Why are they digging that hole?

For the last week, there have been police cars in the parking lot across from our site.  It appeared as if men were digging holes--deep holes.

Today, my curiosity got the best of me.  I walked over on my lunch break and asked what was happening.  Well, it was not bodies they were looking for.  The men were testing the ground with wires and where it was soft, they assumed there were privies left from the many houses that were located in that lot in the 1800s.  I saw one privy that they had excavated--a round brick-lined hole about 12 feet deep.  They had a bin full of medicine bottles, pottery shards, a whisky bottle and a whisky jug.  The whisky bottle had a jagged, broken top or it could have been worth hundreds of dollars they said.  The jug was probably used for home-made brews.

I told the three men who made up my very small afternoon class today that we were taking a field trip.  We walked across the street and learned even more about the work of the amateur archaeologists.  They research sites at the library, get permission from the owner (in this case, the Catholic church) and then sell their finds on Ebay.  It was a great lesson in history and I was glad I was curious!

I still don't know, however, why there have been so many police cars in the parking lot--unless they too are curious!

Happy Mother's Day

We have three sixteen year olds in class right now.  All three are very quiet, uninvolved, and dependent on me for direction.  Two of them have fallen asleep in class.   Over the weekend I texted two of them, one to say that I was pleased to see him smile before he left one day and the other to say that she had written a very nice essay.

To my surprise, I received Mother's Day greetings from both of them by text!  M, the pregnant young lady, was in class this morning and actually offered suggestions for class work.  We'll see if P, the young man, comes tomorrow and if his involvement also improves.

The moral for me--texting is the way to communicate!  And a bit of positive feedback improves an attitude quite a bit!

C loses it and we lose him!

It's been almost a month since I have written in this blog.  There is much I could write about--the GED graduation for one and I will do so later.  For now, I'll follow up on C, the man I wrote about before, when I felt I had a glimpse of his basic humanity and was sorry for my attitude towards him.

The story continues.  On Tuesday there were four police cars across the street.  There have been four shootings in our neighborhood, two of them fatal.  Maybe that is why there was a stronger police presence.  In any case, C went crazy.  He started complaining about the b.... which I at first thought was his reaction to my asking him to check the goals in his folder.  But then he started stalking around the room using the f word over and over again.  He got himself a cup of coffee and sat in the window for a bit.  Then he started walking again.  I said something like "I think it's time you left, C" and he walked out.  I locked the door.

The students were pretty sure his reaction was from seeing police outside.  Once before he had talked about someone out to get him when a police car was in front of the building.  At that point, however, he went out to talk to the police and returned.

Our volunteer who is a pretty big guy himself said, "That was pretty scary."  W, who is an ex-con, also was pretty uncomfortable.  I was not scared, but I sure didn't like it.

I had difficulty reaching him by phone that night and was forced to leave a message with his mother that he should not return to class.  I sent him a letter terminating his participation.  We have begun to keep the doors locked after class begins.

I am sad that C did not belong in our class.  I am concerned that he was not screened out earlier.  He made me uncomfortable from the day he walked in.  He never participated in class work and found it difficult to work on his own.

I hope he will not show up at the door again.  But it is too bad that there was not a place for him.