Dickinson College Humanities Program in Norwich

I volunteered to help out at Dragon Hall’s  Norfolk Beer Festival. The event is sponsored by CAMRA (the Campaign for “Real Ale”) in the hopes of raising money for the upkeep of the historical building. CAMRA, incidentally, is the same organization that is responsible for the annual – and more grandoise and boisterous – Norwich Beer Festival. If you recall the Norwich tour early in the year, you may remember (you probably don’t) that in the 15th century, Dragon Hall was the nexus of trade and commerce in a city that was fluorishing due to business engagements with many countries in continental Europe. Anyway, today, it is both a museum and public space. With the Beer Fest, however, the Hall breaks from its institutional langour and becomes, once more, something of a medeival flea market.

Today I was told to work at the reception area, doing menial task, such as getting out the beer glasses out of boxes and handing them to the visitors. All you really had to do was smile and give directions as to how the festival circuit worked. What was interesting for me, though, was the particular vantage point that the job offered; namely, the opportunity to see how events are carefully constructed and organized. Not only had I never been to a beer festival, but I hardly recall ever participating in very many events, fundraisers, etc. (Spoiled, I know). In any case, I had a willing mind. A beer festival is an entirely foreign concept in Korea as it is in America (I think). Understanding that the Brits value good ale, I knew that, aside from learning how to “bartend,” I would be gaining insight into a distinct cultural phenomenon.

Part of this education, if you will, was from meeting many interesting people on the team. One is named Dodge, a stocky, Falstaffian  fellow. He sports a red mohawk, a kaleidoscopic robe/cape tagged with his favorite ale companies, ripped jean shorts (which, I believe, used to be regular long jeans) and black boots. He made a career of driving buses, taxis, and other uncommon forms of locomotion. As for beer festivals,  he has been volunteering at them for years and is a regular at the annuals ones in Cambridge and Norwich. According to him, he has 360 beer glasses in his house. Dodge is the de facto leader of the house, cape and all, traversing the spaces of the hall, striking conversation with strangers and making sure everybody has something in their glasses.

Also, just sitting around the entrance allows me to observe how the Brits interact and exchange pleasantries with one another. Having been in England for some time now, I thought my initial feeling of “foreigness” had dissipated altogether. Yet sitting there that night I realized how much of British culture is still very peculiar to me.

We received a lot more people on the first day than we had expected. Being the first time such an event was held at the Dragon hall, many of the organizers were unsure what the turnout would be. I think the total number was something upwards of 180. Fairly good, especially when you consider that the Hall is somewhat removed from the city centre.

Helas, I wasn’t able to serve drinks but would get the chance to do so tomorrow. It was a wonderful environment, no matter what I was doing. The steady beat of jazz music by the band jived well with the low-key ambient setting, even if I wasn’t up on the top floor to see it.

Date: 29 April 2011
Time: 17:00-24:00
Total Hours: 7
Location: Dragon Hall
Supervisor: Rachel M.

A few weeks ago I received an email from Stephenie McGucken asking if I was interested in volunteering for the Norwich Cathedral’s Easter activities. I immediately replied YES. Who turns down an opportunity involving candy? Even though I myself am Jewish, a good portion of my family is Christian and we have an Easter egg hunt every year. I always had fun and I enjoy working with kids so I thought it would be a nice way to earn my volunteer hours. Although the experience turned out to be a little different than I expected, it was a positive one nonetheless.

We began by setting up the crafts table for the kids (and by we I mean Stephenie, Jess, Jamie and I). They were given Easter bunnies to color in and were able to build and decorate their own little paper Easter baskets for collecting eggs. My next job was to guide guests from the entrance of the Cathedral to story time which was the first activity station. This got a little tricky when the woman who was supposed to be working the station went missing for a few minutes. This meant that I had to be the fill in story teller.

