Read-With-Me At AIC

Location: American Indian Center

Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2013; 6:00-7:00 pm

I was running a bit late this evening and almost rushed the half mile or so from the train station to the AIC.  I need not have worried since the kids had not arrived and Wilson was wrapping up some other things.  Soon the other volunteers, Erin and Dana, joined us as did two girls.  One of them was Anesha, who had attended the session last week, and her older sister Idelle.  Wilson said that rather than reading one-on-one, we should do it as a group.  Thus all of pulled-up chairs and sat around the big table.  We were also joined by a little five year old girl Maia, who was the daughter of one of the workers at AIC. Being that young, Maia was not a regular participant, but her mom wanted to make sure she stayed out of trouble while she finished her duties.

Since today was Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, we were going to be reading about him – his life, work, and legacy.  Following this we were going to be putting together a scrap book, which Wilson referred to as ‘The Dream Journal’, in reference to Dr. King’s most famous speech.  All this was easier said than done, since Idelle was being extremely uncooperative.  She appeared to be one of those kids who is easily bored and makes sure everyone is aware of it.  She said that reading about MLK was a waste of her time since she was smarter, and would rather be home playing on X-Box or Wii.  When Wilson challenged her to go through the essay and then show us all how smart she was by answering all the questions at the end, she still said it would not prove anything.  With all of her tantrums, Wilson never gave up on her and used every trick in his book to get her to participate.  The idea was to walk that fine line of playing up to her ego and challenging her through skepticism.  To his credit, Wilson did get Idelle to participate, albeit reluctantly and sporadically.

Maia's picture

The story was laid out in a very interesting way, with snapshots from MLK’s life, accompanied by pictures next to it.  Wilson encouraged all of us to take turns reading each section, but with Idelle’s attitude and Anesha’s copycat behavior, it was the volunteers who read most of the text.  Anesha was distracted and had started coloring the pictures that were going into the 'Dream Book'.  I looked in front of me to see Maia doing the same.  Maia was a very well-mannered and sweet girl.  She was in her own world and doing a great job of coloring between the lines.  When she finished a picture, I asked if I could photograph it.  She nodded and let me take a picture, as she started on her second one.  The funny thing is that once she finished that, she offered it to me for taking another picture.  I adored her innocent looks and fantastic behavior.

Anesha on the other hand was causing a ruckus.  She had found a giant crow mask/head made out of cardboard and it took every ounce of Wilson’s patience to keep her and Idelle disciplined.  To engage Anesha, he told us a story about two crows and a squirrel – something he claims to have witnessed.  Apparently, he saw a squirrel find a piece of food and before it could claim it, a crow appeared on the scene to fight the squirrel for the food.  However the noise attracted another crow and instead of running away, the squirrel waited patiently while the two crows argued with each other and made off with the food quietly.  Now, even if this never happened, it was a great lesson in virtues of being patient, something Wilson was demonstrating a lot.  The kids seemed to enjoy that and somehow we managed to continue with MLK’s story. 

While this was going on, Dana had started her own coloration and I looked up to see Maia playing with the paper giraffes and grass that we had made last time.  I took one giraffe and started playing with her.  She liked that a lot and for the next few minutes, it was us two and the giraffes prancing around the savanna.  In the meanwhile, Wilson had reached the end of the story and started questioning Idelle.  She did not give him straight forward answers, though amongst the rest of us, we solved all the questions.  Since MLK had received the Nobel Prize, Wilson then told everyone the history of how Nobel prize was instituted.  Is there anything he does not know?

Soon the children left and Wilson told Dana, Erin and me about the Native American Culture.  He repeated the story from last week on how this was the largest community of Native American’s outside the reservation land, and then told us how Native American’s served in WWII.  Similar to the infamous Enigma machine, there was a Navajo code which the Allies used in the Pacific and which the Japanese could not break.  This story was in response to my question regarding Native American participation in WWII.  Seriously, is there anything he does not know?  We asked about the discrimination that Native American’s faced and he said that some of the kids face it even to this day, especially if they look different.  One example was Wilmer, with whom I had worked last week.  It is a sad but ugly truth about our society.

Wilson once again told us about the various activities that go on in AIC, including music shows.  He mentioned that Idelle likes to play drums and was getting trained – something that upset some of the tribal elders since she is a woman and playing drums is considered to be a male domain.  As I prepared to leave, I also learned more about Wilson.  Besides the events at which I had seen him, he leads 5 projects, cooks for seniors on Wednesday afternoons and helps with pantry sorting on Thursdays.  Besides this, he is also a first responder in case of emergencies. 

Despite some of the misfires, I had enjoyed tonight’s session.  Besides meeting the girls, especially Maia, I had learned more about Dr. King and his legacy.  And I had learned that only thing that Wilson is missing, is a cape!


*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy