"You do the things that the rest of us only dream of, Anne."

I've learned a lot about poverty in the last week because I did a ton of research on it for chapter 2. I have also discovered that many of my initial thoughts and concerns were correct. Poverty is normally seen in America as the individual's thought - not necessarily the fault of the system. I have to figure out what my thoughts are now. I think that it's a little bit of both. There are individuals who are lazy and don't work, but there are people who do work and no matter what they do they can't make ends meet because the system runs them over. Of course, there are always excuses like: "You didn't have to work that job. You could have found another job." (maybe that's the only person who would higher them???) Or "You could live in a cheaper place" (maybe the "cheaper place" is filthy...extremely unsafe...out of the way...or has no heat and it's in the middle of winter???) or here's one: "You didn't have to have a kid" (Well, maybe it was an accident and abortion is murder?) It's easy to blame the individual because it's not you, but in fact we are all responsible for the poverty of others.

I believe I have worked very hard early in the week to get things done and in on time, and then I took a nice "break" from things in order to have some sanity. So I would give myself an A for effort. As far as objectives go: I have turned in chapter 2 on time and I am still alive at the end of the semester (so far anyways). The rest of this week was much less stressful, since I'm taking a bit of a mental break.

Last week was the week of Thanksgiving, which means that things were crazy over at the food shelves. Last Monday, November 19th, at the University Ave. food shelf, we had a ton of turkeys and other such items donated which makes people's allotted weight go much faster than a regular month. There was some one so frustrated with the whole thing of being over their allotted weight he actually left and didn't take anything. I felt sorry for him because he probably needed that food, but there was nothing I could do about it.

This week at the food shelf my supervisor has been on a well-deserved vacation and so individuals from the other 2 food shelves have been filling in for him. It has become apparent to me that the different food shelves have slightly different rules depending on the neighborhood and the population demographics of the area. Having different people who didn't exactly know what was going on was interesting because at time I'm the only volunteer there and they started to look to me for some guidance...that sort of scared me because I've only been there a month, but you just send up a quick prayer and let God lead.

I would give myself a B because I have not put as much work into chapter 2 as I would have liked to. This is due to the fact that I had another 10-pg theology paper due on Monday as well and it was worth 400 points. It was the heavier side of the scale and therefore deserved more attention from me this week. Nevertheless, I am completing the objectives of the project by finishing and working on different aspects like on-site hours and chapters done on time. For my personal objectives, I'm reaching my goals because I just want to be able to choose what is important in life and make the best decision I can and let God's grace cover me for the things I cannot control.