TheThe HartfordHartford CatholicCatholic WorkerWorker St. Martin De Porres House St. Brigid House

What does God require but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly... Micah 6:8 Was there a moment, known only to God, when all the stars held their breath, when the gal- axies paused in their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word, who had called it all into being, went with all his love into the womb of a young girl, and the universe started to breathe again, and the ancient harmonies re- sumed their song, and the angels Jacqueline Allen-Doucot clapped their hands for joy? Madeleine L‘Engle

Advent 2008 1 The Hartford Catholic Worker Established November 3, 1993 Volume 16 Number 5 The Hartford Catholic Worker is published bimonthly by the St. Martin De Porres Catholic Worker community. We are a lay community of Catholics, and like minded friends, living in the north end of Hartford, working and praying for an end to violence and poverty. We are not a —tax-exempt“ agency. We do not accept government funding. Our ability to house the homeless, feed the hungry, and work with the children depends on contributions from our readers. We are not paid. We can be reached at: 18 Clark St., Hartford CT 06120; (860) 724-7066, [email protected] and www.hartfordcatholicworker.org We are: Brian Kavanagh, Sarah Karas, Jacqueline, Christopher, Micah and Ammon Allen-Doucot.

You may write me down in history ‘Cause I laugh like I‘ve got gold mines pain Diggin‘ in my own back yard. With your bitter, twisted lies, I rise You may trod me in the very dirt I‘m a black ocean, leaping and wide, You may shoot me with your words, But still, like dust, I‘ll rise. Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. You may cut me with your eyes, Leaving behind nights of terror and fear You may kill me with your hatefulness, Does my sassiness upset you? I rise Why are you beset with gloom? Into a daybreak that‘s wondrously clear ‘Cause I walk like I‘ve got oil wells I rise Pumping in my living room. Still I Rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, Maya Angelou I am the dream and the hope of the slave. Just like moons and like suns, I rise With the certainty of tides, I rise Just like hopes springing high, I rise. Ω But still, like air, I‘ll rise. Still I‘ll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Did you want to see me broken? Does it come as a surprise Bowed head and lowered eyes? That I dance like I‘ve got diamonds Shoulders falling down like teardrops. At the meeting of my thighs? Weakened by my soulful cries. Out of the huts of history‘s shame Does my haughtiness offend you? I rise Don‘t you take it awful hard Up from a past that‘s rooted in St. Martin‘s Calendar [ Please join us on Tuesday, January 6, October 5 and November 2 February 3, and March 3 at 7:30 PM for the celebration of Mass at St. Brigid House, 18 Clark St., Hartford. Refreshments and conversation follow Mass. ˛ Our vigil for an end to war continues on Friday‘s from 11:30-12:30 outside the Federal Building on Main St. in Hartford. Please bring a sign and join our call for an end to the American military occupation of Iraq. Yolanda Lopez 2 We Don‘t Get Nine Lives

Christopher J. Doucot arrived. Each year the wonderful people of St. butternut and acorn squash he had gleaned. I anticipated that Sunday October 12th Therese Catholic Church of Granby gather —Great“ he said, —I‘ll be right in“. I‘m writing on would be a little bit busy since two suburban linens for us to distribute to the people of the the following Friday and nearly all of the churches were scheduled to drop off some neighborhood. As with the bread we are simply hundreds of squash Ralph dropped off have donations and both Jackie and Brian were away, the middle men/women. If we step back and been taken by neighbors. but like most days at the Catholic Worker much think about it aren‘t we called to be middle Being energetic and a carpenter Ralph of that Sabbath day was spent responding to men and women with all of God‘s wealth? asked to look at the major repair we had done the ad hoc: unscripted moments of charity, making sure not to keep more than we need to St. Martin House last year. The repair did absurdity and tragedy. and sharing the rest with our sisters and not go as well as we hoped. The group we The day began quietly enough with the brothers. After Sarah, Micah and I unloaded the hired works with teens from this neighborhood nine A.M. Gospel Choir mass across the street sheets and blankets I returned home to read who have dropped out of school. The students at St. Mike‘s. After mass our dear friend go to class part time and learn carpentry part Andrea was waiting for me on the porch. time while we get the work done at a discount. Andrea is a tireless, hardworking and generous Unfortunately, the supervision of the young soul despite being absolutely destitute. Andrea people was a bit lacking; mistakes were made- lives in an immaculate and over priced carpentry and otherwise. The