Now I've seen everything

[vivien]

Home visits for my center are occaisionally dicey. Today, I saw a sight you'd never expect. My assistant and I were in a rough neighborhood (Denver folks - two blocks north of Colfax on the scary part between 225 and Havana) in a rather gross apartment (caked food on the chairs and tables - yeesh). Mom was heavily pregnant, and I made the comment, "Looks like you'll be busy soon" when I was talking about volunteering. She replied, "No, this is my aunt's baby." I said, "Oh how nice" and went on with my patter. Cos really, what else do you say? That isn't the best of it. Dad was hanging around in the background with the brightest red jogging suit I've ever seen, serious rings, and v. expensive running shoes. He was screaming gang banger (and the tats on the mother of his child also lead one to assume the affiliation). He was also very carefully pruning and misting his small grove of bonsai trees. Which were gorgeous - really beautiful little trees. And he was exceedingly proud of them when I commented on how nice they were.

So really, what more is there to see?

Ok, I take that back, cos I still have more home visits to do ;) And before you think, "oh how dangerous and scary!" that was only the second out of thirty homes that was dingy and kinda creepy. Most of our homes are humble but clean and friendly. And I have a cornucopeia of nationalities in my class this year - I have children from Ethiopia, Morocco, Egypt, India, and Iran. So that's cool.

But man, oh man, don't make me go north of Colfax again ;)

Comments

[naomi1029.livejournal.com]

You have to go north of Colfax again to visit me. But I promise to clean the cake of the chairs before you come. :)

[coldcoffeeeyes.livejournal.com]

Hey, my mom used to be in charge of an after-school program in that part of Denver! (They live in Indiana now). But while she was running it, she and Dad lived in the apartment that came with the job, right smack in the middle, and I remember from a few college visits home that it was pretty scary.

Nice people, though. Most of them.

[vivien]

Wow - that is a neat coincidence. And my, what brave parents you have ;) Especially since this area has been made better by enormous community/police efforts in the past ten years, and it's still scary now!