Today was another busy day!
Kovit and I woke up and had breakfast and prepared for the day.
After going to the library for a bit to use the internet we met up with my friends Lauren, Liz, and Macon.
Lauren and Liz just received a grant from the Attorney General's office through their Gang Reduction Program. They are using the grant to develop an alternative tour of Richmond for 90 teens from the Southwood community in Southside in Richmond, VA. Many of these teens have lived in Southside their whole lives but have never crossed the bridge and explored the rest of Richmond, so the tour hopes to highlight some of the more unusual facts about Richmond and it's neighborhoods.
The actual tours will be taking place Saturday, February 28th and Saturday, March 21st- but Lauren and Liz gave Kovit, Macon and I the tour in hopes of allowing us all to explore and get to know Richmond a little better.
We started the tour in the historic Church Hill- where we talked a little bit about the background and history of the community. We stood on one of the many hills overlooking the city.

Kovit really enjoyed visiting, and learning about the culture and history of Jackson Ward. Freed slaves began moving into the neighborhood during Reconstruction, and by 1920 Jackson Ward was one of the most active and well-known centers of African-American life in the country. Jackson Ward was once known as "the Harlem of the South", and is still a predominantly African American community. In Jackson Ward we visited the famous Hippodrome theatre


Jackson Ward hosted a thriving entertainment district centered on the famed Hippodrome theatre. Among the names that appeared regularly were Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Richmond's own Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Jackson Ward also had a thriving African American business community and was known as the "Black Wall Street of America". We learned about Maggie L. Walker- the first woman to charter and serve as president of an American bank- as we visited the Maggie L. Walker Museum. Maggie Walker encouraged her fellow African American community members to "buy Black" and support small local Black businesses in order to keep the money with in the community.

We visited many other interesting neighborhoods and communities in Richmond and then returned home to prepare for our exchange with the staff at Synergeo.

The mission of SynerGeo is to enrich the lives of children and families through the arts, education, and cultural awareness. Their vision is to partner with communities in order to empower people to live in community with mindfulness, compassion, and creativity.

Their goals are to 1. Provide an intentional community among the Jonah House residents, 2. Inspire community action through the Arts, 3. Provide children, youth and families affordable access to the Arts, 4. Encourage creativity & positive expression, and 5. Be a partner to surrounding communities, organizations, corporations, & communities of faith.

We exchanged with the Synergeo staff at the Jonah House- which is on the same block as my house! Kovit talked to the staff about his work with the urban poor in Khon Kaen, and they talked about the different projects and programs they offer to kids in the community.

After the exchange we joined Synergeo for their monthly community dinner. The third Monday of every month Synergeo opens its doors to the Oregon Hill community for a potluck dinner. This month's potluck dinner featured photos and descriptions from a project with the Landfill community in Khon Kaen. Kovit really enjoyed the community dinner and thought it was important to have a space for people to meet their neighboors, and enjoy good food and good conversation.

Kovit is in Richmond, Virginia!

I headed up to DC on valentines day to meet with Kovit and Josh and plan for the week in Richmond, VA. This is Kovit's first stop in the U.S. without a translator so we talked about some of the obstacles we might have to overcome.
On Sunday morning after cooking breakfast at Josh and Shin's apartment, Kovit and I drove down to Richmond, Va.


We started our day at the Food Not Bombs house in Richmond.
Food Not Bombs was born in 1980 when the movement's founding members served free food to the homeless outside of a stockholders' meeting of the First National Bank in Boston. The group's message is simple, "less money should be spent on destructive military equipment while much of our nation's population lives in poverty". Now there are Food Not Bombs groups all over the world!
The Richmond Food Not Bombs has been active sinc 1994. Folks have been gathering in Richmond every Sunday to cook vegan meals for people with out homes or access to healthy meals in Monroe Park for 15 years- only missing 2 servings in its history! All of the food that the group receives is donated from local restaurants and grocery stores.



At the FNB house we got to chat with local activists about the FNB mission while helping cut vegetables and fruit. Kovit met many interesting people, including Aaron- an activist in Richmond who works with the Latino population. Aaron is friends with fellow Engagers Virginia Leavell and Mandy Skinner, and became aware of Engage after he traveled to Mexico with the Mexico Solidarity Network. Aaron teaches an ESL class in Richmond- and explained to Kovit and I that it is different than most ESL classes because it is mostly conversational. He said that everyone sits around in a circle and discusses a different issue each week, and because Aaron is committed to justice he tries to incorporate different social justice issues into his class.

After cutting vegetables and fruit, we left the FNB house and headed to Monroe Park- located next to the VCU campus- to serve the food. Kovit and I helped serve vegan pasta and veggies to about 30 or 40 people.

After leaving Food Not Bombs, Kovit and I returned to my house and sat down to reflect and evaluate the day. Kovit enjoyed working with FNB and especially enjoyed talking with Aaron. He was excited about the possibility of Engage working with Aaron in the future.
He liked that the FNB house was open and inviting- a place where people can just show up and talk and share ideas. However, he wondered why the people they serve in the park do not join them to cook or clean up. I explained that those folks have joined to cook and clean sometimes in the past.
He thought it was very good that they serve food every week, but wondered where people in Richmond receive food the rest of the week or where they find shelter. He said he has only had one experience with the homeless in Thailand. We both agreed that the United States and Thailand are very different because community is usually much stronger in Thailand. He explained that even if you are poor, that if someone does not have a place to sleep or food to eat that you will help them, but we agreed that is not always the case in the U.S. He also wondered if there are people helping to organize the homeless population in Richmond, and we discussed some of the obstacles involved with organizing the homeless.

Later that night my friend Vash came over. We chatted about a project she is working on in New Orleans where they plant sunflowers. She explained that there is a big problem with lead poisoning in New Orleans and that the sunflowers help take the lead out of the soil. Its nice because it is fun activity for everyone in the community to do, and looks very pretty. She also talked to us for awhile about the ESL classes that she teaches and about her love for herbal remedies.