Family Cruise along the Mexican Riviera

The summer of 2009, the Chiu family embarked on a 7-day Royal Caribbean cruise – destinations: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. They came back with tales of sliding down waterfalls, dancing with dolphins, and cuddling with lion cubs. I, on the other hand, could not afford to take a week off work if I wanted to pay my rent. I remember my grandmother’s pride and joy puppy, Tara, was in my care for three days when my boss sent my on a 15-hour work day journey around Los Angeles county, bring 700 DVDs here, pick up 1400 DVDs here, drop off 2000 DVDs here, and pick up 200 DVDs here – only to be chewed out the following day because the traffic that prolonged the tasks made it cheaper to have just had all these transactions carried out by mail. It was then I decided: I hated my job, hated being a dependent upon it to make rent, and it was time to move home.

A year later, my other side of the family celebrated our triumphant battle against cancer with the same cruise during the cheapest time of year to sail – January 2011. Despite the plethora of challenges to getting the Wong gang together, we set sail on a mission to experience all the stories we heard, first hand.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Of course, the excursions offered by the ship were ridiculously over priced and legitimate zip lining services cost arms and legs figuratively. We risked our arms and legs literally by negotiating with shady tour dealers on port securing the lowest bidder. Thus our day of gliding across canyons began on the set of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s film, Predator, supposedly.

We also saw a baby porcupine!

Mazatlan, Mexico

In Mazatlan, most of the family stuck together, sharing a tour van and seeking a cheap massage. For $18 an hour, I single-handedly ruined everyone’s tranquility with my AK-47 full of questions. I needed to learn more about my masseuse - twenty three and beautiful, how different our lives could be… She was actually born in Mazatlan but raised and attended public education in Texas, attained her diploma. Our lives diverge a bit at 18 when she gets married, divorced, then forced to move back home with her parents massaging tourist for $50 USD a week. Who am I to judge, living at home with my parents – I can only wonder why the United States public education system couldn’t prevent her from returning to a “cheap labor” life from which she was born into. She seemed happy though. I left a big(ger) tip, ate a street tamale at the flea market and boy did my stomach pay for it later.

Cabo San Lucas

I love to ride the waves aboard the ship’s tender, especially when entering such a beautifully developed port as Cabo San Lucas! I almost decided on a major career change when I cuddled up against the most adorable creature I’ve ever hugged. I would like to make a point, at some point in my adult life, to spend a week volunteering with baby lion cubs in Africa. This thought also follows a documentary I watched while aboard the ship of a team who cared for a rare species of tigers.

This final day of the cruise most successfully kept our group together. We, then, harassed some dolphins in the marine aquatic center, tapping hastily at the glass for their attention. Uncle Toby got a great shot, see below. The town was clean with tiled roads and clear street signs. We spent most of the day at Happy Endings Bar (great place!) before hunting up and down the main road for the cheapest massage.

Other notes

Before departure, I took some time to chat with our room attendant that I casually and politely said “Hi” and “Bye” to each day. I knew that this international business’s recruitment of crew and staff depends on the desperation of people from third world countries that would be happy to work below the United States standards for minimum wage – I just didn’t know exactly how it worked. I fired question after question to discover this Filipino man from the northern part of the country (like Edward’s family) spends 10 months out of the year at sea and away from his family, working 12 hour days for roughly a thousand dollars a month. They do venture onto land, every so often, but dine several decks below the rest of us because, apparently, some cruise-go-ers would be appalled to dine with the staff that serves them.

Another thing I kept noticing during this trip, the people expected tourist to give them money for every little task person helped us with - tasks that Americans would consider general courteousness or simply expect from most polite passersby. When our taxi pulled up at the Walmart (I know, who goes to Walmart while on vacation?) two young boys hurried to our door to open them, followed by open palms anxiously awaiting a tip. You couldn't so much as take a photo of something without being hounded for a tip: sand castles, rock divers, etc. The one that surprised me most was a man who owned a pet iguana, walking around with it on his shoulder in his shop, who then allowed us to take photographs with it. He said, "no charge, just tip!" This wasn't this man's livelihood, he had a shop selling knick-knacks, it was just an opportunity for him to see if we would give him money. Worst of all, we did.

Here's my dad's photo. It'll cost ya a tip to look at it.

Michelle & That Damn Bridges Program

A good 50% of the reason I’ve disappeared is in great gratitude to the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the Japanese Community Youth Council. After volunteering a few hours with San Francisco YouthWorks, 10-hour weeks of casual employment, bumped up to 15-hours demonstrated not only my desperation for employment, but also the talents that would come to serve 186 at-risk youth throughout San Francisco.

It came as an honor, really, when the directors of San Francisco Youth Works and the Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program came to me with the scariest of endeavors. Understanding my fear and inexperience of direct service (to inner-city youth, yikes) and my knack for talking my way into anything I wanted, they paired me with a fellow JCYC youth program alumnus to design our very own youth employment program for the summer - San Francisco Bridges To Success!

Now it may not be common knowledge that the San Francisco Unified School District and City College of San Francisco were unable to provide summer school. That means that millions of youth were left to wander the streets (an exaggeration) against the common belief that summer should be utilized to “get ahead.” But SOMEHOW, money came to JCYC, experts in youth employment, in every direction to fund the Summer Work Experience Program, the Summer Youth Employment Program (for 17-21 year old), and our own SFBTS (16-18 years old.)

Here I learn, first-hand, the bittersweet Workforce Investment Act, which provided this great opportunity, comes with the expense of hours wasted monitoring, reporting, and auditing. I don’t mean to knock the program, but there were many times where things were asked of me that I regrettably saw as time that could have been spent assisting youth and ensuring actual programmatic accountability – rather than chasing down documentation of it. I suppose that is why I served as the project manager and not any sort of direct service or case management staff, initially at least. But we carry on.

