Journal Entry 1.

For my apples project I will be volunteering at Abbey Court, playing soccer during the weekends. Within mainstream society the group of individuals that make up Abbey Court are defined in a simplistic manner. Since I haven't started soccer for this semester I can only base my response on last semester when I volunteered in Abbey Court. I feel like Abbey Court is portrayed to be a neighborhood that is only populated by Latino "illegal immigrants" who look for work by standing on the side of the road. Yes, some residents of Abbey Court may be undocumented but there is more to the community than thinking about it as a home for the lationos or hispanics with no place else to go in Orange County.

This is a negative sterotype perpetuated by the media to present Abbey Court as a place where not only undocumented people live, but where violence exist, as well as gang activity. My time spent in Abbey Court was not tailored to investigating these types of identities/sterotypes that have been "stamped" onto the residents of Abbey Court. In playing soccer with the kids, teenagers, and adults of Abbey Court it seems that there is a homogenous community present beyond what is portrayed by the media. When I volunteered in the community during the weekend, kids were out playing with each other, citizens within the comminity are walking their dogs, families grilling, music playing, and neighbors interacting with each other. Furthermore, there have been instances where it seems the police "roam" in the neighborhood looking for someone or some type of activity to address, when none is present. On the flip side of things, last semester we were able to get the Carrboro Fire Department to come out and talk to the younger kids about being a firefighter and they were allowed to investigate the firetruck and its various compartments. It is important that in order for the image of Abbey Court to change people see a positive relationship between the town of Carrboro and residents of Abbey Court.

I did not come to Abbey Court with any preconcienved notions of what I expected to see. I can see how someone could ride by the place and see predominately Latino men looking for work on the side of the road and think the worse about the neighborhood. It is important that people realize that Abbey Court is a diverse community made up of Latino, Asian, Black, and White people. It will also take more than riding by the place for the citizens in the adjacent communities to realize that there is more to Abbey Court than what they read in newspapers and see on tv. Sometimes you have to get up, get out, get involved and experience things for yourself to gain an accurate representaion of what life is like in communities outside or your own.