Monday and Tuesday in Bawston!

After a nutritious breakfast of mini bagels, apples and plenty of coffee, the troop set off to the Medicine Wheel headquarters in south Boston, a neighborhood renowned for urban white poverty. We arrived at 9:45am at a spacious studio in a modest area and were greeted by the ever chipper Michael Downing, our gracious host for the week. After an orientation and introduction that included listening to Michael tell his compelling life story, we began our two major projects for the week. The first was to assist the organization in its biggest fundraising event in May by getting down and dirty in hand-printing 1500 invitations designed by Medicine Wheel's own young employees. Medicine Wheel's events center around a natural element, such as Earth or Water, each year, and this year's Air theme resulted in 12 beautiful invitation designs of birds. Our second project also involved cutting out hundreds of birds from recycled paper made from shredded handwritten personal stories. The dark and reddish brown birds will soon be hung on the ceiling all around the studio. Tomorrow two of our participants, Vic (the first in Vic squared), and Chris will be teaching dance and poetry to Cushing House boys, who are transitioning substance abusers who come to Medicine Wheel for the first 45 days of their stay. We will also get a tour of No Man's Land from Roberto, a 19-year-old post-substance abuser and a 5-year employee of Medicine Wheel, and begin its spring cleaning. After our day's work we plan to go to the Museum of Fine Arts' free admission night. Thanks for reading and keep coming back for updates! Bed time.-margaret