The program operated through 4 (briefly 5) subcontracted community-based organizations. On our side, my partner and I were ensure our program met the contract’s requirements: 50% academic enrichment and 50% work experience revolved around Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This meant developing STEM-related curriculum for a 6-week program for the CBO’s to conduct, provide pre-job readiness training and a placement for them to work as temporary subsidized workers.

A teams of us was 100% behind worksite development meeting the challenge of there just not being enough workplaces in San Francisco willing to accept temporary assistance from a high school youth because it meant training the skill-less while tolerating unreliable and, often-times, poor work ethic for not much reward. Not to mention there were several programs looking to put youth to work – must of had over a thousand youth came from JCYC’s programs alone! Not to mention that a good chunk, about 40 participants spoke little or no English and needed a supervisor that could accommodate them.

Our second challenge was designing curriculum that would re-engage a young person who has already suffered disappointment and lack of goals/motivation from our low-budget public school system. Under the ambiguous guidance of MYEEP’s director, we provided activities aimed at real world application of STEM concepts: the science of the human body and engineering of a bridge through building miniature models, technology through basic computer skills, and math through understanding budgets, saving, investing and credit. The 48 hours we wrote up sounded like a fun and educational summer – the bureaucratic delays complicated their execution.

What was supposed to be mid-way through the program, many youth still without worksites attended academic enrichment workshops 100% of the time, upset because they had signed up for a summer job – not what it felt like to them: summer school. I finally stepped out of what we called “The War Room” and into the Bridges battlefield, observing youth workshops and visiting youth worksites. Worksite development continued even past program end dates, when another program ended the supervisors were offered interns from our program as replacements. At the programs proposed end date, August 13, youth continued to enroll and sub-contractor contracts extended. We eventually met our numbers and my boss alleviated my concerns with, “we succeeded - kids were working.”

From the standpoint of the community’s mission, the youth were receiving a beneficial service that they would not otherwise have – learning English for those that couldn’t, positive adult interaction for those that lacked it, and making money to support their newborn children or impoverished parents. I, a stranger to the environment, was there to ask what other support I could provide them around their career and education goals, which I soon became the sole source of which they would receive them.

The summer was over, my team dispersed into new full-time opportunities, my partner shifted programs, my new partner moved to New York. As our sub-contractors checked out of their responsibilities, I checked into direct service. I used the brainstorming sessions I held during workshops to design post-program events that I had a bit more quality control over.

The number one concern, as Bridges was ending, was if there were more jobs available. As an expert job searcher (ask anyone!) I looked religiously for opportunities suitable for them - an email came to my inbox from a little organization called MatchBridge. Another city funded program (DCYF), MatchBridge, with my best explainer hat, does not guarantee jobs but rather has connections to employers give its members, young people that pass screening requirements, to have an advantage in their job search. Speaking to two young ladies and at their request for job search assistance, I provided one-on-one coaching to assist them in joining MatchBridge and access their wide array of holiday retail opportunities. Following the successful one-on-one pow-wows, I strengthened ties with the MatchBridge staff and direct all my impressionable youth to join and take advantage of their services! The beauty of this particular service - they aren’t youth programs, they are real jobs and connection to real employers.

After hearing them announce their career interests: Real estate! Cooking! Music recording! Cosmetology! Nursing! I began planning our first event that would bring them all together – the Career Exploration Speaker Series. Determined to give them exactly what they asked for, I gathered panelist and youth program representatives from six industries: 1) Visual Performing Arts and Multimedia, 2) Culinary Arts and Hospitality, 3) Health Care, 4) Health Care, 5) Architecture and Construction, and 6) Law and Law Enforcement, and wrapped up the week with an overview of College options. With over 50% of the contact information I had being out-of-date and little/no leverage to convince them to attend, the event drained every bit of passion I had for helping people who just did not want it. It took the one-week holiday from the office to really recollect and remember why I was doing this, and I can really attribute my revival to one young woman from the program.

Back up to Mid-December, SF YouthWorks released their application recruiting new interns which allowed me to dangle a new piece of bait to youth to allow me to assist them – I had jobs! One by one they requested one-on-one assistance to complete their SF YouthWorks applications, which generated more interest in joining MatchBridge as well. I met with several youth, and some of their friends too, and learned about where they came from and where they hope to be one day.

One young woman expressed interest in law and becoming a Public Defender. I, exploring law myself, casually mentioned my hope to observe the courts the following week to learn a bit about the experience. The night before my intended visit, I received a text from her around 11pm, “When are we going to court.” I let her know that my plans had been cancelled since my friend couldn’t make it anymore – but we decided to go and figure it out ourselves.

We spent the morning at 850 Bryant, in-and-out of court rooms, chasing down an attorney to ask her questions, talking to a young couple on their sentencing day - you know, the way I like to spend my days off work. She kept saying they were there for the paycheck and didn’t understand they had someone’s life in their hand; I point out the stack of files and that a Public Defender could potentially have hundreds of clients that weren’t cooperative, switching all the time. We sat in on a good one too, almost like a television show, but my familial obligations restricted my time. I was honest with her, when she said Public Defenders didn’t bring their A-game when it came to their clients about how countless disappointment killed the energy I once had. The opportunity to chat with her definitely brought it back.

That brings me to now, where the past two weeks have been focused entirely on one-on-one job search assistance for several participants (and sometimes their friends) and sometimes on the weekend. This month, AACE Talent Search advisors had generously volunteered their time to provide Financial Aid workshops for my group – with very little interest in this assistance we only offered this once.

I know that I must keep bringing my A-game for the youth that have no other source of this kind of assistance and I’m very happy with the connections I’ve made with some of them. I’ve just got to handle it - one step at a time.