480.75 Hrs.

Friday was another Leadership Development Day. In the morning, we began with our usual P.T. and Unity Rally at Bayfront Park. After walking back to the office, we spent most of the rest of the day in reflection. On Friday, all 19 City Year sites used the whole day for reflecting upon the results of the recent presidential election, and what they will mean for us and for national and community service. Unfortunately, I missed lunch because of a meeting I had about the service day today for which I was a project coordinator. At the very end of the day, it was announced what City Year committees each member will be serving on. Thankfully, I received my first choice, and will be serving on the "Pick Your Passion" committee, which means that I get to choose any issue I am passionate about and spend this year working for that issue. After work, I rushed home to take care of my poor cat, who can not even get himself to his food and water bowls or the litter box. : (

Today, I was out of my apartment by 6:00 a.m. to head off to the service site. I spent five hours today working with Hands on Miami, which is an organization through Miami Dade Community College that organizes ninety community service projects a month for MDCC's students and other members of the community. Josh Young, who runs Hands on Miami, had asked a City Year Miami to send a couple corps members to be project coordinators for the day today, and I got to be one of them. My site today cleaned up a few miles of railroad tracks that have been bothering the community because of their condition. The whole place reeked of who knows what, and I couldn't take a single step without stepping on trash. I have never seen so much filth in my whole life. A problem other than the trash was a couple of "homes" that homeless people had set up near the tracks. We had to get rid of these as well. It was very sad for me to things that people had collected all of these items to help them survive, and that when they go back tonight, their things will no longer be there. The police officers who were overseeing the project said that this would help those people see "the error of their ways" and that they should get themselves to a homeless shelter, but I'm not sure I agree with the way we just threw away everything without the knowledge of the people who owned it. One of the "homes" even had a roof and walls that were nailed together! It was just big enough for a mattress, and whomever lived there had a massive area full of trash, assorted clothes, knives, dead animals, pillows, stuffed animals, bicycles and bicycle wheels, a cooler, and mound of peeled onions, tons of lemons, and "decorations". When a police officer went in and started pulling apart the walls and throwing out the mattresses, pillows, and blankets, rats and cockroaches swarmed out of the space and all over all of us who were standing there watching. It was disgusting, especially when several four inch long cockroaches crawled up my legs and flew into my face. Cockroaches are something that I never saw until I moved down here. I had no idea that they could get to be that big, and I most certainly had no idea that they could fly! I feel like I may have caught some kind of disease. Also, I have always been grateful for all of the things I have had in my life, but after seeing what I did today and thinking about what it would be like to have to lay every night with cockroaches and rats and to have to live like that, I feel overwhelmingly fortunate. If nothing else, I am glad that I will be coming away from this year with that feeling towards my life.

-Aly