that they are really into social justice and giving back to the community, etc. So a lot of classes have a service learning component. Since I am a Social Work major, I am required to do the service learning option in my class. This means volunteering at a social service agency for 20 hours during the quarter. I worked out my service placement this weekend and I am going to be serving at Providence Hospitality House, a shelter for homeless mothers in crisis. I will get to do a lot of activities with the kids and whatever other jobs they give me, like cleaning, etc. I am so excited to start working there! I feel a little Mission Year-esque talking about "my service site".

I am also excited about the Social Work program in general. Next year I will be doing my practicum.... 400 hours of service at an agency. The profs are nice and very knowledgable... Basically, I am excited. And challenged. And scared.

Also, this week I am going to the first rugby practice and info session! Yes, I am a little nervous. However the president of the club assured me that most of the rugby players have never played before, so I should fit right in... Maybe I will get a black eye! That would be interesting.

Listening to: Lakes - Lifting Me Up

Sisters

I just want to say:

My sisters are amazing. I love them.

We'll start with Karla. Since being home form Atlanta I have been able to hang out with her a lot. I am so glad that she moved back out here a few years ago. I probably need to tell her that more. Also, now she has a little dog. And it is cute. But my main point is that I have been very very blessed to get to know her in the past couple of years, and to be able to see her change and grow and learn how to deal with her disability. She might not admit it or agree with, me but I think that she has become so much more loving and less cynical/bitter since moving back to Seattle... She actually has taught me a lot about finding simplicity and joy in life, even after difficult experiences. I love her.

Then there's Janna. What a weirdo. I love how Janna and I are friends, and that we have the same friends and it's not weird. We just get along well and know each other so well. I love that she wants to come out to Seattle and hang out with me every week. And I love how she wants to study some kind of medicine. I would love to see her out of all of us end up as a crazy successful doctor! Seriously, she is super smart and very passionate and loving... and surprisingly more similar to me than I thought in the past, while also being enough different that she can challenge me. I also love that she wants to live with me for the rest of her life... although I might have made that one up.

Anyway, I was just thinking about how much I love them both.

More than a month since MY ended.

Now the new teams are at their orientation. Kelly met the new East Point team and said that they are great. That makes me happy and sad. I want them to have a great year in our neighborhood.... but I want it to still be OUR neighborhood, you know? But really, it is very exciting for all the 10-11 teams. I remember when I was starting and how crazy and awesome and hard and fun everything was. Mission Year is so great.

I have moved in with Scott in Seattle! I really like living here, besides the noisy neighbors... but they aren't worse than the trailer park. Actually sometimes the light that comes in my window from their porch reminds me of the light that came through our bedroom window in East Point.... But maybe that's just me being sentimental! It's quite possible.

I have been more sentimental and emotional lately than I used to be. I think I have probably cried more since being home than I did all of Mission Year (excluding the last week, which was the ultimate cry-fest for me...). I get teary about all kinds of things... mostly books and movies and church and anything I read... It is funny actually. It doesn't bother me much. It's really kind of nice to let out emotion (if any of my team is reading this I hope that makes you gasp! Rachael especially haha). I think I am working on letting out all the emotions from Mission Year. They are still very confused, but they are coming out. Oh processing, why must you be so hard for robots like me?

All that to say, the crying isn't bad! And neither is being sentimental. Which I am. About everything that reminds me of Mission Year.

God is good. And life is good.

Peace.

Me and Alondra at the park

I talked to Chelsea on the phone the other day. The first time I had talked to her since leaving Mission Year. We were talking about going home and how to relate to people and tell people about Mission Year well... And through the conversation I realized some things about myself. It was a classic Chelsea move, understanding through external processing or whatever.

My thinking was changed by MY. Of course. What I find funny and what I find offensive was changed.

I think since being home I have stopped commenting on things, like racism, sexism, poverty, inequality, whatever. Like I have been more content to just let things people say go by without making a fuss. Like I don't want to appear to be cynical or a kill joy, or I just don't want to fight, or cry. I make a lot of comments inwardly, about injustice and why such and such is wrong, but not out loud. I don't want to confront someone who doesn't even really care. Who just said something flippantly and doesn't want to have a half hour discussion about justice and love.

