The world of Coke! Before you even get to the tasting stations, you're consumed with so much in the world of coke that you start craving the bubbly. The mecca of coke has various stories about how the company has made a difference in peoples lives, 2 museums,



2 theaters...
this....











and of course, the most anticipated part....tasting the 64 flavors of coke in the world. Honestly, most of the flavors were.....umm, different. It was fun trying new tastes and sometimes, I wondered how some people could stand the taste of certain beverages. Our group's personal favorite was....





(hahaha, jokes jokes!)
For those who hadn't tried it, it actually tasted like expired cough medicine which literally would make you gag.


In the museum of pop culture, there was a story of how coke decided to change their formula in the 80s and the advertisement around it. This caused people to be furious about the change in the taste which lead to many protests. Thousands of people called and wrote letter to coke urging them to go back to the original formula. While Coke is important and all, THOUSANDS?! I was shocked and saddened by the number of people that would take this issue so seriously while other issues that need this type of attention are ignored. For example, if we had 40,000 people writing letters AND calling in to the city of _____ to do something about homeless, maybe there might be one less child who's hungry....and even one less child is a big deal. This goes back to the importance of community that we've been talking about the whole week. If we keep living in our little bubble, we're going to be floating...it takes a lot of bubbles to bond and make foam. And of course, we need a lot of foam to clean enough so that it makes a difference....ok I'm getting a little carried away with this foam business.

People (not everyone though) don't do something until they are the ones affected but it's so important to look beyond the "I" and step into the shoes of someone else of see things from their perspective. That's how a community is formed...from understanding, being compassionate and connecting to others. Studies have shown that the more we feel connected to others and/or a higher spiritual power, the better our overall health tends to be. We need a reason to live which guides our life. A lot of the people living on the streets don't have the luxury to talk to someone about their day much less express themselves. They have people who walk past them on the streets denying their existence altogether. A lot of them are separated or have no families at all. They feel no connection with anyone hence they're "floating". I'm not trying to say they're suicidal, but they have nothing to live for...which is evident in their self abuse by using drugs (knowing that buying food is probably a better option for them). Being ignored from birth to adulthood can destroy a person's self-esteem to the point where it's invisible.


FYI: If you were wondering, coke changed the formula back to the original.


In addition to going to the Coke factory, we walked around the city of Atlanta and ate lunch in the CNN building. Then we had to quickly drive back to City of Refuge to do tutoring with the kids. I (Jessica H) was paired up with a first grader named Denaria and she was working on writing proper nouns. I started by asking her to read the directions at the top of the page, and already we had hit a road block. She only knew how to read about 2 words in the whole sentence, so it was hard for her to understand what the assignment was asking. I think she's just so used to having people read things to her that she's never properly learned the correct way to decipher a written sentence. I find it frustrating that she has so much potential and is eager to learn, yet she does not have a consistent mentor to help her along. I work at America Reads back in Maryland, which helps 1st and 2nd graders improve their reading skills, and I feel that she could improve so much if she were part of a program like this, but their school doesn't offer it. I just find so sad that some students in Atlanta who are willing to learn are deprived of the opportunity to excel in school. Anyway, I had to whip out some of my America Reads mentoring skills and we were able to finish her work. Afterwards we colored flowers, houses, and a bunny onto a big piece of paper. Before she left, Denaria wrote "I love Jessica" on the back of the paper. She also asked me for my phone number, but seeing as I'd rather not be called 10 times a day, I told her that I didn't have my phone with me and couldn't remember my number. :)












I (Sumrita) was helping 2 boys with their homework. I was proud of myself for knowing how to deal with 2 little energetic boys (my expertise is girls!). This tutoring experience was probably the most different from the past two days. Usually I go straight to their assignment and get them to start working on their homework. With the boys, I made small talk first....asked them how their school day was, why was it __(good/bad)__, etc etc. They asked me where I was from...instead of saying Maryland, I purposely said India. Why? Their next question was "Where is that?". Eventually this discussion lead into what continents are, where are certain continents, how they became separate land masses...luckily I found a world map puzzle to show them what I was talking about but of course they weren't allowed to put it together until they finished their homework.....my bribery skills at their best! One of the boys, Anthony, didn't have much homework so I pumped his confidence and told him to help Wesley do his homework. Ofcourse the boys were distracted every now and then, like any other child, but we had a great time finishing up the homework. Both Anthony and Wesley are intelligent but I fear that as they get older, they will loose the motivation to work towards school because maybe they're not getting the push from home or that they don't see the benefits of school....basically their environmental and familial factors.

BTW, I just want to put it out there....homeless/poor people are NOT dumb! They are some of the most intelligent people you will ever meet....some even have college or grad degrees (fyi intelligence is not only how much you got out of school...that's being educated....intelligence is everything combined).

Anyways, back to Anthony and Wesley....while working on the homework, Wesley told me that his uncle died recently and a couple other things about his family. This was one of the most rewarding experiences while working with him because I never asked him anything, but he felt comfortable enough to tell me about his life. When he was done with his homework, he got a big hug from me and we got working on the puzzle. I showed them where Maryland is and where Georgia is...although they were more interested in Florida. Then I showed them where India is and it was funny to hear Wesley say "You came from THERE?"....even though they don't technically know how far away it is. The puzzle was a lot harder than I thought....the boys got bored and ran off to play basketball while Kenisha and I were stuck on the puzzle. Before leaving, Wesley came up to me and asked me if I 'd be there tomorrow...I said yes and he smiled and jumped and was on his merry way!

After tutoring, we were helping out with the Youth Ministry. (Instead of Youth Ministry, Jessica and Matt went out to the streets to hand out pork and veggies to the people in the neighborhood. This was similar to what we did on Sunday, but we went to 2 different locations and had fewer people)

We had the night off, so after our chili and rice dinner, we decided to go out dancing at a place called LocaLuna (recommended by the man serving St. Patty's Day drinks at the Coke Factory). We ate nachos, did some salsa dancing, and had interesting conversations...some of which aren't blog-appropriate, so will not be repeated. ;)

On the way back to City of Refuge, Lee took us on a driving tour of Georgia Tech and then to a block called "The 4 Corners of Hell." This crossing is literally 2 or 3 blocks down the same road that City of Refuge is on, and is the worst part of the entire city. On one corner is illegal drug dealing, one is murder, another is prostitution, and the last one is human trafficking (young girls who will eventually go on to prostitution). It was fascinating and a little nerve wracking to drive by this area, but one thing that I noticed was that there weren't any police cars around. For the high amount of crime rates that go on in this city, especially on this particular block, I feel like the police should be more noticeable. Why haven't we seen them? Do they honestly think that these conflicts will resolve on their own? Sumrita and I both agree that it seems like the city has given up on these people, which is sad because they're the ones that need the most help.

There's a general trend of lost hope for people who live in low income areas. The city government can only to so much. These people don't have anyone that believes in them and their abilities. We're fortunate enough to have families and friends who encourage us and believe in us. We have resources available that give us options. The types of resources available here are things like WIC. Although WIC/other gov. programs are great...they don't prevent the issue...they're treating it. This reminds me of President Obama's presedential election....the country was in a state of hopelessness. When Senator Obama gave his speeches during the rallies, he presented hope to the American people among other things. People in the country were tired and hope was the underlying need of many. Imagine living your whole life in the need for hope and purpose....it would be absolutely miserable. So even if you can't do much on your own, you can believe in someone who doesn't believe in themself...you may just turn the key that may start the car.

- Jessica H & Sumrita