city has yet to apartment in an otherwise squalid building with approve the work and the cellar still leaks when her sixteen year old daughter and twenty year it rains so Ralph offered to spend the rest of his old son. Aside from the portrait of a pasty Sunday fixing the repair. Unfortunately I was white Jesus on the wall and the kittens not in a space to spend the rest of the day scurrying underfoot her apartment is sparse. doing construction since I had to prepare my The front door doesn‘t open completely lecture (and three weeks earlier I had cut off because of a 2x4 nailed to the floor; at night one of my fingers- though that‘s a story for another 2x4 is propped between it and the another day). So Ralph agreed to survey the job doorknob. Andrea had come to borrow one of the paper before heading over to the office to and buy the materials needed to do it right. our folding tables but now she needed a ride as catch up on some paper work confident that the By the time Ralph returned with the well. Andrea is a fantastic cook. Given the afternoon would be quiet. While I was reading concrete mix and lumber Andrea was calling opportunity she could cook for a high end Sarah welcomed the generous folks from St. from Bushnell Park to be picked up so after restaurant. On this day she had obtained a Ann‘s in Avon who had come to donate a room Micah and I unloaded Ralph‘s truck I headed permit from the city and was headed to full of food. downtown. I realized poor Andrea did not have Bushnell Park to sell some of her home cooking With the food unloaded and stored in the a good day when I began loading nearly full to the folks attending a Puerto Rican festival in pantry Sarah headed off to yoga and then to her trays of chicken and rice back into the van. It order to make the rent. Knowing how great her parents home where she got into an unex- turns out that even though she had the best cooking is I had no doubt she would make her pected conversation about anarchy. Meanwhile food she was not in the best location. A spot in rent and more. up in the office I was preparing my lecture for the midst of the action cost a thousand dollars. By the time I returned home Sarah was my Monday class at CCSU when I got a call Andrea only had $300 dollars she had made at making croûtons with the left over left over from an incredibly generous (and unbelievably an earlier event selling bottled water which she bread from Panera. Each week we get a energetic dentist/carpenter/humanitarian) invested in the food she prepared. All told wonderful delivery of this left over bread that friend of ours who had returned from a mission Andrea sold only $60 worth of food which she we share with the neighborhood. Usually we trip to Haiti the night before. Dr. Ralph had split with her sister and niece. I was furious are able to give it all away but when there is planned to spend his Sabbath practicing the that she had lost $240 after working so hard. extra Sarah makes her incredible croûtons/ biblical work (Lev. 23:22)of gleaning the fields —Chris“ she said said in her heavily accented butter delivery morsels. of a squash farmer. Ralph called to make sure I voice, stretching the —is“ part of my name with By mid day the first church donation had would be home to accept the truck load of (See Nine Lives, p4) 3 Nine Lives Cont. hitting another pole, a s.u.v overturned making fifty yard long debris field. The broken glass Nine Lives Cont. a turn way too fast and now this. The city‘s made the street shimmer as though it were a response was that there were not enough field of diamonds- fool‘s diamond‘s. Amidst the an extended high pitched squeal, —I don‘t want accidents for there to be speed bumps. I invite glass were the passenger‘s sun glasses, car to be rich, you know. I just want to provide for you all to drive around Hartford‘s West End. parts and assorted spent medical detritus. my family. I can‘t complain, you know. I made Hartford‘s white, upper middle class and Bubba and I began sweeping it up. Soon we $300 selling water! So it all evens out.“ Micah wealthy West End and count the speed bumps were joined by Sarah, the field trip chaperons and I feasted on Andrea‘s cooking all week. that have been installed in recent years. Are Jim and Stephen, and some of the other It was now dark and I had given up on poor black children walking home from Clark neighborhood kids. writing my lecture. The Patriots were playing School invulnerable to a speeding car? Or are As we cleaned I noticed a plastic shopping the late game so I cracked one of my home- middle class white children just more precious? bag with a note on it in the front yard. At some brews and watched them get beat like the team After the police spoke with Micah I brought point between the accident and the morning they were when I was a kid and they had a someone had placed the bag in the tissue paper quarterback named Eason. yard. The note read: —Can you do a Downstairs Micah and Bubba played favor. Please Buried my little cat. I video games connected with kids from Dont have money To buried it. God around the world by the magic of the Will Bless you. Thank very much. A Internet. With curfew approaching Bubba friend.