Saturday, June 24th:
We divided into 2 groups, and one went into London to an area in East London, and the other went into a rather rough ward to the west of S, both with the intent of doing cultural research for our hosts to help determine whether/how the team should expand their ministries to these areas. My group went to the rough area west of S., known as B (again, trying to protect the work of our hosts). Some of us drove about looking at the shops, businesses, housing, people on the street, etc, looking at how the population has or has not changed (namely, looking for the presence of Muslim/Asian immigration, as that is our hosts’ calling). Others of us went to the library to get stats on B, and how it surfaces in the press, etc. And still others of us worked the ground to get local information – “the word on the street.”
The drivers saw a growing expansion of Asians from the south, and the library group found lots of stuff: namely that B has a bad reputation. B is the kind of place where taxis used to not go there at night. The schools were the worst in the nation about 5 years ago. A movie with Natalie Portman was filmed by a local film studio, set in Eastern Europe. Rather than go to EE, they filmed the run-down, economically impoverished shopping scenes in B. It has that kind of look. But the library folks also found out that people of B feel their reputation is ill-deserved.
We found the same. Bill and Robert walked about, talking to people, and went into the local pub to talk with the folks. They chatted with several people who adored B, even though the reputation is bad.
Jayne and I interviewed about 4 people, 3 of whom allowed us to film them, and they were lovely. One (Christy) owned a hair salon and the other two (Richard and Lorraine) were a couple who owned/ran a butcher shop. These business owners were very positive about B and loved living there. The butcher was my favorite. Richard the Butcher. He had this laugh that made Jayne and I want to hug him. All of them told stories of people who had moved away and since come back to B. And how they couldn’t say too much bad about the area, even though people expected them to do so.
Then we all gathered back together to compile our information and make a presentation to P&L. We all gave a thumbs up with ideas about how to do the ministry/outreach. My personal thoughts are that the Muslim population will migrate to B eventually en masse, if for economic reasons, if nothing else, and that any ministry currently to this area will have to include programming for teens and babies, since a huge trend is single, teen girls having babies.
The group in East London, meanwhile, saw a huge population of Muslims and also gave a thumbs up to ministry in that area.
We divided into 2 groups, and one went into London to an area in East London, and the other went into a rather rough ward to the west of S, both with the intent of doing cultural research for our hosts to help determine whether/how the team should expand their ministries to these areas. My group went to the rough area west of S., known as B (again, trying to protect the work of our hosts). Some of us drove about looking at the shops, businesses, housing, people on the street, etc, looking at how the population has or has not changed (namely, looking for the presence of Muslim/Asian immigration, as that is our hosts’ calling). Others of us went to the library to get stats on B, and how it surfaces in the press, etc. And still others of us worked the ground to get local information – “the word on the street.”
The drivers saw a growing expansion of Asians from the south, and the library group found lots of stuff: namely that B has a bad reputation. B is the kind of place where taxis used to not go there at night. The schools were the worst in the nation about 5 years ago. A movie with Natalie Portman was filmed by a local film studio, set in Eastern Europe. Rather than go to EE, they filmed the run-down, economically impoverished shopping scenes in B. It has that kind of look. But the library folks also found out that people of B feel their reputation is ill-deserved.
We found the same. Bill and Robert walked about, talking to people, and went into the local pub to talk with the folks. They chatted with several people who adored B, even though the reputation is bad.
Jayne and I interviewed about 4 people, 3 of whom allowed us to film them, and they were lovely. One (Christy) owned a hair salon and the other two (Richard and Lorraine) were a couple who owned/ran a butcher shop. These business owners were very positive about B and loved living there. The butcher was my favorite. Richard the Butcher. He had this laugh that made Jayne and I want to hug him. All of them told stories of people who had moved away and since come back to B. And how they couldn’t say too much bad about the area, even though people expected them to do so.
Then we all gathered back together to compile our information and make a presentation to P&L. We all gave a thumbs up with ideas about how to do the ministry/outreach. My personal thoughts are that the Muslim population will migrate to B eventually en masse, if for economic reasons, if nothing else, and that any ministry currently to this area will have to include programming for teens and babies, since a huge trend is single, teen girls having babies.
The group in East London, meanwhile, saw a huge population of Muslims and also gave a thumbs up to ministry in that area.
posted by kristi at
1:55 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home