MayMester 2013: New York City In May of 2011, Jared and I attended the MayMester trip to New York City. This year, we are attending as leaders along with three other students: Kelsey Harrison (who attended last year), Colton Bock, and Kendra Derryberry. We departed from Lambert International Airport in St. Louis Monday, May 6th at 11:50 AM and arrived around 3:30 PM (2:30 PM Central Time) without any problems or issues. After obtaining our month-long metro passes (for Subway and Bus Transportation), we lugged ourselves and our items onto a bus and began our hour-and-a-half-long trip from LaGuardia Airport in Queens to the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association (MNYBA) building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. After a short orientation with John Ramirez and Joshua Austin, both employees of the MNYBA, we began to settle in to our rooms. John and Joshua provided us with a take-out meal from Taco Grill, a Mexican restaurant owned and ran by Chinese immigrants. Despite their cultural differences, the food was delicious! Not long after we finished eating, we began our clean-up for bed. Our schedule was full and busy and we had a full week ahead of us. The next morning we departed around 8:45 to Jackson Heights, Queens, to work with the South Asian Community Center. Our groups' task that morning was to teach English to immigrants from countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Tibet, etc. I worked with Tenzin, a young woman from Tibet, who had only been in the United States for two weeks and already had an incredible grasp on the English language. Kelsey and Kendra also worked with women from Tibet while Colton and Jared worked with men from Nepal and India. After we finished our session, Josiah, an intern at the MNYBA and a worker at the South Asian Community Center, took us to eat at a local and authentic Indian restaurant. Shortly after eating, we took our leave of Jackson Heights and began our long journey to the southern Bronx where we would be working with an inner-city after school program called Graffiti 2. We were scheduled to arrive at 1 PM in the Bronx, but we were given the wrong address and ended up approximately 45 minutes in the wrong direction. When we finally arrived around 2:30 PM, the staff at Graffiti 2 were gracious with our transportation issues and we were thrown into the organized chaos of children, homework, and activities. While Kelsey, Jared, and I struggled with being overwhelmed with the program and the children, Kendra and Colton immediately jumped into the activities. We wrapped up around 6:30 PM and began our trek back to Manhattan. That evening, we ate supper at a restaurant a few doors down from the MNYBA and then traveled around the corner to the grocery store, Trader Joe's. However, the line was so incredibly long that we all agreed with it would be better to try at a different time. We explored our surroundings for an hour or so and then retired back to the MNYBA for the evening. Wednesday's schedule was very similar to Tuesday's. We traveled again to Jackson Heights to teach English. However, Tenzin did not attend class that morning, so I worked with Rafa, a young Muslim woman from Bangladesh who has been in the States for nine years. We practiced her vowel sounds and vocabulary. At the end of our session, she told me how to say hello in her native language (although I cannot remember it!), and that she was looking forward to working with me again next Wednesday! How encouraging! Again we went out to eat with Josiah. This time he took us to an Indo-Chinese restaurant called The Talk of the Town. Our second afternoon at Graffiti 2 was a much more pleasant experience as we easily transitioned into helping the kids with their homework and during recreation/crafts. That evening we explored more of the surrounding Manhattan area and enjoyed the lights and the bustle of the city that never sleeps. We had Thursday morning off, so we traveled back to Trader Joe's to purchase our groceries. After putting them away and eating a light brunch, we headed out to Graffiti 2 for the after school program. We started out with a short orientation and prayer walk before the children began to arrive. That evening was different than the others because of the special Mother's Day dinner and talent show. We helped cook the meal, serve, and clean up so the mother's could enjoy time with their children. We left a little later that evening, but still before dark and with enough time to walk along the Hudson River and through part of Manhattan. Friday was a completely different day. We had originally been told that Fridays would be our free days, but had a last minute schedule change on Tuesday. We left around 8:15 AM to travel to southern Brooklyn to Metropolitan Baptist Church/Lighthouse Baptist Church to meet with Chris Gardner and Peter Gu, respectively. It is one church building, but with three congregations. Metropolitan Baptist Church is an English speaking congregation, while Lighthouse is a Chinese congregation. The third congregation is a South Asian congregation. We finished there around 2 PM and our small group headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked the bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan, explored the federal district, and shopped Chinatown. Josiah met us later in the evening and introduced several of us to Bubble Tea (which I have had before and was not partial to the interesting drink. Jared didn't mind it). After leaving Chinatown, we traveled to Macy's on 34th and Broadway and the Empire State Building before making our way back to our home for the month.