It is 11:41PM and Raashmi and Julie are both sleeping, so I am in my bed writing this blog.

We woke up super early this morning, but of course for a good cause and made our way to the Family Justice Center. This center was a place where victims could go if they needed help in escaping. We noticed how "homey" the center looked, meaning it was really meant to make domestic violence victims and their families feel comfortable. When we sat down in the conference room, we were introduced to a man who was a leader of the domestic violence unit. He basically broke down and summarized everything we had learned in the time we had been in Knoxville. For example, he listed the warning signs of a "soon to be abuser," as well as the time when domestic violence was the greatest. From a student's perspective, I really did feel like I was in a classroom. Everything was broken down in statistics and concrete definitions. It was nice to understand everything from an objective, more pragmatic point of view, rather than an emotional and psychological standpoint. This was more of a calm day, but it fit the schedule of the trip. Meaning, we had so many intense days during our time here. This day just summarized everything we had learned and made perfect sense to us at the end.

Our trip was about domestic violence -- learning about the issue and becoming more aware of how it affects peoples' lives everyday. We all hear about it on the news, from the hush whispers in the local community, or from a friend who tells you that rumor or her secret. Many people maintain a distance from the issue, because they fear of what they will find. They fear that they can't handle the pain and the complexity of what this issue could really unfold. But, on this trip we dared to go that distance and really learn about this issue. And we have. The reality is, it could happen to any of us, we just got lucky. Any one of us is no different from that kid down the street with the "messed up parents" or one of the women we met during the week. We got lucky and we have to remember that it could've been one of us. I think all of us have realized so much about ourselves these past 9 days, as well as our new found friends on the trip. We are now empowered to continue to do good and eliminate the ignorance behind the issue of domestic violence.

Our Return to the FCC!

Thursday morning we woke up and started driving back to the Family Crisis Center, anticipating perfecting the organization of the shed that we worked on last week. However, when we got there we were faced with a surprising announcement.
Elishia came into the room and informed us that two of the current residents at the center were willing to talk to us and tell us their stories. The first woman started off her story by describing that it was her second time at the center after being abused by a second man. What was most shocking was that she went to church that Sunday with the center and her abuser showed up with a gun, so while we were in Knoxville, this close, these actions were taking place. The second woman was married to her husband for ten years and had three children, but the abuse happened only two years ago after her husband was laid off. After two years, it was evident to her that the abuse was not going to stop so she fled the state and after her husband found her once, relocated to the FCC. Although these were not the only stories we have heard from victims of domestic violence on this trip, it was so recent and fresh that their stories were more intense because you could see it in their eyes that the fear was still present.
After the two women left, we did return to the shed outside that we had organized the first time we went to the Family Crisis Center. We organized all the jeans by sizes and continued to hang up clothes so that they were out of a box or off the floor. We left the shed by hanging a simple sign simply saying "You are beautiful", so that when these women go in to this shed, sometimes with nothing, there can be hope for them to continue with the progress they have started by being at the shelter and out of their abuser's house. 
We ended our time at the Family Crisis Center by meeting with the therapist on site. She has an office where women could sign up for personal one on one time, however the women are never required to go. In addition, she runs a support group every Tuesday night, and although those too are not mandatory, every seat is often filled as they gather and talk about their stories and topics relating to relationships and abuse. Overall, the strength that was displayed both in the women that have experienced domestic violence, as well as the women that run the shelter, really became an inspiration to continue spreading the word about this serious issue and volunteer at shelters like the Family Crisis Center, in Washington D.C.
That night, before a great homemade macaroni and cheese made specially by Dave, we had a great reflection. We all sat around in a circle and we had to come up with solutions to the overarching issue of domestic violence. However, all of the solutions had to incorporate something that the previous person answered, and from there the person expanded on it. The reflection was very good because it ensured that everyone's ideas were heard and that we all used each others' ideas to build one big solution to the problem.
Only one more day left in Knoxville!

In Her Shoes

After very little sleep for some of us, and lots of sleep for others, we traveled to the Alcoa Police Department. Here we participated in a breakfast with survivors of domestic violence. Three women affiliated with Haven House all shared their stories of past abuse. This was very moving since it was our first experience one-on-one with women who had directly been impacted with the issue at hand. One of the women also brought her son and he spoke about how he has been affected knowing that his mother had been abused in the past by a prior husband, a man he has never met. The experience provided a greater sense of realness that had not been as present in the beginning parts of our trip since we were unable to have any direct access to those who had suffered from domestic violence.

In addition to the stories provided by the survivors, we were given the opportunity to speak with the district attorney and several police officers about some of their experiences with domestic abuse. The police explored several cases they had witnessed and how difficult it is as a police officer to watch these women go back time and time again to the abuser. This was something the DA agreed on and something that we have learned throughout our trip as a serious shortcoming for many victims of this violence. Being as it takes victims an average of 5-7 serious attempts at leaving before any success is found, it is often that police must respond to the calls of the same victims time and time again at no avail.