As can be imagined, I felt more than a little uncomfortable reading a story about the resurrection of Jesus. It felt wrong to be telling a story which I don’t believe in. It seemed to me a lot like brainwashing. I realize that every religion, even my own, has its own collection of stories that it teaches to young children, but I still felt uncomfortable reading to the children. So I made the decision to politely decline to read should the situation come up again, and I moved on to the egg hunt.

Later on in the day, I mentioned to the priest that I had felt a bit awkward about being Jewish and volunteering to help with the Easter festivities. We had a really interesting discussion on the benefits of participating in other religion’s traditions. For while I had some difficulty reading the Easter book, it did help me to gain a better understanding of Christian beliefs. I know it sounds corny, but understanding really is the first step towards tolerance.

Date: 12/04/11

Time: 10-2

Hours: 4 Total: 4

Supervisor: Juliet Corbett

Today was my second day volunteering at the Greenhouse Trust in Norwich.  Since all UK businesses must take an inventory of all their stock at the beginning of every business year (which starts April 1 nationwide), I was tasked with calculating the total value of all the products in the Greenhouse’s shop.  This was made significantly easier by the fact that I was given a list of the recommended selling price of every product and the amount on the shelves and in the store.  I just had to do some simple addition and multiplication to get the total values of the stock, which I gave to Tigger, who was obviously very appreciative.  This took up about the first hour of my four hour shift.  The rest was spent in my regular responsibilities of running the till and restocking shelves.  Today was a very slow day customer-wise (about three total customers came in the whole time I was there), so I was able to spend a lot of time perusing the shop’s collection of environmental books.  I picked up several interesting ones, including The People’s Manifesto by Mark Thomas, who went around the UK asking people what they wanted the government to do prior to the 2010 election.  Some of the suggestions were a bit far out, like forbidding people in support of a National ID from owning curtains, but it was still an interesting read.  The other, Seven Years to Save the Planet by Bill McGuire, was more pertinent to my academic interests.  McGuire, a world-famous volcanologist, has determined that the citizens of the world have seven years (as of 2009) to change their resource use habits before permanent damage is done.  He focuses on basic questions concerning global climate change, obviously directing his writing to someone who isn’t an expert, which makes it very accessible.  But enough of the book report.  My next day spent at the Greenhouse will be in two weeks, which hopefully will be a bit more exciting than today.

I completely forgot to take pictures this time, but I will include a picture of the shop and hopefully Tigger in my next post.

Date: 2/4/11

Time: 10-2

Hours: 4 Total: 8

Supervisor: Tigger

Image taken from http://www.yourlocalweb.co.uk/images/pictures/17/13/new-hope-christian-centre-norwich-168780.jpg

As the title suggests, this blog marks the last time I will be writing about my time volunteering with the New Hope Christian Centre Kids’ Club.

With the weather being perfect outside today and daylight savings time allowing plenty of sunlight, the club took place outside the whole time today. The kids were free to play basketball, play dodgeball, run around, face-paint (which worked surprisingly well and did not end in disaster), or anything else they pleased. This lead to semi-controlled chaos. At one point, we actually got a 2-on-2 basketball game going. This achievement must be qualified by the fact that 1) It lasted about five minutes before it devolved into arguing 2) It only involved four people. Besides that, it was just kids running around for an hour while we all walked around and watched to make sure no one got into any trouble. After they left, we cleaned up and went home as normal.

As a result of this, I found myself without anything notable to say about this week. Which is a shame, particularly given this is the last blog. However, sometime that happens. After 9 consecutive clubs where I learned something interesting or noticed something new, there was bound to be a week where nothing happened. That’s life, I suppose.

Volunteered on 31/03/2011

From 18:00-20:00

2 Hours: Total of 20 Hours

New Hope Christian Centre

Supervisor: Duane Elkins

Last week at the Castle I experienced my first day without a major educational program. Although the regular “Life in a Castle” session was running, that is handled by freelancers who come in for the day to run the program, so it is fairly independent of the Learning Department. We didn’t have any Ancient Romans, Egyptians, or any other theme, so I spent the day doing clerical and preparatory work. This ranged from creating an invitation to a party for one of the interpretors who is leaving, to cutting wires for future torc-making sessions on Ancient Roman days, to checking data and doing publicity work.