I think it's almost like I don't care. Like I am disconnected from everyone. Like I don't want to waste my energy talking to someone who won't understand why I am upset about something they have said. But I also don't want to always seem so serious and literal and uptight.

I just explained that in a really long, confusing way.

I guess it's just hard to adjust to not being surrounded by my team, people who spent a year struggling with the same things I did (and sometimes struggling with me, haha), people who would understand and care. And act self righteous with me ;)

I think it will take time.

Rugby

Well, I have been wanting to play a sport when I am back at school. I think this was originally inspired by watching Whip It last fall... maybe.

And my current sport of choice is rugby! I have been researching it and watching videos and looking up teams in the seattle area. Very exciting.

I think I might die if I play it, but it looks fun.

Seattle U has a rec rugby team too, so I will def be looking into that .

Home again

Well, today I have been back in the Seattle area for exactly a week. Mission Year already feels like it was a really long time ago. It's weird. Everything here is just how I left it, pretty much. I can feel that there are some things about me that are different, but it is very easy to fit right back in and feel like last year didn't even happen.

But only in some ways.

Right now I am kinda in between. Waiting to start school and get into a "real life". A routine and permanency that isn't really here now.

But that is good. I am resting. My body and mind and everything.

Mission Year kinda sucks the energy.

I miss the trailer park. And the kids. And my team. And almost everything about Mission Year. Except the cockroaches. If I ever get to a point where I miss those I will know that I have gone crazy!

Life is good. Weird but good.

last letter..... NOT!

I thought this was going to be my last newsletter, but then found out that I will need to write another one... so we will see..


Summer camp has been going really well. The latest highlight was going to a local carnival and riding rides for several hours with three of our classes. We have been able to do lots of fun things with them this summer, and have a really good time together. It’s crazy that we only have three weeks left! And that this will be my last Mission Year newsletter! It is almost time to say goodbye…

This year has been life-changing for me. Y’all have probably only been able to experience a fraction of that through these letters, but I hope that in some way this year has impacted you as well.
When I came to Atlanta, I think I had a romanticized view of what this year would be like. Most of my expectations were wrong straight off. For one, I didn’t expect to live in a Hispanic community! I had a lot of romantic ideals of how I would help people, how I would change and be a better person who cares less about myself, how I would be the best teammate ever, find direction for my life and learn how to live. Some of those things have happened, but not in a way that I expected. Living in Community has shown me more of my own faults than anything else. Much of the time I don’t want to serve my roommates, and I don’t want to experience the awkwardness of being truly vulnerable with them.

Living and serving in the inner city is not glamorous or heroic. Sometimes it’s not even fun or rewarding. Sometimes I don’t want to put myself out there in order meet people and to go through the embarrassment of interacting with my limited Spanish. It’s easier to sit back and be idealistic from a distance than to put in the effort necessary in order to get to know my neighbors. I mean, sometimes I don’t even want to go to Elia’s house, even though I know that I love being with her every time I go. But when I do force myself to do things I am uncomfortable with, the results surprise me! I catch a glimpse of God’s love at work in my neighborhood, and how I can be a tiny part of that.

And I think this year really has made me a better person… but not a person who has all the answers and knows everything about serving the poor. Maybe more like a person who has had the great gift of being able to live alongside them and get to know them. I might even have more questions about how to live, and more uncertainties of belief than before. But I have experienced a kind of love that doesn’t have an explanation or words to describe it. This year has expanded my hearts capacity to love. My ability to listen, observe, and learn without forming opinions. I am so grateful that I have had the chance to receive so much love and grace from our neighbors, and to share in their generosity and contagious joy, sometimes in spite of myself. I am leaving this year broken and humbled. We think we have a lot to give to the poor, but the most beautiful thing about this year has been learning that I don’t really have anything to give. That maybe the poor have a lot more to offer me than I do to offer them. That just living with people is enough to change you both.

And now I am leaving. It’s a very mixed feeling. It will be very hard to say goodbye. I am excited to go back to Washington, but I can’t believe that I only have three more weeks here. A year is too short of a time to invest in a community. Mission Year has made me want to find somewhere that I won’t leave, people that I will stay with and love and watch change. Where I can continue to build on what I have learned this year. Continue to see how God loves the poor and how I can be a part of that, simply by living with them and doing my best to love like Jesus. After Mission Year comes “Mission Life”, which is cheesy but true. My life will be a continuation of this year, and the mission I have had to love God and love people, above everything else.