“ left around ten. Since Monday was a This was weird, sad, touching and holiday I let Micah continue the game funny all at once. I was cleaning up the while I went to bed. scene of an awful accident that At midnight I was awakened by the probably took a life and yet I was unique sound of a car crash. By the time I chuckling... out loud. It‘s awful. I got outside Micah was already on the shouldn‘t have laughed. But I couldn‘t scene. Apparently two cars were drag help myself. Maybe it was nervous racing down our street when one lost laughter. Maybe that‘s a rationalization control and smashed into the telephone to make myself feel a bit less shallow. pole in front of St. Brigid House. Micah Of course I buried the cat in our saw the driver of the wrecked car run off front yard after saying a little prayer for and called 911 for an ambulance. I tried the cat‘s owner and for the boy who to calm the driver of the other car who was him in, hugged him and said a prayer of ten yards away and ten hours earlier was understandably freaking out. There was a thanksgiving that we will not be able to afford dancing with death. It‘s what we do. We feed passenger in the metal knot; his body tangled the insurance for him to be able to drive when the hungry. We house the homeless. We in unnatural angles. Unconscious he gasped he turns 16 in a few months. instruct the ignorant. We bury the dead and we autonomic groans releasing his life to the still It was impossible to sleep. The adrenaline pray (and fight) for the living. night air in five second intervals. In less than in our veins needed time to wear off. Watching As I went to shovel up the last pile of glass five minutes paramedics and police were on the the numbers of my clock radio advance always I noticed a red, white and blue American flag scene. They would have arrived sooner but triggers an anxiety attack inside of me. So I got laden Band-Aid on top of it all. It was as if it 911 calls placed from cell phones go to the up to watch old television reruns on the were purposefully placed there when I wasn‘t State Police and do not provide an automatic computer. By 3 A.M. I was asleep. looking. My friends, the crisis in our nation is address for the caller. Sarah and I were back at the Green House not on Wall St. It is on Clark St. and every With black smoke billowing from under the (aka St. Brigid House) by 9 A.M. Two of our street like ours around the nation. The wreck hood fire hoses were readied while the jaws of extended community were taking ten of our visible to the nation may be on the tip of life were used to extract a body now only older kids on a field trip to Central CT State U but the victims of our economy have partially inhabited by a soul. For years we tried for the day so Sarah and I wanted to see them been struggling in our cities for generations. A to go through the proper channels to have off and make sure they had breakfast. Whereas band aid bailout for the bankers and speculators speed bumps installed on our street. In the the ambulance sped off with the broken body is about as meaningful and helpful to our fifteen years we‘ve been here our fence has and a wrecker lumbered away with the broken neighbors as the Band-Aid in our garbage been taken out twice, a girl has been hit, a vehicle no one swept away the mess left barrel was to the boy in the twisted remnant of telephone pole knocked down, a man killed behind. Outside the Green House there was a the car chocked around the phone pole.Ω 4 Praying and Working in Guatemala

Jacqueline Allen-Doucot Aid kits to bring and Ammon gathered up while also teaching them how to build houses Over a year ago Ammon and I were invited some balls (do you remember Pinky‘s) and Fr. Tom had been asked by Maryknoll to by Fr. Tom Goekler to visit his Catholic Worker candy to give to the kids we would meet. The replicate his program in Guatemala. These 4 community in Guatemala City. Fr. Tom is a four of us spent a day at Mercy Center, along young men have their work cut out for them. Maryknoll priest who was co-pastor of our with Herb a friend and volunteer at the New In many ways Guatemala is very similar to parish, St. Michael‘s, when we moved to Haven CW, to discuss the trip and pray for the U.S. There is great apartheid between rich Hartford. Also considering the trip was our guidance. We agreed that the boys would read and poor- though in Guatemala the gated good friend Mark Colville from the New Haven I, Rigoberto by indigenous human rights communities are circled with concertina wire Catholic Worker and his 12 year old son Justin. activist and Nobel Laureate Rigoberto and men with M-16‘s. Like the US the Chris and I thought it was a wonderful idea. Menchu. They also agreed to leave their I- descendants of the conquering empire have Ammon was 13 at the time- about