In order to receive funding, the Learning Department has to keep track of how many students participate in all of their programs, and then they submit monthly totals to the administrative powers that be. One of my supervisors has to show that the programs are maintaining consistent numbers or drawing in more students in order to keep receiving funding, which, with all of the recent budget cuts to artistic and educational programs, is of the utmost importance. One of my jobs was to double check the numbers for the month of February to make sure that we were submitting accurate counts.

In that same vein, the Learning Department asks teachers to fill out evaluation forms following their educational sessions. The directors make note of any room for improvement and then all of the evaluations are filed away and kept in the office. I had the task of filing forms from this school year, and I got to see exactly how many programs the Learning Department runs – there were at least 15 different sessions, some pertaining to history, some to art, and some to special sessions that outside instructors will come in to run. I also noticed that several groups from UEA come to the Castle for various art programs. There was a group in that morning, actually, all still very hungover from Derby Day. After my filing, I went through the evaluations and pulled student and teacher comments that could be used in publicity material to encourage other schools to bring students to programs at the Castle.

Although it wasn’t the most exciting day that I’ve spent at the Castle so far, I got to see a lot more of how the administration of the Learning Department works. It’s all well and good to dress up in togas and make crafts all morning, but there is a whole different team of people working behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly and to keep funding for these great programs coming in.

Date: 24/3/2011

Time: 9.30-4.00, 6.5 hours

Total Hours: 23.5

Supervisor: Daniel Pounds

Wow, what an amazing couple of days it has been weather-wise! Walking to the New Hope Christian Centre this evening was an absolute joy. With the sun out, a nice breeze, and barely a cloud in sight, I could have walked another two or three miles without complaint.

Arriving at kids’ club, I was told we were going to be doing a “focus group” with the kids. This meant sitting them in a circle and asking them some questions about how the club was and what they wanted to see done differently, while filming their answers. The filmed responses would then be sent to the government in the hopes of receiving a grant for Community Action Norwich. The grant would go towards improving community programs in Lakenham like the kids’ club. I wonder now if the questionnaires the kids filled out the other week had something to do with this grant as well, but I did not think then to ask. What I was thinking: “How in the world are we going to get these kids to sit and talk for five or ten minutes?”

It proved quite difficult to get the kids to sit and talk for five or ten minutes. Despite being promised biscuits at the end and being allowed to sit on bean bag chairs (which for some reason they love) there was still chaos when the questions were asked. Duane got through all the questions, and he hopefully got the footage he needed. However, at no point was only one person talking. Also, he got some very unhelpful, not-serious answers. I do not think suggestions like “make school two hours a day for three days a week” or “lets start a pyromaniac club and play with fire” were exactly what we were looking for.

Some interesting information did come out of the questions. For one, none of the kids do homework, despite being assigned it. Hearing this really makes one question the reliance on homework in these kinds of communities. In addition, it sheds light on the environment these kids are coming from. On a similar note, nearly every kid said they would spend all their time on Facebook were it not for the kids club. Whether these kids should be on Facebook is one thing, but its sad to think what little structure there is for them.

Image obtained from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/5046447/Facebook-could-be-monitored-by-the-government.html

When the “focus group” finished, there was a snack and a game of manhunt.

