Part of the Story

It’s difficult to give an opinion about something you really know nothing about.  When asked what I knew about CF, my immediate thought was “not much”.  Right away news reports, opinions, rumors and gossip filled my head.  Then, I thought about  the TED talk I saw by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche a few years ago called The Danger of a Single Story.  Suddenly, all of those thoughts quieted down and I remembered that I really knew nothing solid about CF.  Because I have been asked to share what I have know about CF I have decided to let’s those thoughts stir and blog them out.

I have driven through CF a few times. So the only things I know are from observation. I saw with my own eyes what the condition of the town was like.  There were liquor stores and check cashing stores, and plenty of places to eat any type of delicious, home cooked  cuisine that originates from south of the U.S. border.  I saw young men sitting out on the stoops in the middle of the day.  There were women and young girls walking around or pushing baby carriages. Every turn was like another bad neighborhood with plenty of abandoned buildings.  This place didn’t seem to have a nice part of town, in fact I wondered if there was even one single-family home in the whole town. It’s apparently only about one square mile in size and it seemed to only have two main roads, which made it easy to navigate.  The first good things I can name about CF are that I never got lost and there is always something delicious to eat!

 I have heard about CF, and they have mostly been negative reports. It is impoverished and it has been ignored and shut out by other bigger, more financially stable towns who have been asked to take over the governing and save the people. It is desperate but no one wants to help.  Perhaps the saddest thing I have heard was that the libraries were closed down and locked.  Thankfully, people in the community stepped in to help and made sure that the library was opened again. 

The second good thing I know about CF is that Viola Davis was raised there.  This brings me to the high school.  The first time I heard about the high school was from the news.  I heard that it was the lowest performing school in the state and that all of the teachers were fired.  I wondered if the teachers were not doing their jobs.  Then I remembered that the population was a community made up mostly of Spanish speakers, so then I wondered if the student’s were even able to do what was expected of them.  It was all over the news, including national news stations. One of my professors had told us in class one day that Ms. Davis’ sister was an English teacher at the high school.  She then elaborated on how wonderful she was, she clearly didn’t agree with what was happening in the town.  So I reminded myself of Adiche again.  I tried to remember that I was only hearing part of the story and so I didn’t pay much more attention to the news.

 I don’t know what my own experiences will be like interacting with the people from this town.  I have some preconceived notions, but I also have an open mind and am ready to know more about the community. The fact that part of my teaching/learning experience will be in this town that “no one wants to help” leads me to believe that there is much more going on than I am aware of.