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[ Music ]
>> One of the first lessons a vista learns is that the poor are not waiting to be helped.
They are reluctant to give up their accustomed ways.
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In Lukachuki, there are no phones and walking is the main form of transportation.
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It can be several miles between rejections.
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>> Maybe I'm doing something terribly wrong.
>> It's the way they told us it would be during training.
>> I know, but not forever.
>> A month isn't forever.
>> I should have some sign that I'm getting through to them.
After all, cooking is just one of the things they have to learn.
>> How would you like it if a Chinese lady came into your house and in very broken English,
in front of your whole family told you that you didn't know how to cook?
>> I'd throw her out.
>> Cultural shock, busy body.
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>> Do gooder.
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>> Lady bountiful.
>> Big nose witch.
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>> What's that all about?
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>> For all those interested in a form of [inaudible], there will be a meeting
in this office next Tuesday 8 o'clock sharp.
>> Community organization is the most sophisticated kind of work that vistas do.
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It can also be the most frustrating, when the community has no tradition
of stating its needs and acting on them.
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Eric sees that it will be long time before a community organization can become effective.
And he only has a year.
He begins to do on his own what he thinks the community needs.
He gets permission from a landlord to convert an empty apartment into a recreation center.
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He marshals teenagers to help him get started.
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The same landlord offers paint.
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A foundation and other sources in Atlanta offer to supply books.
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>> Ok kids, now this recreation center is going to be yours.
The rules for the books will be these.
You can take any book down and read it, but you can't take it home.
Is that ok?
>> Ok.
>> No one has any objections?
>> If we even sign our names and promise to bring them back?
>> Didn't you hear what Eric said?
>> Come here John, now you tell him what I said, just because.
>> You're big.
>> And just because.
>> You're white.
>> Doesn't mean.
>> You're always right.
>> That's right.
Same goes for the rules in the recreation center.
You think a rule is unfair, we'll vote on it.
That's democracy.
Ok?
>> Does that mean we can take them home?
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>> Most vistas tutored in the after school hours.
In this way, they not only share their own education, but become available to help
in the other problems, which tumbled forward in the adolescent years.
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To convert one human being to a new way of doing things is a big step forward.
Because what Missus so has learned, she can pass on to others.
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But this could only happen after Lori became accepted
as an individual and not as a critical outsider.
Now the people of Lukachuki know Lori and want to help her.
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Though Navajo women are good seamstresses, they need help in working with a pattern.
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>> Make this one.
It tells on the back that you only need three yards of material,
you could get some cotton at Potso's.
[ Background noise ]
But I thought you wanted me to bring it.
[ Foreign language ]
Oh.
[ Foreign language ]
>> In the most routine kind of work,
vistas frequently uncover deeper and more immediate needs.
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[ Foreign language ]
>> What's wrong Kaobe?
>> Very sick.
>> You've been to a doctor?
>> I don't go to the doctor.
>> He goes to the medicine man.
>> What does he say?
>> He says I'm going to die.
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>> Kaobe, let me get you a doctor.
>> I don't go to the doctor.
>> Medicine men don't know everything and you can't.
>> They know enough.
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>> You should be in a hospital.
>> I don't want to die in the hospital.
I want to die here.
>> You may.
>> I want to die here.
Leave me alone and go.
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[ Foreign language ]
>> What good is teaching a little sewing when they need so much?
>> Got to begin somewhere.
>> It's hard when you're just beginning and people all around you are dying.
So easy with the kids, they respond right away.
With older people like Kaobe, I don't know how to reach him.
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>> I guess you can't reach everybody.
Just keep trying.
Maybe you could do more work with the teenagers.
>> Maybe.
[ Background noise ]
Come in.
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>> Can you help me find a doctor for my husband?
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>> There are a number of vistas in the Atlanta area and they get together from time to time.
They work in recreation, golden age clubs, tutoring,
community organizing, and family planning.
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[ Background noise ]
>> Brother, come on in.
>> Better get out to the recreation center.
I think someone broke in last night.
>> All right, I'll be right down.
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>> When Eric organized a recreation center by himself, he took a calculated risk.
Only the people who live in the neighborhood can deal with all the hazards to such a project.
But if he waited for adult interest to become active,
he would have neglected what seemed a pressing need of the children for a place to play.
Eric took a chance and lost.
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>> Look like they got the TV set too Eric.
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>> That won't solve it.
People have to believe it's there before they'll protect it.
How's school?
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>> Once again, Eric sends out notices to reform the tenant's association.
It is the only way to continue what he has started.
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>> Eric, when we going to get our recreation center started again?
>> I don't know.
It seems to me that that's up to you, if you want to do it.
>> The only problem I see is.
>> Money. M, o, n, e, y.
>> Money isn't the problem.
We could raise money with a raffle or something.
>> The problem is how to keep people's from breaking in there,
helping themselves to our community property.
>> We could ask police to look in on things when they're making rounds.
>> Maybe we should buy more screens and put them in our windows.
>> Now, the problem is the communities and the solutions belong to them as well.
>> Maybe we should.
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>> Karen I just got Missus so a job, 200 dollars month, isn't that great?
>> Wonderful, doing what?
>> Same thing I do, teaching cooking.
>> Oh, that's great Lori.
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>> At a later, the association is formally organized with elected officers.
The machinery now exists to solve community problems like the recreation center.
>> Again with an opening prayer.
Let's all bow our heads please.
Lord, bless this assembly of fine people who have stuck to our tenants association.
And bless our purpose which is namely to better our home.
And our lives.
We ask in Jesus name.
>> Amen.
>> Amen.
>> The job of a vista is to become accepted and then needed by the people he serves,
but the final stage of service is to become unnecessary,
to let the community take over completely.
What Lori began, Missus so continues.
What Karen taught, her pupils will also teach.
What Eric started, others will build upon.
Vistas work with those who have painfully learned to expect very little from the world.
But at times, the volunteer supplied a missing element,
which can liberate talent and redeem lost opportunities.
That element is hope.
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