After speaking with the police and the district attorney, we were provided with an excellent lunch, courteous of the Alcoa Police Department. We then participated in a very successful activity to learn more about domestic violence called "In Her Shoes." This activity enabled us to move, do, think, and experience the lives of battered women. We did this by pairing up and receiving cards that informed us of our "situation" and were were given options on how to react to the situations we were in. For example, one card that my partner and I got was of a black woman with a successful job who was being abused by her husband. We were able to chose whether she should go to the police, talk to family, give a second chance, etc. Each choice mandated that we go to the corresponding station where we grabbed another card with the outcome of our choice and more options to chose from based on the new situation.

The activity was awesome because each story was a true story from Tennessee and it made everything feel so real. It also made you realize why these women go back to the abuser. We were able to see the effects of monetary and familial issues among others that become factors in leaving an abusive relationship. We also saw how such abuse could ruin a woman, like with my partner and I, whose victim lost her successful job in law for missing too much work as a result of the abuse. The activity was very interesting and very much engaging.

After our time at the police department, we traveled back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep. Afterwards, we went to the Catholic Student Association where we, for one, cooked dinner for them. We made my signature baked ziti along with garlic bread and salad. The CSA paid for the ingredients with the only catch being that we had to cook, which turned out to be a cool bonding experience. We were also provided yet another great meal by CSA for free, thanks! We also got some good bonding time with our friends we had made there and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

-Kelsey Pearson



Here's a video of the presentation that followed the wonderful meal we made that was paid for by the CSA.

Tuesday: Tumbling Through Adventure

After exploring Knoxville on Monday with our new friends from University of Tennessee, we all were ready to get back into our main goal of providing service for domestic violence survivors and learning about the situation. The plan was to work at Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries (KARM) again, however due to an error in booking they had to cancel on us. We decided instead to dedicate the day to group bonding. We played Mike’s new version of Jenga in which after successfully removing a block we asked each other questions ranging from the humorous (What would your superpower be?) to deep and insightful (What is your greatest fear?). We learned a lot about each other and let our walls fall down in a safe space while still having fun in an escapade that lasted more than two hours, until Mike unskillfully toppled the tower (Video to follow). 

We then had a reflection about privilege. We began standing in a line and stepped forward when aspects of privilege applied to us, and stepped backwards when aspects of being underprivileged applied to us. After seeing where each member moved in relation to the line we broke into smaller groups to discuss how privilege has affected us, how it relates to service, our ability to serve, and how those underprivileged are affected by our service. This was a very intense reflection that helped us appreciate what we have and how we can give more, regardless of different levels of privilege. The reflection allowed us to see things through the different lenses of our members and the people we serve. 

After an interesting meal of hotdogs, we took an optional late night trip to the movies to see The Green Hornet. Mike, Julie, Ashley, Rasshmi, Mandy, Kelsey, and myself (Emily) were in for more than we paid for. The movie was great, combining humor and destruction in a perfect synchronization, however tragedy struck. After a ten minute walk to the car we realized to our dismay Mike left the car keys in the movie theater. We ran back determined to regain our lost property, however upon our arrival we discovered the theater closed and all the employees had vacated the premises! Mall security tried to help us but were unable to locate the keys to the theater and told us to wait for night maintenance to arrive between 2:30 and 3am. Our new friend Jim, head of night mall security, let us hang out in the food court till then offering engaging conversation and we further bonded in the face of the occurring crisis. Despite his confidence that maintenance would show, the clock ticked and no one arrived. At 3:45am, Rasshmi hailed a cab and we returned to the hotel only to get four hours of sleep to prepare for our busy day on Wednesday. At 5am maintenance arrived and Mike returned to the theater to pick up the keys and all was righted again. I do not know if the movie was worth it, all I can tell you is that my fantasy of being locked in a mall all night should have remained a fantasy but I could not imagine a better group of people to experience it with. 

Monday: A Tour of Downtown Knoxville

On the day of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday we made a trip to explore downtown Knoxville to better understand the area we were serving and to enjoy an afternoon with one another.  We decided to visit the Mast General Store to find some potential souvenirs and to enjoy some candy.  From the Mast General Store we headed to the Market Square to see the great local stores Knoxville had to offer.  While we were running from store to store we met up with some of the members of the Catholic Student Association of the University of Tennessee.  With the help of the CSA students we were guided to the World’s Fair site to see the famous Sunsphere.  From there we continued to stroll around the city. We decided to enter a visitor center to find out a few more places to visit and learned of “The South’s finest Chocolate Factory.” Considering the title the participants thought it would only be logical to put the title to the test. Upon entering the store the unique creations of truffles caught our eye.  We spent a good amount of time in the chocolate store fascinated by some of the items they had to offer.  After being satisfied that the store truly was the South’s finest we made our way back home to do a reflection and some fun team bonding time. 

