In the Saturday morning of 9 o'clock, I walked through the 8 street, SE of D.C., an area that I was not familiar with. I am here 'cause the GLOBE program I am taking this semester requires us to be a volunteer for at least one day. Most stores haven't opened yet, some trash was left on the street, and I felt like being stared at by some people. So I walked quickly, until I saw Elisabeth and other students at the Pocket Park.
The “Pocket Park” is actually a space on the island with three lawns—and two of them are not lawns yet. That's our job today. Other people go to pick up the trash on the underway from 7th to 9th Street. Bill, the executive director of Barracks Row, told us that we must wear gloves at all times, “if you see condoms or needles, NEVER pick them up by your hand, use the broom—they might be very dangerous”. I wished to see those dangerous stuff, but I ended up with staying with the lawn since nobody wanted to stay.
I worked with a guy, a Korean girl Yu-jin, and another girl called Billie. We first used a shovel to take off the weeds, and then tracked the soil to make it softer, and then we could spread seeds of Kentucky Blue Grass so that we will have a beautiful lawn in the near future. It might sound easy, but actually it was not at all. The soil was too hard for rabble, so we need to use shovel first—and we got only one shovel. It took a lot of energy to shovel the hard ground. And the weeds were so stubborn! Working under the big sun is not easy—guess I wouldn’t be a good farmer.
After one and half an hour, we have done with the soil, so Bill spread the seeds on it. A black woman told me that the birds will eat them, so some people will probably need to do this again. Gee! At least I felt that I did a lot of exercise.
This is actually a plan called “Barracks Row” that Bill is leading. It is to renovate the area around the 8th street, and they have done a lot, including inviting Starbucks and other restaurants, renovating many old buildings, and cleaning up the streets. When I went back along the 8th Street, I felt like it's not the same to me anymore; it has a lot of stores that Bill just showed us their previous looks. I wish to see the lawn growing well several months later maybe—and I hope the birds won’t eat too much.
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