California Oakland (1994-1995)

Mentoring two teenaged African-American boys: 12 and 14 years old!

During an evening class in San Francisco, I met an American woman who told me she was seeing a black man and his children hated her. She asked if I could spend time with them.

This was the beginning of a fascinating and challenging experience for me in spending time in a rough part of Oakland where I would go every other Saturday to pick up the boys and take them out to discover different parts of San Francisco. We did a variety of activities in the East Bay as well as in San Francisco. One of the activities that stand out the most for me was watching them discover San Francisco. They particularly enjoyed riding the Cable Cars. They were not less keen to discover restaurants and spend time in libraries.

I have decided not to include photos of the boys as I have lost contact with them and do not have their permission to publish their photos.

San Francisco (1994-1996)

“Big Brothers and Big Sisters” a national organisation that matches children with adult mentors (www.volunteerinfo.org/bigbro.htm)

After waiting for nearly a year to be fully accepted onto this programme as the organisers, quite rightly, checked me out thoroughly including references from the and, I was finally matched with a lovely 12-year old African-American girl whom I saw every other weekend or so for a few hours. This was an amazing experience. I particularly remember inviting her to my apartment, writing out the ingredients to make quiche, purchasing all ingredients to make quiche from scratch, returning home and together we both made our own quiche side by side – including the pastry – a totally unheard of concept to her!

She was impatient to see the finished product as she could smell it. However, persuading her to taste it was a challenge as the only food she liked was junk food from only two well-known junk food restaurants. We ate half of the quiche I made with a salad and took hers (untouched) home.

Although she said she liked it, her mum loved the quiche and many times after that date asked me for more.