YDC

I went to the youth detention center for the first time last night. I CANNOT wait to go back next Tuesday! It was such an incredible experience to interact with the youth and see the effects of poor choices and insufficient parenting. When I first got there, we had a "Code Red" which occurs about once a month or so. When an inmate is out of control, the entire center shuts down immediately and all the staff literally run to the issue at hand. Last night, it was a 17 year old girl attempting to abuse her unit leader. So, that was my first experience with YDC.
Everything we did once inside the premesis was in secure lockdown mode. Everything was double doored, and you had to shut the first door behind you before paging staff to unlock the second door for you. After getting inside the Kiva unit (short term boys) the unit leader began letting the boys out of their rooms. I just stood and watched as he unlocked them from their individual, cinderblock "cages" one by one. Each boy came out of their rooms with similarly blank expressions and stood patiently in front of their room until all the boys had been released. Once they were permitted to follow our directions, we started mingling and just getting to know the guys. We are encouraged not to talk about why they are in detention since their volunteer time is a period for them to forget their troubles and have fun. But, Nevertheless, I heard a couple of their stories and was just in awe of the things they have been through and life experiences they continue to have. One of the boys, Tristan (looked similar to they guy pictured above) was raised by his teenage brother in downtown Seattle because his mom was in and out of jail for drugs. When he was nine, he was with his brother by the Train station in Seattle when his brother was shot by an opposing gang member. Tristan "doesn't even care." Since then, Tristan has been in and out of foster care and then adopted by a family in Utah. I was surprised myself with my ability to seperate him from his history and current status and have fun with Tristan as a normal guy. He really was easy to love and I felt so privileged to be able to learn from Tristan's fun personality and watch him lift those around him through conversation. We had fun playing get to know you games and having BYU Creamery ice cream :) Again, I can't wait to go back!

A really amazing side note is: I ran into a guy volunteer from my group at the library last night and we chatted for a while, and as we are parting asked me, "Did you know you have beautiful eyes?" I thought you'd get a kick out of that :)