"God put me here to take care of kids" “Ya, I live in the neighborhood. I have an 11-year-old daughter and twin sons who are 9. I moved to South Bend about two years ago from Detroit. When I first got here I started working for a daycare over by Adams High School but I just recently came over here because I heard they needed some extra help. This Daycare’s been here for about 3 years but, like I said, I just stared here recently. I was actually surprised that the kids took to me so quickly. I thought they would be shy at first but they aren’t. I think it’s because I’m like a big kid at heart. If you work with kids you need a lot of patience, but you also need to love them and love where they’re at. If you don’t, you shouldn’t work with them. God put me here to take care of kids.”
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"They call me Smiley, Black, or Marco" "You caught me during my downtime. I like to sit out here when I get a minute to relax when I'm not watching my kids. People know me and have different nicknames for me. Depending on who they are, when they see me out here they they call me Smiley, Black, or Marco. I tell the people I work for to call me Marco. I moved to South Bend from Chicago years ago. It's calm here. There are jobs here. In Chicago, you know, there aren't a lot of options. If I was still there I would be around people I shouldn't be. When I moved here I thought I wouldn't know anybody but I found that I had a family here. My girl's family took me in, which is great, but now I have family responsibilities! [laughs] But really, I started to raise my step daughter when she was really young and now she's at Notre Dame and my son's in college too."
"We're not even a little bit like Mali!" “I just moved to South Bend from Alabama. I have family here but I’m originally from Malawi. Do you know where that is? Most people get it confused with Mali; we’re not even a little bit like Mali! Other people don’t know Africa’s not a country. Malawi is close to South Africa and Mali is in the northwest side of the continent. Since I just moved here, I started working at Catholic Charities earlier this week. We take donations and give it to people who need it, we always have food that people can come by and just take, we also have services for young pregnant girls so they can stay healthy, get baby cloths, and learn about financing. We also have support for refugees, but have to direct people to the main office in Fort Wayne for those services. I really like the work we do here.”
"lo haré” “Rosales ha sido aquí por casi 15 años. Yo he estado aqui por 8. Pero no quiero trabajar aquí por toda mi vida. Estoy tomando clases en el Excel Center, aprendiendo ingles y estudiando para mi GED. Sabes cuando algunas personas dicen que van a trabajar en algo especifico y hacen grandes planes, pero nunca hacen nada? Yo no soy así. Cualquier cosa que yo decida estudiar y dedicarme, lo haré.”
"We built these bikes ourselves" "We rode here from Mishawaka. I used to live in the Southeast neighborhood but I actually just moved. I remember I got in my first accident right around the corner. Ya, we built these bikes ourselves. I've been riding since I was really young. I used to go skateboarding at this park in town and I saw some guys doing tricks on these bikes and I was like “whoa!”. I never knew you could do tricks on a bike like that. So I asked my dad for one and I’ve been riding ever since."
"And that's a beautiful thing!" "I've lived in this neighborhood for over 40 years. Maybe you've seen me around. I work at Riley as an In School Suspension teacher. I also coach basketball. It's great that you guys are out here doing this work. When the park was cleaned up they did some good things but the basketball court is so small, no one can play on that. It's not even a half court. We need a better place for kids to play and practice. The youth are our future, we need to invest in them. I see that’s what you guys are doing. It must have been God who brought me over to talk to you. You see, I earned my degree on these streets. If we combine your degrees with my street degree we can make stuff happen, and that's a beautiful thing!"
"You can't believe how many golf balls I've collected." "I've lived in this house for about forty years. Its right across from Riley High School's tennis courts but when my son went to Riley the school used to be right in front of my house. They moved it across the way 19 years ago. When it was still here, the buses dropped the kids off right on the corner there. Some kids would hang out behind my house in the ally, smoking or whatever they did, instead of going to school. Now that the bus drop off is down the street I don't have to deal with them anymore. Also, living across from the Studebaker Golf Course, you can't believe how many golf balls I've collected! I've also got a lot of tennis balls too."
“Necesitamos más vigilancia de la policía en este barrio” “Iba a empezar un daycare en mi casa. Estaba lista, tuve mi primer cliente. Una noche, pocos días despues de empezar escuché disparos fuera de mi casa. Llamamos a la policía pero no encontraron a nadie. El día siguiente, cuando estaba cuidando al niño, fuimos al mercado para hacer un mandado. Cuando estábamos listos para regresar, caminando al carro vi un hoyo en la puerta donde un balazo chocó con mi carro. Mi casa es ubicada encima de una colina chiquita, pero puedes imaginar si no? Uno de los balazos podría haber atravesado la casa. Esa noche, cuando la mamá vino a recoger a su niño, yo le dije de los balazos y que yo no estaba cómoda cuidando a los niños en mi casa porque ya no era seguro. Tuve que cerrar mi daycare que recién comencé. Necesitamos más vigilancia de la policía en este barrio.”
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Grace Bushong Archives
July 2018
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