Monday May 30, 2005
May 28, 2005
Day one of ACT training. SAAAC folks drove out to the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO) in Oakland. It’s a three story mansion with lots of empty meeting space and beds on the second floor. We met up with about 10 Berkeley folks and held a joint training session.
Training was insightful at times, frustrating at moments, fun, but tiresome. Alex from the Chinese Progressive Association and Stacy from the Asia Immigrant Women’s Advocates came to talk to us about the Asian American movement in the Bay Area and how we are continuing the legacy. We also did a role-play of negotiations for a safety contract by a large company. Probably most notable was the time we spent drawing and then talking about an important moment in our lives, which really allowed all of us to get to know each other. I was amazed with everyone’s candor, even though we had just met about 6 hours ago.
We also spent time at AIWA and volunteered for their youth graduation. It was really funny because the Cantonese translator was pretty bad. But, it was really empowering to see a lot of the youth as they accepted awards for their services in the organization. A band of boys and girls also played – kind if crazy because all of the guys were really into their ‘image’ as a band so they all had these pretty crazy mullets and earrings and since the balance of the group was off (everyone overpowering the singer) it was cute.
I just remembered that Vietnamese sandwiches are the greatest thing in the world. The bread is so crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and the vegetables along with meat are a really great combination. I ate three of those suckers today.
The rest of the night was pretty chill – people were talking. I didn’t get a chance to really converse with a lot of people since I was tired and wanted to do at least a little bit of reading. I did enjoy reading about why South Africa decided not to continue forth with its nuclear weapons program, since I studied South Africa all of last quarter. Went to bed around…2am?