the same Pods in their luggage for the duration of the little regard or use for the native peoples age Micah was when he went to Darfur with trip. Ammon received a 5 day excused absence whose land has been vanquished. As in the U.S Chris. Ammon had been wanting to travel, and from school, a backpack full of homework, and a the only thing needed to break down barriers because we want our kids to consider them- directive to give a presentation to his Civics between young people of extremely different selves members of a global community we backgrounds is the opportunity to work and agreed. Teenage years are challenging, as play and build relationships together. By the any of you who have raised children well time we left we felt great love and commu- know. In order to assert themselves as nity with the young people we worked young adults and to separate from the child beside. they once were they often view parents as Since the 50‘s when the CIA overthrew obstacles to independence. If I had a nickel the democratically elected president for every rolled eye or —whatever“ I have Guatemala has been wracked by civil war. endured over the last 12 months, I could The country has been working hard to pay off the mortgage in Voluntown. rebuild and heal since the 1996 UN Sometimes it feels like helping a teenager brokered peace agreement. From our first find a sense of discipleship or view them- day spent at the World Social Forum we selves as part of the One Mystical Body of class. understood that whatever peace comes will Christ is at total odds with their need to assert We were greeted at the airport in spring from the blood of many martyrs. Priests, their individuality and uniqueness. We viewed Guatemala by Fr. Tom and a large welcoming bishops, nuns, union organizers, teachers, this trip as a way to bridge this gap. We hoped committee; Sr. Magda and 8 young people farmers, mothers and fathers paid with their it would allow Ammon to do something that welcomed us in English and Spanish. With lots lives to resist a government that according to required both maturity and adult sacrifice and of laughing and hand signals we took off in the the Archbishop‘s Office of Human Rights was yet be uniquely his own. We also prayed big van for pizza at the Maryknoll Center responsible for 80% of the 200,000+ civilian fervently that it would improve his crappy House. Fr. Tom made quick work of orienting deaths between 1956 and 1996. The UN Spanish grade. us: —do not drink any water not from a bottle“ reports that the government was responsible It took us over a year to save the money. and off we went. for 93% of the killings! When Mark called in August with great ticket During the next 10 days we met an This is not ancient history. Part of our trip prices, the community was broke from summer amazing array of people including Maryknoll lay included a visit to the church and rectory where camp and living off the credit card and Chris‘ missioners and high school students. We Bishop Geradi was assassinated in 1996- two small teaching salary. We wrote begging letters painted murals on cars, houses and schools. days after his Commission released a 4 book to a number of our supportive parishes to keep We were blessed to get to know Mario, Carlos series documenting government sponsored the ministry afloat and bought the tickets. The and Danillo, three young men that had left massacres. In Antiqua we visited the convent trip came upon us fast. It seemed like summer their homes and families in Honduras to join where Ursuline nun Sr. Diana Ortiz was camp was just ending and now we were figuring Fr. Tom‘s community. Because of his success kidnapped from. During her captivity Sr. Ortiz what to pack. My sister Teri made us some First in Honduras helping young people leave gangs (Please see: Guatemala p7) 5 Summer in Palestine

Sam Digel well have been myself just a month and a half into the beat up old Toyota I tried to impart If you asked me today to put my finger on before. Seizing upon my revelation, I began to upon Ahmed the joy I had felt upon taking my the exact moment I had the realization I‘m not retrace my journey chronologically to see first spin as driver when I was 16. As I knew quite sure I could point to a single memory or where I had ceased to be that person, and had we were roughly of the same age, I expected experience. Perhaps it was the day trip to the become conscious of just how radically him to come back with a similar experience of Dead Sea, and the look of longing on our different my life could have been were it not the simultaneous terror and thrill that one Palestinian bus driver and guide‘s faces as they due to the geographic location of my birth. experiences with the new responsibilities of were told they could not feel the mud of their Ironically enough my mind finally came to being able to drive and finally getting around by native soil between their toes by the gently rest on the 3rd of July while we were driving to yourself. I knew instinctively