Day Two: Meeting Jody and Paul

Today, most memorably, was exhausting!  We arrived by bus at Wieboldt Hall to begin at 10 am sharp.  Orientation was followed by an enlightening introduction to Asset-Based Community Development (the ABCDs for college students) by John Kretzmann.  For those of you unfamiliar with Jody, he's a pioneer of this ABCD approach and trained the likes of Barack Obama to become community organizers.  Barack Who, you say?  Indeed, no small potatoes allowed to teach us GESI kids.  Jody wants us to refocus our attention on the positive attributes of each of our communities and to avoid focusing on the problems.  For example, instead of being inspired by illiteracy as the reason for charity, we need to identify the "success stories" and use those to inspire local residents to invest in their own educational future.  My mind was a little blown when "service" was juxtaposed as the negative counterpart to "empowerment," though I think I was more surprised by the language than I was by the sentiment.  Our second professor in the afternoon was Paul Arntson, another well-respected professor of Communications at Northwestern.  His lesson was focused around the language of communities, and learning how to ferret out the places and people that are central to each of our host communities.  Two guest speakers spoke after dinner about Ugandan politics, which was interesting though not directly related to my impending service in Argentina.  My jet-lagged brain can't recall much more than that at the moment--no fear, I have thorough notes I can refer to once I'm more rested.

What I'm not mentioning is that once we arrived on the fourth floor of Wieboldt Hall at 10 am, we didn't leave until after 8 pm.  All our meals, classes, and breakout sessions were confined to that one floor.  I have a feeling we will be harboring less-than-friendly emotions towards that floor once we've spent eight days treading its paisley carpet and inhabiting its excessively air conditioned rooms.

My hour walk back to the Hostel International-Chicago was the only glimpse into Chicago life I have gotten so far, but I am already intrigued.  The walk happened to include the Michigan Mile where we got to experience its famous window shopping and cultural relics.  More exploring beyond this one stretch of road (thank goodness) is in the cards for this weekend, when we venture with Jody to the West Side for a real taste of the history of community organizing here.  Some time is alloted on Sunday to explore other cultural landmarks--sadly, no Cubs game in my future!  The only thing I can foresee right now is the large pile of reading to be completed by the morning.  Signing off!