Love and Peace.

been a while

So I figure I need to write a post pretty bad by now, since I said I would like a month ago. Also, probably no one ever reads this anyway. But I want to write one.

Today is the last day of after school ever! We are going to take all the kids to the park and have sno cones. If all goes well.

Next week is a planning week, to gather everything we will need for all 8 weeks of summer camp and be totally ready for the crazy long schedule we are going to be running. I am really excited for summer camp.

Its sort of wierd that after school is over now. It's been so long since we started. We made it through an entire school year! How crazy is that. I love being able to see the progress that my kids have made this year. Probably Kindergarten is the best class in the world. Just saying.

Yesterday I was thinking about how when you work full time with kids you enter a whole new culture, where you enjoy Hannah Montana and Justin Beiber, and laugh harder than the kids when you watch Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. It's like we have crossed over into a new dimension where all we talk about or care about are kid related things. Things are funny to us that are not funny to the average child-less person. I guess it's kind of like being a parent. Weird.

I love my kids.

This morning was our last day at Family Life Ministries. That was pretty sad. I took a lot of pictures of everyone and we got lots of hugs. I'm going to really miss everyone there and just the atmosphere..... and the relief from being with kids, to be honest. We'll see all our fellow volunteers sometimes this summer though. I am actualy going back to visit tomorrow morning. Haha.

So there are only 2 months left of Mission Year. Its pretty crazy. This year has gone so fast, and soooo much has happened. I think I will still be processing everything well through next year.

Tonight I am shaving my head! It's been a long time coming. My team mates are probably just as, if not more, excited than I am. The kids have been talking about it for weeks. I tried to prepare them for it, but I am sure they will freak out when they next see me.

I'll be a little sad to not have the dreads anymore, but I can always do them again later in life if I really mis them.

Last update: I am going to Seattle University in the fall! So excited about that.

I think that is all, maybe I will write a really emotional reflective post tomorrow or something.

Love.

I should have written a blog a week ago.....

maybe tomorrow.

:)

Marley-isms

This week was earth week, and we started an environmental curriculum to go along with our work with the kids in the garden. So there is a little Bible study thing about the earth and why we should take care of it and all. Rachael was talking to the kids about God making the earth and they were raising their hands and saying things that he made. Marley raises her hand and says, after a pause, "Wait, where did he get all this stuff to make everything with?" Good question Marley, good question.


A few days later....

Rachael: "How does it make you guys feel that God created you and that you are special?"

Marley, "...... I feel fine?"



Oh Marley. What a great child.

Also, the kids were very cute when we took them to the garden this week to water and play. I took a bunch of pictures of them with the hose!

Love.

April newsletter

Here we are in the last third of Mission Year! It feels like it has gone by so fast. I think I say that in every newsletter, haha. We all had a great Spring Break and are back safely in Atlanta ready for the home stretch of our year here. I spent my break with my roommate, Chelsea, in her home state of Delaware. We had a great time and got lots of rest. I feel ready to get back to work and finish out the year strong. I’m very excited for everything that will happen this trimester, seeing hard work pay off and seeing how far relationships started at the beginning of the year have come. Also, it’s just great that it is summer and so much warmer now, and lighter in the mornings and evenings. We get to spend more time outside in our neighborhood and get to take the kids to the park and let them release their energy!

This month I wanted to tell yáll about one of my friends here in Atlanta. Her name is Elia and she is the mother of one of my Kindergarten students, Emily. We have known Elia and her husband for almost the whole year. We had them over for dinner once and Elia comes to the English classes on Tuesday mornings that Chelsea and Kelly provide childcare for. Last month, however, I started getting to know Elia in a more intentional way. I had been thinking a lot about my relationships with adults in the neighborhood, which were basically nonexistent… and I was feeling convicted that I had always wanted to get involved with helping the parents learn English, but had never really acted on it. So I finally worked up the courage to ask Elia to let me come over once a week and learn Spanish and help her practice English. I was so nervous the first time I went over to her house. It was terrifying and really fun. It’s embarrassing and awkward to not understand someone and not be understood, but in the end so rewarding in the relationship that gets built and the laughter and accomplishment when you do succeed. My relationship with Elia is something I am really excited about for this trimester.