by his mumbled lapping shore. Perhaps it was the border guard the ancient city of Hebron. Yearning for a response that something was wrong. Mentally and his look of cold fury when I told him I was temporary respite from our surroundings, one scolding myself for upsetting my new friend I studying Arabic and he asked why I wouldn‘t wondered what could be bothering study a real language of a legitimate people, him, I mean wasn‘t that something that like Hebrew. Or perhaps it was something as every teenage guy can relate to mundane as staring at an elderly man thumb regardless of his nationality? Nothing his well-worn prayer beads and mumble the could have prepared me for his afternoon incantations before suddenly being explanation, as he gazed at me with snapped back to the reality of two soldiers suddenly blank eyes and rubbed his frisking him before he was allowed through coiled hand unconsciously over and the third security checkpoint and into the over the side of his cheek. He coldly mosque, thankful for admittance yet late once recounted that when he was 16 some again for the call to prayer. of his friends had been caught Yet as I reflect back upon my time spent in throwing rocks at an Israeli tank as it the West Bank the whole experience remains rumbled through their village. a pile of scrap cloth waiting to be sewn Although he himself had not been together into a tidy geometric quilt, some- involved a few nights later Israeli thing that I can take out and show people so soldiers burst into his living room and that they can simply look at it and understand. of my American friend dragged him away, leaving his home, When I first came back home I thought that I and I had convinced two of his co-workers to sobbing siblings, and childhood behind. When could pick up various pieces of memory and help us secure some camel meat for our 4th of he emerged three and a half years later, he wave them in people‘s faces. After all, with the July celebration. Not merely content to drive began to try and pick up his life where it had sheer enormity and strength of my newfound us there and back, our hosts insisted that we roughly been torn off. Yet everywhere he conviction they would just have to succumb to stop for dinner and some coffee at their favorite looked was a constant reminder of those years the deluge of facts and experiences. Yet to my restaurant on the way home. As the sun he had lost. Sure he had caught up in school, dismay, as I moved from person to person it settled in behind the hills and the mercifully but his detention means that he will never be seemed that the light of recognition in their cool evening air began to swirl around, our able to leave the West Bank to be able to eyes that I yearned so much for just never went practice his skills. He hauntingly remarked that conversation meandered from the result of the off. How do you convey to someone who has he had simple traded in his prison cell for a earlier Soccer match to the best way to BBQ lived their whole life taking not just creature bigger one. After an evening of drawing the meat the next day. I will never forget comforts, such as reliable running water and parallels between my life and his, I realized laughing with Ahmed at Jamaal, who taught electricity for granted, but seemingly intrinsic that we could never be the same person. himself English by reading Shakespeare, when rights such as freedom of movement and the While I had gone to my first prom, won the he —bequeathed us to spread thoust coals hope for advancement in life as well. It was not conference title in cross country, and been widely“. It just all seemed so American to me, until after I had quelled my internal rage that I accepted into college he had sat in a cell for a right down to the Beatles music playing softly began to realize that the people who were crime he didn‘t commit, eagerly anticipating in the background. Cramming ourselves back bearing the brunt of my frustration could very every six month when his family could visit him. 6 Palestine cont. that could give him care because I was not the injustice of the entire situation to me. Yet authorized to go the 6 miles between ultimately as I close the narrative of my brief There, perhaps this was it. The moment Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Perhaps at age 60 time in Palestine it was the shared humanity when the buzzer went off in my mind and I it would have been losing my ancestral land and that stuck with me. The idea that I had come realized that the conflict goes far deeper than to the West Bank viewing things through the boundaries, water rights, and holy sites. It has lens of black and white as well as us and them permeated the life of every Palestinian, was now an alien concept to me. While dehumanizing in every form of its manifesta- Ahmed‘s story deeply affected me, its potency tion. Without having come and seen it first was derived not from the gross injustice of the hand there‘s simply no way I could have ever whole affair. Rather it was the ease with which begun to grasp at the amorphous truth of what I could relate to him, despite the drastically is happening. It was not the look in Ahmed‘s different paths our lives had followed. Simply eyes that day that sticks with me, but the fact put, despite the barriers between us I could that I saw it in everyone‘s. While at this stage see myself in his shoes if I had simply been in my life I most closely related to him, I knew born to a different mother. It was this common that for every point in time for every Palestin- human spirit that my mind often drifts to as the ian there was the chance for humiliation at the overblown rhetoric of politics fans the flames of hands of the occupying forces. Perhaps at age the region. While it is now near impossible to 28 it would have been getting engaged in peal away the multitude of layers in the secret due to the 24 hour a day curfew. family home to an illegal settlement, despite conflict, at the core lies a group of remarkably Perhaps at age 40 it would have been not having deeds dating back to the Ottoman ordinary human beings being asked to deal with being able to send my child to the only hospital Empire. The fact of the matter is it could have the extraordinary circumstances of their daily been any one of those stories that struck home surroundings.Ω

kneel to kiss and bless the 20 children who run Ammon and I both returned home speaking a Guatemela cont. to him at the end of Communion brings to my bit more Spanish. It was wonderful to listen to mind the biblical image of Jesus surrounded by Ammon relating at our house Mass of his was tortured under the supervision of an the children. The community there is a experiencing his —privilege“ in a big way. I am American official. Since her escape she has thriving, joyful, beautiful example of the hopeful that our experience deepens for both been witnessing against torture all over the —alreadyness“ of the Kingdom of God. It stands of us us our commitment to our sisters and world. (See, The Blindfold‘s brothers to make the Kingdom Eyes: My Journey from Torture more already every day. I am to Truth by Sr. Ortiz, Orbis proud of Ammon. He was a 2004) wonderful peace ambassador At the end of our trip we and rose to the challenges of stopped for a swim in the the trip. He worked, played, ate Pacific. The beach had sand and made lots of new friends black from volcanic ash. While with good spirit and joy (as did we were having a blast being Justin). Ammon came home pummeled by the waves there feeling blessed by what he has was an earthquake. We were and amazed at the joy of the able to spend the last part of young people he met who our visit at the Mission of San seemingly have so much less Lucas Altitan where Fr. Greg than him. One of his new has served the indigenous community since in a stark contrast to the grinding poverty of heroes is a little boy who lives on the dump. I 1956. Over the years the community has Guatemala City and its barriers between the can still picture this 5 year old boy doing back developed a coffee processing plant, a hospital, casas and the shanties; a clear manifestation of flips off the garbage truck to land safely in huge school, and woman‘s collective. The literacy the —not yetness“ of God‘s Kingdom. trash bags filled with shredded paper. I wonder rate leapt from 2% to 85%. To see Fr. Gerard All in all it was an amazing experience. if he rolls his eyes at his mother?Ω 7 Notes cont. of us, Mary Pipkin to give her a kiss on really enjoyed their presence with our the cheek, all I could think of was what children on Saturdays at the Green talked about how she was raped at an an amazing experience! She seemed to House. (Last spring we participated in early age and fell silent for six years know what each person needed and spoke a fundraiser that benefited a foundation after the murder of her rapist, which she right to that. So, thank you Kate! and that Okafor has set up to help stop the felt she caused by telling her brother thank you Dr. Angelou! spread of AIDS in Africa, where his what happened to her. She realized the The following Wednesday Jackie and parents are originally from.) The day power of words and the human spirit. I found ourselves at 1:30 in the after- ended sometime around 2:00 AM, but She told us that she has been through so noon on a bus with a group of kids from was well worth getting to see how excited much in her life, anything we can our house, Steve Dahlem, Jim Cronin, the kids were to meet an NBA player imagine (other than hard drugs) she students from Husky Sport and Clark and to be in Madison Square Garden. has tried, she has been through. And We even saw Michael Jordon (ok he was she said, —still I rise.