PHILADELPHIA 2018: Day 4 part 2

Several other groups went on a mural tour around the "Gayborhood" neighborhood. Philly has the most murals of any city in the US, so they did not disappoint. Many take on social justice issues in execution. I could stand there and look at some of them for hours.


One group also painted chairs for use by BSM, in an effort to further encourage their efforts to introduce creativity and color into the space to create a welcoming and open place to be for all guests.

Our day off covered a large amount of ground and resulted in an exhausted group. We took a bus up to the art museum to explore the river front and check out the "rocky steps". We then bussed to the Reading Terminal Market and ate dinner there. Many opted for Philly classics like Cheesesteaks. We then walked to the plaza containing the Liberty Bell and independence hall and got our U.S. history lesson in. Finally, we walked to the beautiful south street neighborhood and enjoyed another Philly classic, Water Ice. In total, we walked around 9 miles!

That's all for now. Hoping to post about today (Thursday) later tonight. Again, I'll be posting many pictures from the coming days at the end of our trip.

-Jack Teener

PHILADELPHIA 2018: Day 4 (Wednesday- late!)

Hi all!

We had a very packed and busy day yesterday, so I did not have time to post, but here's a quick update on what we did. Also, I will probably start posting less pictures on here for the next few days because I am typing these posts from my phone and it gets quite tedious to attach photos. I am planning on doing a big photo dump as a final post once we return home :)

We all started in our separate groups and worked in the morning. My group went to the Mill Creek Urban Farm, which supports its community with healthy food options and urban farming education. We got to harvest vegetables which was very exciting.

Zeba 2018: Day 2 in pictures

PHILADELPHIA 2018: Day 3 part 2

(...my last entry didn't completely post...)

Another group spent their day working for the lunch program, which I talked about yesterday.

Another group spent time at Beacon Presbyterian Church in Fishtown. They spent time playing with kids and cleaning up the church, much like a Zeba trip would typically do. It has one of the few lawns in the neighborhood, making it an important and special place for families in the area. (Pictured in previous post)

The last two groups spent time at the MEEP urban farm and Philly FLIGHT which I touched on yesterday.

See you tomorrow!
-Jack Teener

PHILADELPHIA 2018: DAY 3 (Tuesday)

Hi all!

We had another productive day here in Philadelphia. We are particularly looking forward to our afternoon off tomorrow where we will be exploring Philadelphia.

My group spent the morning learning the history of the West Philly neighborhood, culminating in the infamous MOVE bombing incident. We then took the subway to the actual row of houses where the bombing took place. It was a very educational and moving experience, and fortunately all groups will get the chance to go as well this week. Here's our group picture.

PHILADELPHIA 2018: DAY 2 Part 2

It's morning day 3, and I forgot to follow up last night about the rest of the worksites, so here we go.

One group was at One Step Away, where they were selling newspapers to raise funds to support the homeless community (sounds much like Groundcover in Ann Arbor!). They all struggled through the rejection of failing to sell papers and agreed it was difficult to imagine doing that for a living. 

Two groups went to urban farms called MEEP and Aspen. MEEP consists of several plots of land that BSM has been trying to secure so that it can remain an urban farm instead of being developed into buildings or other. 

Another group went to Philly FIGHT, which is an support organization for people with AIDS. They worked on writing letters to incarcerated individuals.

That's all for now. Here's another nice picture of the church we are based out of. 

Zeba 2018: Day 1 in pictures