Exciting news: Some huge potholes in our trailer park roads were finally filled in! Kelly had to drive over them every day to drop off the kids and do some hardcore maneuvering in the fifteen passenger van to get around. When we saw them filling it in, Chelsea, Kelly and I went out and took pictures and danced around with joy, haha.

I hope this letter finds you well and enjoying the Spring! As always, thank you so much for your support. Mission Year Atlanta is behind financially right now, so any donations are truly appreciated! Thank you once again!

Love and Peace, Kimberly

An Ode To Evelyn

Rainstorms are my fav!

Chris and Tara

On Saturday, we were going to have someone from the boys work site over for dinner, but she bailed. The boys took Andrews friend Billy up to Stone Mountain on an adventure and we sat around with no one over for dinner.

Chris and Tara were going to come over to bring us the accent pillows for our couch that they just gave us. So we decided to invite them to eat with us. Chelsea texted Tara and she (Tara) said that she was going to ask us over for dessert. So that worked out well. They came over and then we went to their house. We roasted Peeps over their new fire pit and stayed for like 3 hours.

I just love them so much. They are so generous to us and so much fun to be around. Plus their love and commitment to the families in our program is amazing and really inspiring. Basically, we all want to be them when we grow up.

potholes be gone!

Today we were sitting on the couch watching Pride and Prejudice, and we saw a dump truck drive by. We asked each other if maybe the gigantic pothole on the corner of the Long st. loop was going to be filled in. Then a little steam roller thing drove past. Then we finished Pride and Prejudice. And then.... we ran outside and saw the glory that is new blacktop filling the old hole-y road that Kelly has to drive the van on every day! We took pictures. The work crew laughed. It is good.

I wish we had a before picture of the pot hole. It didn't really even qualify as a pot hole. More like a ditch through the road.

Also, we received a care package from a MY alum. It had cookies and candy and beautiful things.

Also, we went to the UPS place and I picked up my book! A Conspiracy Of Kings! Oh Megan Whalen Turner, I love you so. I have started reading it. Joy.

Also, We have a mission group at the after school program this week and then it is Spring Break and I will be in Delaware with Chelsea.

Dear God,

Sabbath was a good idea.

Love Kimberly

The end.

soy

Did you know that Burts Bees chapstick has soybean oil in it? Wonderful lotion from Trader Joes also has soy in it...

Is there any justice in the world for people with allergies?

Spanish

This week I started learning Spanish. In the loosest possible sense of the phrase.

Elia, the mom of my student Emily, agreed to have me over a few times a week and practice Spanish and English together. Her English is WAY better than my Spanish, but we managed to communicate pretty well anyway. It was awkward, scary, and really really fun.

Voy

Vas

Va

Vamos

Van

Van

Yeah, that's the present tense of the verb Ir, to go. Haha.

me with Brenda and Alondra

us being incredibly cute

sorry

I have not blogged much recently. I really should.

Life in Atlanta is good. I have been a little sick with a cold lately, but not as bad as in the fall.

We have had an ungodly amount of snow and cold weather for Atlanta. I don't like it. It has snowed three times.

Last week was weird at the after school program because we missed a day for snow and then I watched the 2nd grade, so I only had two days of Kindergarten. I took some adorable pictures of my kids on Thursday though. I am convinced that they are the cutest things in the world.

At Family Life I am currently working on a new program for Seniors that guarantees them a box of food on the same day every month, even if they get food stamps. Right now I am in the middle of looking up all the files of Seniors who have received aid form FL in the past and copying the front page of their files so that we can call them in the near future to tell them about the program. I am pretty excited about it. We have also been doing the usual donation sorting and food pantry jobs.

Building relationships with people is hard.

I am a little discouraged right now because I am realizing that we are halfway through the year and I don't really have any significant relationships with adults in my neighborhood. I have a few super shallow relationships with adults, and fairly good relationships with some of the kids. I have significant relationships with adults at Family Life. But thats mostly it. I feel like I haven't tried as hard as maybe I could have. Also I wish I had studied Spanish in high school and college and was fluent. I am thinking about asking one of the moms to teach me Spanish. I guess I am realizing that building relationships here is just as hard as at home, and I was never that good at it there either. I do feel like I have learned a lot about it this year though.

