After break i head downstairs and out the front door into the Oakland sunshine where i walk down the street, past the ghetto blasters pumping heavy bass and around the corner to the elementary school where i pick up 9-year-old Oscar, the student to whom the second half of my day is dedicated. Oscar's family comes from central america and his mother's story is much like that of hundreds of thousands of other women. She came across the border for work, experienced many hardships including abusive relationships and considerable poverty while trying to establish herself in this country and finally made it to a place in life where she is able to hold a house with four children. This due to an incredible stroke of luck in having her name picked out of hundreds to receive a home in a Habitat for Humanity project area. While Oscar would normally have moved on from the project by this age (he has been with Sophia since its inception) though his situation is particular. With a mother whose work schedule is not always predictable, Oscar would spend much of his time at home alone while not in school. This would be fine if not for a recent outbreak of attacks on their home by neighborhood children in the weeks before school started. Such attacks usually involved throwing rocks and in one case involved an assault on one of his siblings. In an area where gang-affiliation can start as early as grade-school, this would be considered a serious problem.

My place in all this is to give Oscar what he has never exactly had but always longed for: one-on-one attention from a male. His own father had already left by the time he was born. Throughout his short life he would see others come and go, some of whom were abusive. So going back to the elementary school, i go and wait at the bottom of the stairs until Oscar comes bounding down after the last bell. While waiting for him to arrive i have already found a small fan club of children who enjoy such activities as jumping and hanging around my neck or showing me this and that toy or item de curios that they may have. By the time Oscar arrives i am at times a big, scruffy white-skinned pillar in a small pool of dark heads. Oscar then joins me and we walk down the road, past the corner store with the same guy out drinking on the curb and into Myrtle House, the other house owned by Sophia Project. Myrtle is also HQ for the children under 2, of which there are roughly 6. We come in past the play yard inside the tall fence, enter the side door and walk toward the front of the house into the sunlit playroom with stained glass in the front window and sleepy children just waking up from nap and fussing about with stuffed animals and bottles of milk. My glorious coworkers are usually there providing an appropriately soft and happy atmosphere, (inasmuch as one can be expected to amidst throaty screams and happy energetic little freakouts). We say hello to the littluns and head into the kitchen where i fix Oscar's snack. We're not exactly sure how much he eats at school, and we're fairly certain he doesn't always eat at home so we always have leftover lunch waiting for him. Oscar is a curious young man with bright eyes and long lashes that look out into the world with the unspoiled innocence of youth on the verge of extinction. He's just showing the first signs of understanding the concept of having an attitude, though he is obviously very confused about how to do it and frankly hardly ever does. He enjoys almost anything i do with him that isn't homework, housework or reading, which is unfortunately what we spend 80% of our time doing. However it is absolutely striking how much youth this child has. We can easily be entertained for hours with the simple objects in the yard meant for baby use, such as balls and bats and rackets and tarps. We go for bike rides on fridays through the city and he gets the biggest thrill out of coasting down steep hills and taking the bikes a bit off path. He loves to sing and draw and paint. He asks profoundly simple questions and laughs heartily at slapstick humor. Its refreshing to have Oscar.

After snack we do homework and his daily reading log if we have time we play with babies in the yard. At 4:30 we go out to collect trash from the sidewalk. His mom arrives around 5 and he leaves without saying goodbye. Tomorrow we will do it again.