Thursday night, I went to an art exhibit of a Filipino artist, Cesar Llamas dubbed as New York Roadkill. As the name implies, it is a collection of painting and expressions of various road kills sans the dead animals. It focused primarily on junk such as cola cans, Starbucks cups and various "trash" that have been squished and left for nothing on our roads. It was put up in a Japanese restaurant at Great Jones Street, near SoHo. The collection was good. It could have been better if it was tied up to an event like Earth Day or something. Just to make the art more relevant.
Friday night, I find myself sitting in a church's basement listening to the works of the students from Literacy Partners, Inc. They had what they call a "Reading Celebration." A friend who teaches ESL for the non-profit had 3 students out of the 7 read their compositions. Very powerful writings especially for someone who just started to learn English 6 months ago. By the way, Literacy Partners Inc is a non-profit, free training programming. You just have to basically show up and want to learn. Aside from ESL, they also provide GED studies.
The whole day of Saturday was set aside from NYCares. I signed up for this organization last year, but after my orientation I was not able to go to any programs. Three days prior to this Saturday, I got an email of what they call "hot projects", saw the camp cleaning program in upstate New York and signed up for it. So after getting my a cup of coffee and bread, I headed to Union Square to board a school bus that brings us up to the camp. I guess, there were like 30 people who joined us that day. It was supposed to be an hour ride to the camp, but New Hempstead Avenue was just eluding us. We were an hour and half late. There was no time for chit chat when we got there. I volunteered to repaint the ceiling of two of their bathrooms. How hard could that be right? I partnered up with Brian who has been volunteering since he moved here in NY. As I taped up the ceiling, he proceeded with cleaning the mold and stuff. From the looks of it, he has done this a lot. I would not have thought of putting up spackling paste on some of the holes on the ceiling (I have always thought that paint could cover it). Anyways, it was an easy task, we finished two bathrooms way before 3PM. So we headed outside and volunteered our "painting skills" to those painting the outsides of the dormitories. I had my camera with me, but since we were late and had to go to work right away, I forgot to take pictures. As we were loading the bus, that's when I remembered.
My Saturday adventures was supposed to end after I got my haricut, but I went to Central Park and met with a friend. Just to hang out, people watch and relax. I found out that night, that they do free Tango lessons every Saturday night during the summer season right in the middle of the park. Pretty cool if you like dancing or can dance!