Anyway, theres a little update! If you read this blog, I love you.

sexism sucks hardcore

Today I legitimately wanted to flip someone off. Like not in fun, in serious. Men who yell at women on the street piss me off.

Rachael and I were walking up Ponce De Leon on our way to Trader Joes (typical sabbath activity) and we walked past a man who immediately started yelling things like, "Oooh baby you're so pretty!" And making kissing sounds.. Almost turned around and gave him the finger.

So Rachael and I agreed that men are pigs and we should kill them all.

The end.

Just kidding, I know not all men are like that. I really do like men in general. And in specific.

Something I was thinking...

Sometimes when I am frustrated with my church here for being disengaged from the community, I realize that I would have the same problems with VCA (my home church) if I was doing Mission Year in Fall City. I'd want to ask the same questions I want to ask my church here. Why don't you live IN this neighborhood, instead of commuting? Why don't you know that this trailer park even exists? Why don't you invest economically in this area? Why do you drive past the empty houses and not move in? Do you not really care? Is your church on this block by coincedence?

Honestly I am pretty dissillusioned with the church, both here and at home in Washington. We try to follow the American Dream and get further and further away from poverty, when we should be trying to get closer and closer to it.

I am included in this.

January is almost over!

Well, it's been a good month so far.

Update:

Tara and Chris came to our rescue and our house is all fixed (except for a leak under the kitchen sink), we have a beautiful new furnace, and working pipes!

I almost threw up on Wednseday! Haha, that doesn't really deserve an exclamation point, but I like them. Anyway, I am better now, it was a very short lived illness.

On MLK day we got to march in the parade! It was fun and being in Atlanta gave it a lot more meaning for me than it has had in the past.

We are reading Jesus and The Disiniherited. It is very good. I think I want to learn more about black political thought and MLK's work and stuff.

I still have 18 dollars and the month is almost over!

I am hungry right now!

I like Mission Year!

The End.

no heat and broken pipes

So.... we got back to our house after a joyous reunion at the airport to find that it was about 20 degrees in there.... we decided we were probably tough enough to last a night and get it warmed up again, when we discovered that there was no running water either.... We drove to Jeffs house.

Now we are staying in a hotel. Hopefully on Saturday we will be able to move back in. They are installing a furnace I think. I'm not sure what they are doing about the burst pipe problem. And by they I mean Chris and Tara, the best program director + husband that there ever was. They are so nice to us, seriously. They arranged the hotel and stuff.

I wish we were in our house right now. It just feels like we are still in transition. I wanted to BE HOME when I got home, not be in a hotel and be cooking meals at the church. Oh well though.

Our hotel has a whirlpool.

And it's sabbath tonight.

And.... I love my team. Being back with them is great.

This is one of my favorite people, my little sister Janna. I kicked her butt at Lord of The Rings Risk last night and she was bitter. That's a true story. Yeah she is pretty awesome and I've spent everyday with her on break.

Love love love.

oh packing

How does it work that my suitcase much more stuffed, but lighter than it was when I got here?

I don't like packing. I am OCD and I have to have it done way before I leave. Last night I was getting ready for bed at like 11 after watching Star Trek with my family, and I decided that was the perfect time to compulsively clean my room and pack everything.

I'm excited to go back to Atlanta. See my team/family that I love so much. See Malfoy (my bear) that I somehow forgot to bring with me here. That was a tragedy. See the kids and Tara and the Family Life volunteers. And the other teams. Them too.

This break has been a really nice rest. Physically, mentally and emotionally. I love having nothing to do and just relaxing. That mission has been accomplished. Now it's back to real life!

Something I wrote in my journal a month or so ago..

Psalm 13

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹ How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

⁴ my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

⁶ I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

I think our church (In Atlanta) has given me a different perspective on some of the psalms that talk so much about suffering. They seem more relevant to the black church/any minority church than they are to a white suburban church like the one I grew up in. This culture is one of perseverance and endurance, looking back at a history of oppression and injustice. It is similar to the Israelites history, I mean, more similar than my white racial/cultural history is. I've learned about the identity people find in their race. I never really saw people or myself as being part of their/my collective racial group. This is something new for me.