After the kids left for the evening, I asked Duane about the grant the group was applying for. Apparently, the UK government must give a certain amount of revenue from the Lottery to community charities around the country. It is this money that Community Action Norwich is applying for. Duane said there is some controversy among the Christian community in the UK as to whether Christian organizations should apply for the funds. Since it comes from a morally questionable source, and draws money from poor communities disproportionally, money from the Lottery is seen by some to be unacceptable. However, Duane argued that as long as the money is going to come from these communities when many play in the Lottery, it should go back to them in some way. Community Action Norwich is one way to do that. In addition, he said some recent research found that almost all government funded projects in the UK involves some money obtained through the Lottery. If one does not accept money directly from the Lottery on moral grounds, one must, by extension, accept nothing from the government.

I agree with Duane’s arguments concerning the lottery issue, but am more skeptical about issues concerning Christian organizations receiving government financial assistance. If an organization takes government money, it arguably should not endorse specific religious views. I highly doubt anyone would disagree with anything that goes on at the kids’ club, as I’ve never seen any proselytizing. However, if a kid asked a spiritual question, or a similar opportunity arose, I wonder what would happen. If the group acted in an explicitly Christian manner, and was receiving government funding, I would expect and respect taxpayers with divergent views to be upset about it in the same way I would not want my tax dollars going towards a group that spread beliefs about another religion. However, I also would not want the group to be constrained to speak on the account of government money. If those in a Christian or other religious group can never talk about their faith, the group, in my opinion, loses much of its identity and purpose, if not all of it. This conundrum is why I am skeptical of the Faith-Based Initiative program in the United States. While not unconstitutional in my opinion, the program provides an argument for why there should be separation between the institutions of church and state (key word-institution, I think “separation of church and state” gets thrown around and misused way too often, but thats a whole other story)

However, maybe getting funding from a Lottery may be somewhat of a solution. Unlike paying taxes, buying a lottery ticket is voluntary. If you do so, you are making an active decision and are agreeing to wherever that money will go. As long as lottery ticket buyers know their money might go to a religious charity, I do not see the problems that I listed above.

For more information about the UK lottery, visit http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/goodcausesandwinners.ftl

Volunteered on 24/03/2011

From 18:00-20:00

2 Hours: Total of 18 Hours

New Hope Christian Centre

Supervisor: Duane Elkins

Tigger, who aside from being a bouncy tiger who hangs out with an overweight bear, undersized piglet, a couple of kangaroos, huffalumps, and woozels in a forest that spans a hundred acres, is also the name of my supervisor at the Greenhouse Trust.  The Greenhouse Trust was opened in Norwich in 1994 to educate the public of Norwich and Norfolk about “efficient and effective use of energy, land resources, water, transport, waste recycling and other environmental issues” among other things.  They operate out of a Victorian era printing office, which they have refurbished over the last 17 years to be a model for energy efficiency.  The building boasts two solar arrays, three solar hot water arrays, recycled paper insulation, cork wall framing, and a system for recycling rainwater for flushing toilets and washing dishes.

They operate a cafe and a food shop, which sells everything from fair trade chocolate, hot chocolate and organic soap to organic wine, beer, whiskey, and sherry, plus various grains and other foodstuffs.  This is where I’m going to be working during my time at the Greenhouse.  My job is to run the till and to restock shelves, which I do with Tigger.  The shop doesn’t get many customers, so I have plenty of downtime to talk to Tigger about the Greenhouse’s goals and mission, or to read the plethora of environmental books and magazines that the shop stocks.

I expect this to be an extremely useful and rewarding experience.  Not only does the Greenhouse focus on two issues (alternative energy and fair trade) that I am passionate about, but it also provides a fantastic experience to learn about things like grey water usage and insulation that I don’t know much about.  It is a relaxed environment filled with great people.  I can’t wait to go back in two weeks to spend more time there!

