Dolson goes back to Bon Air

Because I feared we might be short a student to partner last night, I went with the Monday group.  I have been fascinated with the idea of being “non-intrusive.”  Really, the best things happen when the project is fully in the ownership of all the listeners and tellers involved.  We ended up having just the right number, and I stayed to talk to the guard who was very chatty.

First–it is so interesting to me how no one ever seems to know how or why things happen, like all the brand new furniture in the library!  Fur beanbag chairs?? Little cafe tables and chairs??  It is SO much better for us and our storytelling project now, but I have no idea how it happened.  And neither did the guard.

The guard told me that one of the unity advocates (actually, that is what they are called now, not “guards) has started a boyscout troop in the facility.  I wonder what they will allow those guys to do?  Apparently they will work on badges and build stuff., though I didn’t hear of any plans to go camping.  He is excited to work with his guys on building a bridge out of popsicle sticks.  He was an engineering major in college.The thing is, he wants them to make each popsicle stick a point in their lives that got them to where they are and moves them forward, or one thing they have learned, and the water underneath is going to be painted on a board and in it they will write all the bad parts of their life that they have overcome. Interesting in so many ways.

The most touching thing he told me was that the guys on his unit are obssesed with our program!  It is their favorite thing, and they bug him all day “are you going to take us down to see the volunteers?  They are coming, right?”  I tried to ask him what they liked about it.  some of it is getting to see people who aren’t incarcerated.  And it is interesting to them–they are bored. Other guys who are not in the program are envious that those guys get to spend time with attractive college students!   They are all talking about college now, he said!  They are really intrigued, and are starting to see that as a possibility for themselves.

At the end of the night, the residents were asking me if we were going to do this again, for another 6 weeks.  I am so disappointed that I don’t have a spring class to offer them, but my job just doesn’t have enough space in it for me to teach again in spring.  I just think of those residents over there, full of potential, bright, lonely and bored, and I wish so much that I could do more.