In retrospect, our time in downtown Knoxville was a great time for all the participants. Walking around the city we had the chance to see the difference between Washington, DC and downtown Knoxville.  Many of the people we met in the stores were quite friendly and interested in why we were visiting Knoxville.  The overall positive vibe we received from the people we met and the CSA students really fed the participants.  The amount of laughter and overall silliness increased as we became more comfortable with one another.  The dark grey sky never at any point brought down the spirits of the participants and the walking around the city seemed less like a hassle and more like an adventure. The idea that a service trip must be filled with service activities prevents groups from encouraging a sense of comfort with one another.  There needs to be a balance and during a visit to downtown Knoxville on Monday turned out to be a great opportunity to become more friendly with one another. 

Sunday: Lydia, lentils and laughter

Sunday started off on a good note simply because it was the first day that we got to sleep in! After 4 straight days of waking up before the sun we were all ready for some sleep. At 10 in the morning we met downstairs and ate breakfast together, enjoying the buffet put out by the Marriott. Everyone was talking about how nice it was to eat later in the day.

After that we piled into the van in our usual semi-insane fashion and drove to KARM (Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries). We were instructed to serve lunch, instead of breakfast like we did yesterday. Because we had served cold cereal the day before, we were surprised when a full meal was pulled out for us to serve. There was ham, collard greens, cabbage, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cherry cobbler and cornbread. We lined up and served it assembly line style to a considerably smaller group of people. They all seemed extremely grateful and enjoyed their plates of hot food.

Before serving the food, we met a woman named Lydia who was in charge of the lunch service. After talking to her for a while it was revealed that she had previously been one of the people being served at the Serenity Shelter associated with KARM. She had been a victim of domestic violence for 30 years and had only recently escaped from her husband and made a new life at KARM. It was heartening to see a victim who had a success story to tell. She seemed to be doing well and we were so thankful that she had shared her story with us. Lydia showed us that sometimes a victim can escape and survive.

We left KARM at around 1pm and drove back to the hotel to make sandwiches for lunch. After a thrilling turkey, cheese and mayonnaise sandwich (our usual) we piled into the boys' room for reflection. The activity today involved seeing a physical representation of how lucky or unlucky we are. Each trip member got an index card and Lyndsey read off statements and we had to draw a word or symbol on our card based on whether the statement applied to us. Examples were "If your parents make enough money to send you to college, draw a lightbulb" and "If you have never been made fun of because of your accent, write si". After we had all finished we discussed the pictures on our cards and what it made us think about. We ended up having a lengthy talk about the fairness of double standards, how we feel (or don't feel) safe in College Park and how everyone is judged on their looks, whether we try to do it or not. Many debated were started and disagreements arose as people stated their opinions.

To cool down from our near-debate we had a couple hours of alone time during which most people napped or watched TV. The Catholic Student Center had volunteered earlier in the week to make us dinner again and so we drove over there at around 6:30pm. They had prepared a delicious dinner of pork, lentil something-or-other, bread, greenbeans and dessert. We ate at a table with some of the Tennessee students, particularly a junior nuclear engineering major named Charlie.... he was delightful, to say that least. We talked and hung out with the students for hours, and some certain member of the team interrogated them with questions about the Catholic faith. To his credit, Charlie handled it very well, and we got to eat a ton of delicious food.

When we got back to the hotel we decided to play board games. Little did we know this would be a nearly 3 hour affair with all of us leaving with sore abs from laughing so hard. We chose to play Taboo, and discovered that some people have very interesting ways of explaining things, particularly when they have no idea what the word means. Some example of game play dialogue: "Cannery." "Read it girl, read it!" "So this is a 90's TV show with colorful children, jellybeans and a purple cat." "If Rasshmi was from the place where we all think she's from..." also Dave laughing so hard he fell off of the bed, and team A beating team B by 30 or more points. All in all, it was a fun day and we learned a lot about service and about each other.

Ice Ice Baby!

Wow... What an eventful and fulfilling day.  Waking up at 5am was painfully for the vast majority of our awb team and we had no idea what to expect form the day.  We arrived at the Knoxville Area Rescue Missionary to serve breakfast and in the afternoon we all spent time exploring Knoxville, specifically the cities beloved Smoky Mountains.  From our experiences throughout the day we all took away something special individual and unique to each of us.

Check out a few of our a few of our haikus and pictures from the day that we came up with yesterday:

80's dance montage
mountain, mountain, more mountains
victory is mine (Steelers win!)~ Emily

Six Six Six scared me
But I still enjoyed serving
Ice cave was awesome~ Lyndsey

Recipient's faces
Lit up at the Cocoa Puffs
best part of his day~ Mandy

It was mountainous
It was like an ice cream cone
I love my grand life~ Beatrice

Here are a set of videos for the day:

Here's the icy road with a cool little frozen icicles appearing like a waterfall

Here's our first tunnel on the way to Newfound Gap

Here we are driving up the mountian and noticing the sudden drops on the side of the road

Arriving at Newfound Gap.

The tail end of the snowball fight and some sledding

Here we have triumphantly made it to the top of Newfound Gap

On our way back through the town of Gatlinburg

A continuation of our drive through Gatlinburg

Michael feeling the vibes from another Michael. Michael Jackson to be specific

That does it for the video portion. Thank you for checking them out.