Date: 19/03/11

Time: 10-2

Hours: 4

Supervisor: Tigger

I’ve been really lucky in my volunteering, as I’ve had the chance to explore both Norwich Castle and Strangers’ Hall, and it has been a lot of fun. This week I helped with Tudor Day at Strangers’ Hall, which is really a beautiful building.  It doesn’t look like much from outside, but inside there’s a feasting hall, stone passages – very cool. It’s the kind of place that I would have loved to let my imagination run wild in when I was younger. Our ‘time-travelers,’ as one of the interpretors refers to the visiting students, this week were nine year-olds from West Earlham School, and they were supposed to imagine that they were Strangers from the Low Countries who had come to Norwich in the year 1565. They were welcomed by Sir Thomas Southerton, the mayor, and he told them that some locals might not take kindly to them because they were viewed as a threat to Norwich’s weaving trade.

Like the other days when I’ve volunteered, there were four rotations – in one the students learned about feasting and cooking in Tudor times, in another they learned dancing, in the third they got to try on Tudor costumes and talk about how we know what the Tudors dressed like, and finally their craft was making a loom and doing a bit of weaving. They seemed to really take to all of the activities. I helped out with the costumes in the morning – I was in charge of getting the girls dressed. So I would introduce myself as their lady in waiting and help them with buttons, laces, the works. We had a few dress as servants, and then a few fine ladies who needed to be tied into bodices, helped with petticoats, the works. Once all of the students were dressed, the interpretor would take them through all of the parts of their outfits. They looked absolutely fantastic, and it was really fun.

In the afternoon I helped with the weaving activity, so handing out materials, helping tape yarn in the right places, and teaching the ‘over-under’ method of weaving. It was a ‘fiddly’ activity, but it went pretty well. I think that it was a really successful day for the kids, and I really enjoyed helping. I’ve also had a great time getting to know the interpretors. Our lunches always involve several cups of tea and a chat about something historical. The other week people were actually debating whether or not the Romans or the Iceni had a better claim to Norwich. The people who work these programs are really passionate about what they do, and it’s great to see. Unfortunately the budget is being cut for next year, so there will be less interpretors to run all of the different activities. This means that Museum Services is going to have to consolidate some of their programs, which is a shame because the students seem to take to these days really well. It’s the difference between reading a textbook and getting to use your imagination to bring history to life, which I think is so important.

Date: 17/3/2011

Time: 9:30-2:00

Total Hours: 17

Supervisor: Daniel Pounds

Yesterday was my second day volunteering at Norwich Castle, and the theme of the day was the Ancient Romans and Iceni. This meant that the interpretors were dressed in togas or in plaid blankets with blue facepaint. I’m beginning to think that I won’t recognize them if I ever see them in street clothes. We had a group of about 120 five and six year-olds in yesterday, and like the previous week, they were divided into four rotations. When they came in for the day, two Romans and two Iceni tribewomen met them and explained the overarching issue that the kids should be focused on throughout their activities: is it fair that the Romans tax the Iceni?

I was able to observe some of the rotations in the morning, which was really great. The first activity that I sat in on was an exploration of life in an Iceni roundhouse using some props and drama. I was really impressed with how Pam, the interpretor, was able to keep all of the students interested and engaged. She explained to me later that the kids never really get to learn about the Iceni perspective in class because, well, history was written by the Romans and the Iceni didn’t leave any written accounts of themselves to counter the Roman accounts. So she had them talk about how life for an Iceni was different than life today and had them act out different jobs that would have been important in the tribe. She also explained to them that the Romans took half of everything the Iceni had as tax, and had them plan ways to thwart the Roman tax collector. By the end of the session, she had managed to develop some very strong Iceni loyalties amongst the students!

