Second Day on the Job...

Dear Readers,


I have been in Miami for about a month now, and this is my first blog entry. Pretty sad. I have been extremely busy, which is not a lie. For the first two weeks I had very limited access to the internet, which made it difficult to actually set up a blog. The next two weeks...well, let's face it, I was just plain lazy. There is plenty to write about, but this entry is strictly dedicated to the experience I had on the second day of work.

There is a favorite game that many children love to play. I myself loved this game when I was a child. It's called Capture the Flag. The kids at Branches South Miami (which is where I work) love to play this game. So, the second day on the job, we decided that we were going to play it. There is a lot of supervision that is needed for this game especially when you work in an urban neighborhood. There are too many cars, too many people, and too many things that can go wrong if you are not paying attention. On this day, I was supervising one area close to the road. As I was standing there, a man started walking up the sidewalk close to where the kids were playing. One of my girls said "Ms. Molly don't talk to him, he's crazy." Well of course I didn't really think anything of it. I was just minding my own business, supervising the kids. I watched this man walk up the sidewalk and with his umbrella, hit one girl, and then the next. He didn't hit them hard but his intentions were obvious. As I walked up to say something to him, he turned around and started yelling profanities at the kids. I told him that he could not talk to the children that way. He of course started to approach me and yell at me. I have to say, at that moment, I was definitely shaking inside. I was certain he was going to start hitting me, or even worse, one of my kids. At that moment though, the pastor of the church (where Branches is located) came walking around the corner. She told the man that he needed to go inside and leave us alone. She was most definitely, an angel in disguise.

I was scared for my safety as well as the safety of my kids. But most of all, I felt horrible because those kids did not deserve the physical and verbal assault that they received. Some of them didn't understand that this man had serious problems. As a ten year old, it doesn't matter if you know someone is crazy or not, you are still hurt by the fact that they hit you, and then called you an “f****** animal.”

I just kept thinking, if this is any kind of indication of what the year is going to be like…I am going to need more prayer and help than I thought! At YAV training, everyone said that you can tell yourself to be prepared for the unexpected, but that there will still be a lot that you never even thought to prepare for. Boy, they were not kidding when they said that!

So…that is what the second day on the job was like for me. I guess things can only get better from this point…or at least I hope!