Eddie and me

[oenophile]

Allow me to introduce Eddie D. to you. Eddie is a fifth grader at a school that is shall we say in an under resourced part of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Eddie is just a bit on the chubby side which makes him all the more adorable. He loves hamburgers, soccer, math and if he could do anything he wanted to do, he would be an astronaut because astronauts get to be weightless and float around and eat stuff as they watch it float around too. He doesn't like writing so much or broccoli but he will eat it anyway. His teacher is Ms. St. Germaine and the Principal is Ms. Hernandez.

I would estimate that the school he attends is 90% hispanic, 9% African American and maybe 1% white if we stretch it a bit. Eddie's school was selected by the church I attend, Mars Hill, because low income minority children are at a high risk of dropping out. When they drop out they are at a very high risk of teen pregnancy, drug / alcohol abuse, involvement in gangs which often results in prison and / or death. He and I meet for one hour a week at the school after regular hours so that I can be his pal and mentor.

Today, he told me that he likes to ride his bike. When he rides he hooks up with his friends, Oscar and Fernando. They like to go thru the woods to a river and sit and talk.

When he was telling me that he would like to be an astronaut, I asked him what do astronauts need to study in order to be astronauts. "Stars and planets", he answered. I asked him what is the closest star. "I dunno.", he said. I told him that it was the sun and it was just a run of the mill kind of star, really not all that big as stars go . We spent some time talking about nebulae, birth of stars, speed of light, how long it takes the sun's light to get to us and how long it takes distant stars light to reach us too. We didn't get into who is Stephen Hawkin and what is string theory.

He told me that his mom and dad are Norma and Gratian. He has a older brother Yovanni and his younger siblings are Christian, Jolissa and Emiliano. Emiliano is a baby. Oh yeah! He has a poodle named Stuart. He has a grandmother in Mexico, Abuela Tan. He likes to close his eyes and think of being with her. She loves to see him and his brothers and sisters. He likes being at her house and especially so when his cousins come over. His grandmother in Grand Rapids doesn't like him or his brothers and sisters, he says. She does like their cousins though. He said she treats and talks to his brothers and sister badly but is nice when his dad and mom are present.

He picks blueberries in the summer with his family. They get paid $3 a bucket. He says it takes a long time to pick a bucket. Last summers blueberries were small so it took much longer than the year before. I told him I love blueberries and eat a lot of them and maybe I ate some of the one's he picked.

Last summer he spent some time with Abuela Tan. He has a cousin in Mexico, who is a cop. He added instantly that his cousin is a good cop and not a bad one like the ones who stopped their van during their trip to Mexico last summer and made them unload everything to see if they had anything they wanted to take. He said that the bad cops told them if his mom and dad didn't give them their stuff they would have to go to jail. Finally, his dad had to pay them to leave them alone. Sigh.

Edited October 20, 2006 by oenophile

[Linda Z]

Thanks for introducing us to Eddie. Tell him you have friends who are rooting for his dreams to come true.

Very sweet glimpse into the life of Eddie, bless his heart.

"He has a poodle named Stuart." <---- I don't know why, but this really tickled my funnybone.

[Jim]

Very, very good. You are the man.

I was just thinking about the name St. Germaine yesterday. My cousin married a St. Germaine back when I was in jr high. I remember going over to their house for dinner and how it changed my viewpoint of Hispanics to part of the family.

[Lori]

I love your story!

Keep hanging in there with this little guy!

Sounds like he's telling you alot!

As long as you have an in-road, you'll have insight to help him!

[VeganXTC]

Two cool dudes hanging' out. What could be better? Its fun how people who normally never would have met come together. I imagine there will be lots of learning on both sides.

It amazes me how people living so close together can be living in two different worlds. Some of my coworkers are minority women living in poor neighborhoods, with high crime rates. We had a thunderstorm while at work one day. There was an extremely loud bang of thunder. We were all startled, but one woman fell to the floor. We thought maybe she fainted, but no, she was just doing what came naturally. She thought it was a gunshot. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in her world, where drive-by shootings are so common, her natural reaction to a loud noise is to protect herself.

Thanks for doing what you can to see this young boy grow into a fine man. You rock!

We didn't get into who is Stephen Hawkin and what is string theory.

(Would type more, but I'm in shock over a yawning icon being placed after Stephen Hawking and string theory!)

[SafariVista]

Thanks for sharing about Eddie and your time together with him.

:)

[I Love Bagpipes]

That's beautiful Oenophile. Please continue to share with us this journey. Your writing is pituresque.

I can see Eddie eating blueberries petting his poodle. Wonder what color Stuart is?

Gosh, Vegan, thanks for sharing that incident. Sure helps keep my life in perspective.

[A la prochaine]

As Vegan said earlier Robin,

You rock!

He's a lucky boy to have you (and so are we!).

Edited October 20, 2006 by A la prochaine

[Belle]

Eddie sounds really cool, Oen! He's definitely very lucky to have such a wonderful pal and mentor to spend time with.

Tell Eddie he has lots of cyber friends now because YOU have lots of cyber friends who care about you and everyone you care about. :) Tell him also that it's a really good thing he likes math because astronauts need to know a lot of math. RumRunner may even have some really cool pictures from space that Eddie might like to see.

Vixen sends a lick and a bark to Stuart. I send a scratch between the ears.

