Ms. KB: where is the lawnmower?
J.O.: at the barber shop.
Ms. KB: The barber shop?
J.O.: yeah they took it to get fixed at the barber shop…
Ms. KB: oh God, you telling me they took it the barbershop to get fixed?
J.O.: yeah. They said they fix things there.
Ms. KB: you know you are ghetto when you fix lawnmowers at your barbershop.

So true….
What a weekend. Had like thirty graduation parties to go to. Actually just three. But they were all missions. It seems like everyone’s party started at 3pm. First we had to go to one of our fellow capoeiristas, Eli. She graduated from ODU and is going into the navy as an officer. Good luck cause I did my time. Six years, people!

We (meaning Cabacador and I) met some of her peoples. She has an uncle named TOAD. I was bugging. We also met one of Mestre Cigana’s nephews. He was okay. A little arrogant for my tastes but he was cool.

We left there and had to pick up my wife and daughter. Then we headed out to Suffolk (aka the boondocks) to our girl’s KD’s party. She got her masters. So that was dope. I got to meet her other siblings and family. It was a reunion of sorts. I had a good time. The food was great. Ain’t nothing like a spot that had healthy food. And a good time. I got to build with her dad and mom some more. Big up to the wilder family ..

Then we all headed to Suebeephly’s house. That was fun. We got there like four hours late. But we were there. We missed most of the festivities and the food. But we took some great flicks and hung out. We cracked mad jokes. It was mad fun….

The funny stuff? You had to be there to dig it. Much of it is like private jokes.

It was good to see Suebeephly in a gown. It’s about time. My wife got to meet someone from Nigeria and just disappeared with her. I almost had to go pull her out.

But to be honest, here is the funny stuff. We had tickets to go to the ODU graduation. We were informed (well my wife was informed) that it was 3 hours long. I was like HELL NO. we will just get there when everyone is pulling out and act like we been there the whole time. Because of the misinformation, we arrived an hour after everyone broke out. We felt like dummies. We still caught up with Akowoye and his fam at his house. They were going to the Pink Lady to eat. No it’s not a strip joint. Sounds like it thought, huh?


On to some serious ish….

Record number of US children in extreme poverty
By Debra Watson
7 May 2003
The number of black children living in extreme poverty climbed to nearly 1 million in 2001, according to the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), a Washington, DC-based child advocacy group. The record number was the result of a sharp one-year increase in the number of black children living in families at half the poverty level from 2000 to 2001.
While the CDF report focused on black children because of the staggering rate of increase in extreme poverty among this group, there are growing numbers of children of all races in the US living under these wretched conditions—defined by the Census Bureau as an annual income of $7,064 or less for a family of three.
Other research has placed the number of Hispanic children in extreme poverty at 733,000 in 2001, about 13 percent more than in 2000. The number of very poor white children rose by an estimated 2 percent, to 1.8 million. Thus, a total of more than 3.5 million American children live in households where basic necessities of life are simply out of reach.
Using US Census survey data, the CDF found that 932,000 black children were extremely poor in 2001, up from 686,000 a year earlier. The 2001 total was twice the number of black children living in abject poverty two decades earlier when the Census Bureau began compiling such figures.