“ No matter what about a thousand feet away but we saw we must keep on going, growing, him stand up and wave, very cool!). learning, striving for our best and Thank you Jennie and Husky Sport for realizing our potential in spite of life‘s organizing this event! hardships. Just look at her. She has Recently Jackie and Ammon took a come so far in her life and is now one of Elementary school headed for the Big ten day trip to Guatemala to work with the most influential and powerful women Apple. Jennie Bruening and the stu- Father Tom Goekler and his ministry in the . She told the girls dents from the Husky Sports Program with ex-gang youth. Ammon was really that she knows that they have a hard up at UCONN organized an outing to excited to go because it was his first time time, that they have seen and experienced to see the Knicks play the out of the country plus he got to travel terrible things and she also knows that Bobcats in Madison Square Garden with Justin Colville (who is super cool!) they are strong and can make it through and for us to meet Emeka Okafor before and skip a few days of school. Micah anything. There wasn‘t a dry eye in the the game at the NBA store in Manhat- got to go on the last trip to Darfur with room, she had touched our hearts. Even tan. Okafor, once a student athlete at Chris so Ammon only felt it was fair some of our toughest girls, the ones that UCONN is now playing with the that he get to go with Jackie this time. are strong and hardly ever let their NBA‘s Bobcats. Last year he donated They geared up with all kinds of school guards down were moved. As she called $250,000 to the Husky Sports supplies and toys to bring and share with the youngest and smallest from the bunch Program, which connects students and the kids they met. Jackie brought her athletes from UCONN with children painting expertise and headed a few from Hartford‘s mural projects during her time there. northend. His While they were there they visited a donation has community that lives in the local enabled the landfill. Ammon took some video program to footage of the trip and if you are willing fund transpor- to sit for four hours I am sure he would tation and be happy to show whomever is interested. expand on their They came back from their immersion educational experience exhausted but no worse for the programs, wear. We stayed up late listening to which promote them tell us about their adventures and a healthy and tying Mayan God bracelets on our wrists active lifestyle. and sipping Guatemalan rum. Yum. We have been I am so proud of Ammon, both the working with boys really! They seem to be growing up them from the so fast! I used to get embarrassed when start and have adults would say that to me but it‘s 8 really incredible how quickly and dra- and a woman from Jamaica. Our guest have to spend with him and my matically they have changed. Ammon Steve Ginsberg from the local theater family and we appreciate all of your began his school year at a new school and troupe, the HartBeat Ensemble, moved prayers and well wishes. joined the crew team, model UN and out during the last week of October after Also keep in your hearts Jackie‘s even gets up to catch the 6:10AM bus living with us for two years. We will brother-in-law Tom Mitchell who had (YIKES!). Micah has also been miss him and we wish him luck on his surgery for cancer and for our dear friend involved with sports at his school and future endeavors, his theater work and Midge Reddin as she too is battling still works at the bait and tackle shop his quest to go to Graduate School. cancer. once a week impressing the customers Brian recently returned from a month Well, I hate to leave this on such a with his fishing knowledge. Micah has long hiatus where he traveled to Ireland‘s sad note. As I sit here writing this in decided that he wants to be a biologist Dingle Peninsula. Every three years my cozy pappazon chair I can‘t help but somewhere where he can work outdoors Brian takes this trip and each year to feel grateful and humbled as I think and Ammon wants to be a reading spends his time getting to know the area, back on our last few months. The teacher. walking for hours, meeting people and Hartford Catholic Worker would not Chris seems to be enjoying his having a good drink (a pint or two of have been able to do all the work that teaching gig at Central Connecticut Guinness). He sent us some great post has done over these past 15 years and is State University where he is teaching a cards, my favorite of which had the still continuing to do if it wasn‘t for all class on race, class and gender. I guess picture of a donkey on it and on the back the thousands of moments of grace, they have enjoyed him too because they he wrote that he finally found a long lost compassion, and love (not to mention have asked him member of the Kavanagh family and here dollars), which enter our lives in the to return next semester as well. was her picture. He also got to meet up form of a child, an energetic volunteer, a When he first started teaching in with our friends Marie and Oona flock of birds in the bird bath, a smile, September he was —full of nerves“ but Grady in Limerick as well as his brother, the changing of the seasons a good friend this was quickly eclipsed with the pain of Dennis, and