[doojable]

This is a wonderful thing you are doing Oeno. It is amazing what happens when a person feels the investment of another in his life.

You are a gift to this young man - never forget it

[Suda]

So glad Eddie has you. Please keep posting your experiences with him.

Suda

[oenophile]

Eddie told me that he went to see a scary movie although I can't remember the name. It seems that happens more and more as I get older.

We ate gummi worms and collaborated on his math homework today. The assignment involved the concept of probability. We were given a circle that was 1/2 blue, 1/3 red and 1/6 green. We were instructed to put the point of a pencil in the center of the circle such that a paper clip could spin freely around the circle. We were asked to estimate how many landings for each color would occur out of 36 spins. Then Eddie spinned the paper clip and our estimate was dead on exact, 18 blue, 12 red and 6 green. Next we were asked to estimate how many landings each color would get from 90 spins. Our estimate was only off by 2. Red had one less landing and green had 1 more than our estimate.

Vegan,

I bought Stephen Hawkin's the Universe in a Nutshell on cd for Ryan for Christmas one year. We listened to it as we drove to West Virginia to ski during the Christmas break. It was very interesting and very challenging just to keep up with the material for me.

[krys]

Who gets the biggest kick out of this....you or Eddie; but at lease we know you can do fractions now.

How much fun is that! God bless you Oenophile!

[VeganXTC]

I don't even try to keep up with Stephan Hawking. But he's revered in our house. I live with three science majors (my husband and two children). When we're all together, the topic quickly turns to what's being learned in class, what the newest scientific dicovery is, and the latest research that is happening. They become quite animated. My contribution to these conversations are usually limited to "Hmm," or "Wow!"

I might do a little better with 5th grade probabilities than with theoretical physics, but not much better! Eddie sure is lucky that its you that is there for him.

[Belle]

You two are way smarter than I am! I'd have never been able to get that right!

Steven Hawking helped me pass Astronomy in college, though. I had major trouble staying focused in that class. (The fact that it was on Mon-Wed-Fri mornings at 9am during my Freshman year had absolutely nothing to do with it. ) I saw that Steven was interviewed in the latest Playboy magazine and since men really buy it for the articles, I bought a copy for my professor. He started stammering and turned beet red when I gave it to him I just knew I had blown any chances of passing his class. He must have liked the article because I ended up with a C. :P

I seriously did read the article and became absolutely fascinated with Hawking after that, so my grades and attention in class naturally came up, too. I began following him in the news and loved seeing the biographical movie about his life. I'll bet that CD is equally awesome, Oen. :)

[Ca_dreaming]

How's it going with Eddie? :)

[oenophile]

This week I met Eddie at the street corner that he covers on safety patrol. I waited with him at the corner for ten minutes while a light snow fell. Eddie was working the corner with Rosalinda, also a fifth grader in Ms. St. Germaine's class. Rosalinda is a adorable young lady with beautiful thick, curly jet black hair. I asked her if she had a mentor. She said that she asked for one for the past two years but as of yet has had none. I couldn't help to imagine what the future may hold for this innocent Mexican girl from a poor neighborhood who has been passed over and how different that future may be if she had a mentor who was willing to invest one hour a week in her life.

While we waited at the corner. This kid approached the corner studying me up and down. "Is that your mentor?" he asked Eddie. Actually, given his facial expression his question sounded more like, "Is THAT your mentor?" disapprovingly. LOL.

Eddie and I walked back to the building in the light snow. There is a chessboard in the little room that we have our sessions so I asked him if he would like to learn how to play. "Yes!", he said. I told him I can show him how to move the pieces and the object of the game. So we spent the hour doing that.

When we came out of the meeting, Ms. Hernandez, the principal told Eddie that he needed to wait for his parents because she needed to talk to them. I asked if I could wait so I could meet them. "Sure", she said.

Apparently Eddie got into a fight that broke out when he hit a kid in the back of the head playing dodgeball. The kid who was much smaller than Eddie stormed him. Oh boy, fifth grade boys and their raging hormones.

Eddie's mom showed up at the last minute before Ms. Hernandez was about to leave. She introduced me her. I told her in spanish that she has a bright child.

[Ca_dreaming]

Thanks for sharing.

Playing chess is a wonderful thing to do, lots of thinking, strategy, one on one time to talk.

One hour a week would not be enough for me. Kids are a lot of fun and can say some of the darndest

things. This morning my son and I were selling popcorn for boy scouts at the local K-Mart. There were two other boys and a mom. Jake over heard one talking to a customer interested in the cheese popcorn. He yells out "You don't want to eat to much of that because cheese can make you constipated."

Keep us posted please, Thanks!

[washingtonweather]

oh for those rays of light beyond the micromanagement of that thing called school...you gave that Mom some hope!

Proverbs says "hope deferred maketh the heart sick," mentoring gives hope. And hope is pretty important.

[oenophile]

Eddie and I plotting strategy playing battleship. We get to go a bowling and pizza party with all the mentors and students next Monday!!!

OMG. I need to get back into the gym.

Edited November 10, 2006 by oenophile

[Shellon]

What a GREAT picture of you and Eddie!

[Ca_dreaming]

You both look great, Battleship.....haven't played that one in a long time. Used to play it all the time with my Auntie. There is nothing quite so fun as bowling, you can talk much doing that and learn a lot about someones self esteem. Have a great time next week and keep us posted. :)