Day 41

Today, I went to prison.

CIEE strongly encourages its students to volunteer during their time abroad. These opportunities range from working in medical clinics to visiting orphanages to doing activities with young prisoners.

So today fifteen of us CIEE kids took off for a visit to a prison-esk type facility for boys between the ages of 14 to 18. Basically, the inmates have committed a crime of some sort, and they're being held in this facility until their court date. For some of the other kids, they have already been sentenced but they are there until they are of age to go to an adult facility. The program sponsoring the volunteer work, Young in Prison (YIP), targets to teach the boys leadership skills through activities they enjoy or could learn from. It just puts structure into their lives and gives them some hobbies so they're working together in a healthier environment.

Today was just an intro day, so we all stood up and said our names, where we were from, etc, while the  rep from YIP tried to break the ice by getting the boys involved in songs / chants and so on. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable environment. Especially as a female. I was instructed to come every Monday looking as ugly as possible (which I'm quite excited about), baggy clothes, no jewelry, the whole shebang. Even so, the boys still give off a vibe creating discomfort. Catcalls as we walked by, yelling all sorts of things, something I'll have to get used to. One might think I probably shouldn't be doing it if it's making me uncomfortable, but that's the whole reason why I'm doing it. A growing experience.

If we want, we can initiate our own project at the prison. Ideally, I'd like to start something involving music where people can sing together, maybe teach some harmonies and different parts, we'll see. It'll be like Folsom prison in no time.

I received my first A today. A writing assignment in my religion class of all things. 5% of that final grade locked in! So my econ homeworks are going quite poor, but I've got the "Religions in Africa" going for me some how....

I found out today that because I'm taking semester classes for a quarter of Santa Clara time, my grades here are even MORE important for my GPA and will hold a heavier weight. Great. While you others are getting 4.0s in London and Spain, think of me and my suffering.