Baby sitting and laying carpet !!! thats my kind of job!!

Hi all and I hope all of you are doing well no matter what you are doing!

I am currently in Chicago working for a non-profit organization and it is an incredible time. I arrived in Midway airport around 3 pm and took the L train to the loop. I am living in the heart of downtown where it seems that everything is happening. its a great loft although very empty it only has a bed and 2 desks so I am trying to make it home soon and get something on the wall. As for a view i have the huge Chicago sign for the Chicago theater across the street and their is always some dance classes from the Joffrey Ballet and yesterday I saw them practicing the moves to Thriller, it was great.

Today I started my internship and was due in the office by ten o'clock and i took some precautions and was sure to arrive on time. The CTA or transit system was kind of empty so it was not that bad but i do have a 40 minute commute and I have to wait to get on a bus for the last 10 minutes. I work in the Mexican part of town and at an organization that is called Little Villaje Environmnetal Justice Organization or LVEJO. It deals with environmental issues throughout the city and I will be a part of the community gardening program and also be helping with the youth side of things, which is great. I met my boss Kim and she is a great organization and gave me a quick speech on what the organization was and i was refered to as "the intern" for the first couple of minutes, or hey "guy".

But here is were it starts getting good! so the first thing I was asked to do is lay carpet down in a section of the office because that is where her baby roams around and I proceeded to do so willingly because as she said "it was the interny thing to do" hahaha! I got a good kick out of that one so I said sure and put down a non slip clothe down first then layed the carpet and cut down the cloth to the size of the carpet, having much fun and jsut laughing at myself! Next the internet was down in the office so Kim, my boss, is the IT person and had to fix it. Since her daughter was there who do you think got to babysit while mommy was working on fixing the problem, ME!! so I played with gaby, the cutest little baby for about an hour and held her around and walked with her around the office. it was just tons of fun and I really enjoyed it but I would have of never though that my first day at work would have of involved any of these activities:)

After that, Kim, gave Peter, the other intern, and I our orientation and proceeded to tell us how good LVEJO is, and how much fun it will be working there! She is very intense and very direct which is great and also very passionate about everything she does. the great thing is that this small organization does so much and is taking on all these huge problems that the city of Chicago will not fix or will not even look at because of political pressure. We are not an organization that just sits around and tries to wait to fix things or that is trying to be buddy buddies with people to get things done, we are a organization that takes things to the streets and makes ourselves noticed, to the point that I was warned that "their is the possibility of getting arrested but that if we know that this will happen we will first fund raise money to make sure we have enough to bail you out!!!!" Amazing!

It has gotten to the point that one of our organizers has done some creative stuff to get people's attention. For valentine's day he dressed up as cupid and went in front of bank of America and Convinced people to close their accounts and not do business with them because B of A does business with the coal industry here in Chi town. He did this by handing out candy and hearts with a message on them informing customers about this link between the companies. The coal companies are a big problem here, an interesting fact is that the smallest of the coal energy producing plants is the one that causes the majority of the pollution to Chicago and is in the minority neighborhood, but it doesn't even provide electricity to any part of Illinois!!!

I am still in the office learning from everyone and what they do but I am betting these will be an interesting 10 weeks, and to be honest I think I fell in love with the organization from day 1!!!
Later in the afternoon after my first two jobs where done, ha ha, I went to work with Eduardo, the community garden organizer, and a great guy. We went and fixed up a space by the elementary school and planted some chillies, peppers, cabbage, lettuce, radishes, etc. and weeded for a while. Later in the afternoon we went to the backyard of a church and took down a playground structure that was beat down to be able to put in a garden in the next couple of weeks, very exciting!

After my day of long hard work, I was back on the CTA and just thinking about how many more surprises this experience will bring me!!!

Ohh and by the way their are so many free concerts, plays, museums, etc. that i will be busy, but also I will for sure start going to discover the world of amazing food that should exist here and keep you guys up to date, and if you have any suggestions of where I should go just hit me up.

Love you all!!!