This blog will be about environment and transportation – I promise – but this experience was so amazing I just had to share it first.
I’m a community mentor in a program called Operation Jump Start that pairs adults with kids in the Long Beach Unified School District. My student is about to start 11th grade at Lakewood High.
On Sunday, August 26, the program staff arranged for us to attend Surf Camp. I had no interest in surfing myself, but my student wanted to go, so I packed several books and brought a chair, planning to park myself under a tree for the duration. No chance. For one thing, Will Rogers State Beach up in Malibu has no trees.
For another, all the mentors were asked to fully participate and help, even if we weren’t going to surf. We began by gathering in a huge circle – mentors, staff, volunteer surf instructors, and about sixty kids from OJS and another inner-Los Angeles mentoring program. We greeted each other in Swahili and, in groups of twelve, made our commitment for the day. Ours was to communicate and encourage each other to have fun.
Next came “initiation” for all who were there for the first time. ALL. We had to run a gauntlet between two lines of people, right down into the ocean until we were wet from head to toe – after yelling our names into the megaphone. Dreading it, I yelled my name as loud as I could and ran into the water without thinking too much – and promptly fell down on the slippery rocks.
Finally it was time to surf. The kids got into wet suits and went out into the not inconsiderable waves with the instructors. They had, as you might expect, varying levels of success, but one thing I learned about my student and her friend: they are persistent! They stayed out for at least two hours, falling off the board and swimming right back out to try again, not even coming in until well after the whistle blew. I told them both that this quality would be very helpful to them in their lives. Neither one knew what the word “persistent” meant.
A typical OJS lunch is a Subway sandwich and a bag of chips – and I’m not complaining! – but today was different. Local sushi entrepreneur Travis Kamiyama had set up an entire open-air kitchen and prepared dozens and dozens of plates of fresh sushi for us. Imagine eating all the (normally very expensive) sushi you wanted on a beach with friends, sun and waves. It was a treat none of us had been expecting. The students, after the usual “eeew, raw fish,” mostly tried and liked the sushi, mine included.
We ended the day in another huge circle, thanking Travis and the volunteers and acknowledging why each of us needed to be there that day. I’m torn between whether my essential reason was to learn that my student is so persistent, or simply to experience eating sushi on the beach.