Service Learning: Week 4

Dig
Dig
Dig

On the car ride to the South Philly site, Kate and I were nostalgically talking about our Spring Breaks. She just came back from Ireland and I just came back from Appalachia.

In the new South Philly site of Urban Tree Connection (UTC) one can see Citizens Bank Park's "Phillies" sign. I have always been on the other side of that sign, paying $12 for standing tickets. I can't wait until the baseball season starts again. When we got there Raheem greeted us with a smile on his face as usual. The site is just dirt right now. We had to shovel the dirt on the edge of the fence that borders the farm about a feet away from the fence so Raheem could use the bobcat tractor to add more dirt where he is planning to plant. We spent most of the time digging with Jamal. He was telling us about Philadelphia and its neighborhoods. Que was there too but he had his headphones on and was digging what seemed like trenches farther away. Once we were done with this task, Raheem gave us mandarines to snack on. Kate and I didn't have breakfast yet so it tasted extra-good.

Our next task was to remove big rocks from the dirt that was going to be used for planting. We were using rakes to locate them and tossing them in wheelbarrows. Raheem was picking up the dirt from the edge and dumping it in the middle with a bobcat tractor. He looked like a little kid in a toy car. Kate pointed out that he always wears nice clothes. I noticed he was wearing jeans, a sweater and nice shoes. It must be the urban farmer look.

Ryan came and helped us pick out the rocks. He asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I told him I want to be a journalist. He also asked what I did for Spring Break and I told him I went to Roanoke,  VA to work with Habitat for Humanity. I told him I loved the town. He told me about a friend of his that travels to different towns and writes about them; his next stop is Roanoke.

Time went by fast at service today. This was a good way to start my week and adjust to my schedule again.