Activity Period and Home Visits

After today's home visits, in which I traveled with a co-worker to our students' homes, I have new insight into the many advantages/disadvantages our students face in their lives.  As we traveled to provide health information and collect measurements from the parents participating in our study, I was introduced to many of Houston's neighborhood's that I had yet to see. The communities were gated in a different sense than the one's in other parts of town.  Homes had high fences or grates over windows and doors and some plots included several houses enclosed within a large area, "Family Villages," as the sign said.  Some homes were small and well kept with new paint and items well cared for while others were lacking even the most basic components seemed to be degrading, for example missing pieces of the ceiling or wall.  In each home we entered, we encountered parents concerned for the well being of their child more than that of their own while our job is to help ensure their own health for the sake and benefit of the child -such an interesting contrast.

I know this perspective will motivate me to encourage and educate the children through the means that I find available.

I think back to Jacob whom I visited weeks earlier during his activity period. He was jumping rope with friends.  They are all well educated not to tease him for his weight and responded appropriately giving everyone their fair turn.  The difficulty is that once a child doesn't experience success, they seem to soon abandon a task.  After attempting to jump rope a few times, Jacob and his friends decided to go sit to talk.  I offered to turn the rope for them but they were disinterested.  I'm thinking of new activities to engage Jacob even if they are rather simple...

Looking forward...

I am anticipating working with the Yes Prep North Central students on a deeper, more personal level.  I expect that I can offer them new insight into the way science touches their lives and what that could mean for their careers and their life paths.  I am grateful for the initial relationships I've developed with the children and their parents that have allowed me to see the difficulty but also willingness of some to make consistent changes in their lifestyle in order to improve their health.  The obesity prevention program, which has linked me to and provided me access to the school, has given me new insight into a community and a context different from the one in which I grew up and from the one in which I now live.