I followed this group to their rotation with “Brutus,” a Roman soldier, who talked the kids through what it was like to serve in the Roman army and showed them several weapons. He actually taught them the best places to stab someone, after making them promise that they wouldn’t use this knowledge on the playground. He kept it very lighthearted, but I was still kind of taken aback. What he didn’t bargain on, however, was the strong pro-Celtic sentiment that Pam had fostered in the previous rotation. As he was explaining how the Romans had conquered Britain, one little girl piped up and said, “Why couldn’t you have stayed in Rome? Why did you have to come take over our lands and charge us mean taxes?” Andy, the interpretor, was surprised, but started listing off all of the improvements that the Romans had made for the barbaric Celts, but this little girl was very persistent, telling him that he wasn’t listening to her and that no, the Celts were very civilized, thank you very much. Her argument later devolved into, “Well, you’re not a real Roman, because then you’d be dead!” After taking her through a quick lesson in British history and reminding her that she wasn’t a real Celt because she would also be dead, Andy said, “Listen, kids. Life’s not fair. But to make it more fair, get yourselves a sword.” To deter further Celtic uprisings, he then had the kids line up in formation and march around the museum screaming, “Left! Right!” in Latin (sinister and dexter, if you were wondering).

During the afternoon I helped out with the craft again, which was Iceni torc-making using wires and aluminum foil.

This was a much less sticky craft than the Egyptian collars had been. After making their own torcs, the kids got to go explore the Iceni gallery in the museum. They all seemed to have a really good time. After the students left for the day, I spent the remainder of my time doing craft prep for future Roman and Egyptian days. Next week I’ll be at Strangers Hall to help out with a Tudor day. I’ve had a really good time so far and I think that the Learning Department does some great work.

Date: 10/3/2011

Time: 9:30-3:30, total of 12.5 hours

Supervisor: Daniel Pounds

On my way to the New Hope Christian Centre this evening, I noticed a pub closed down. I did not remember seeing the boarded-up windows on my last journey, so I am pretty sure this happened some time this week. Whether due to local circumstances, the current economic situation nationally/worldwide, or simply bad business, it was a sad sight to see.

Upon arriving at the Centre, I was asked to fill out a basic survey for Community Action Norwich (the larger organization which the kid’s club is a part of) It asked simple questions about my feeling towards volunteering and programs I would like to see offered by the group. After filling out the form, I learned that the kids would be filling out a similar, simpler form that evening. The differences made me laugh, particularly how, while our form asked us to answer on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly disagree, their form asked them to answer on a scale from a very frowny face to a very smiley face. My first thought seeing this form was, “there is no way these kids are going to sit for two minutes and fill out this form, much less in a serious fashion.”

Well, I was wrong. The kids arrived, saw the forms, and started to fill them out almost immediately. One kid entered the room and said “I want to fill out a form.” In addition, it appeared that all the kids filled out the form seriously. I found this absolutely bizarre.

Even more bizarre was how chaotic they were after filling out the form. It was as if they used up all their attention spans on the form, and then felt they could just run around yelling and listening to any direction for the next hour. We attempted to play a game of dodgeball, but it devolved quickly. To make matters worse, Duane(the club leader) was not around for a good half-an-hour. Even when he arrived halfway through, the kids still were all over the place. No one was behaving incredibly poorly. However, they all seemed to be unable to concentrate on one thing for more than fifteen seconds.

Somehow, amidst this chaos, I had the longest conversation I have had with one of the kids yet, concerning life in America and what the different states are like. It was nice to actually be able to talk to one of the kids about something rather than just playing  a game, even if it was about something superficial.

After the kids had left and we cleaned up, we learned why Duane had been missing for so long. As it turns out, one of the kids, right before the club, threw a mayonnaise packet at a car thinking it would do nothing. The driver claimed it chipped the window, and thought it was a rock. Mistaking which kid did it, the driver took the wrong kid, locked him in his car so he could not get away, and called the cops. The other kid, happy he apparently got away with it, ran to get his friend’s mom and inform her that her son was locked in a stranger’s car. This was all happening right outside the Centre, so Duane came out to see what was going on. By the time the cops and the mom showed up, it was apparently quite a scene. Apparently everything was resolved, but it was quite an interesting story, particularly because it began with a packet of mayonnaise.

Volunteered on 10/03/2011

From 18:00-20:00

2 Hours: Total of 16 Hours

New Hope Christian Centre

Supervisor: Duane Elkins