sister-in-law, Judy. and listener or even a big cuddly pit-bull losing his index finger. He was helping I do have some sad news though, / lap dog (or so he thinks). Again, I Jackie frame some art work for a show in during his last week away we learned think back to our community of friends Glastonbury where she and Dwight Teal that his mother, Gertrude —Gertie“ from our anniversary party and all the had their work on display. While Kavanagh, passed away. She was 93 great support and fellowship we receive cutting some spacers to size he acciden- years old and I know Brian will miss her daily. Here‘s to all of you! Happy tally shaved his finger down to the first very much. Please pray for Brian and Anniversary Hartford Catholic knuckle! Jackie rushed him, screaming, to his family during this very difficult time. Worker!Ω the hospital while Brian, Micah and I There will be a looked for the other half of the finger memorial service held amongst the sawdust. We never did find in her honor this it but at one point I thought I had and spring in Connecticut let out an involuntary, blood curdling, and we will let you scream, which did not make Micah or know more about as Brian too happy. After two surgeries the date approaches. and a lot of pain later Chris‘s finger is While we are on healing quite nicely, although Jackie still the subject of prayers I has a hard time looking at it. And of would like to thank course don‘t even think about cracking everyone who has any finger jokes just yet…only Chris can prayed for my do that. Hey has anyone ever heard grandfather who is about the man with nine fingers walking currently in his home into a bar?… receiving hospice care. We currently are providing hospital- I am so very grateful ity for two guests, a woman from Togo for the time that I 9 NotesNotes FromFrom DeDe PorresPorres HouseHouse

Sarah Karas money for Camp Ahimsa 2009 and for Now that I think of it these kids Since I first began to volunteer with the Maryknoll Lay Missioners program really are spoiled, or just really loved! the Hartford Catholic Worker in 1997 in El Salvador. This week, in addition to two very I have seen this community grow, not Halloween is one of my favorites days successful fundraisers, there were two only physically, but in the number of of the year, I get to dress up, be totally really cool fieldtrips; one to hear Maya people who have come and gone, built outrageous and of course eat tons of Angelou speak at UCONN and the relationships and consider our commu- candy. This year at our annual Hallow- other to a game at nity a second home. This Friday Madison Square Garden. we celebrated our 15th anniversary Our friend, Kate Mclaughlin, in the hall of St. Justin‘s Church is a huge Maya Angelou fan and on Blue Hills Avenue in Hartford. when she heard that she was As I looked around the room I coming to speak at the Jorgenson couldn‘t help but be amazed at the Theater at UCONN she did not many faces from over the 15 year skip a beat before she was arrang- history of this community. People ing for the girls to not only hear who have been with us since the her speak but meet her as well. beginning and those who have come Yes, I said meet her! We decided more recently. The room was full of to make this one of our girls night music, dancing, good food and lots outings and we ( me, Jackie, Edna of visiting. I cannot think of a and about a dozen of our girls) better way to have celebrated 15 joined friends at St Thomas years than amongst our friends and Aquinas for a pre-show dinner family who have supported our and then off to meet Dr. Angelou community and the work all this backstage. When we got into the time. We thank all of you for coming een party the kids came dressed up to the room with her you could automatically out and making this a great night and house and we did face painting, costumes, feel the great power, strength and wisdom for your contributions for the continua- pumpkin painting, egg-in-spoon relay of this woman. She welcomed us making tion of our ministries here in Hartford! races, wrap the mummy, the crawl race, a point to shake each person‘s hand and We really wouldn‘t be here if we didn‘t and everyone went home with a goodie asked us for our full names as she have all of you! bag full of candy. Steve, our Saturday repeated them back to us. She held us The weekend before we had another —head of state,“ was chosen to get for about ten minutes, longer than any of fundraising event at our friends Nancy mummified (with toilet paper), which the other groups visiting her. She talked and Jory‘s home. The fundraiser was to the kids especially enjoyed and we have directly to the young women about her celebrate my aunt Teri Allen‘s 50th the pictures to prove it! Thanks Steve, life, her joys and her great struggles. She birthday party as well as raise some you are a good sport. (See Notes P.8) 18 Clark St.

Hartford, CT 06120 (860) 724-7066 Place Label Here, Please

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