Purpose

The purpose of this blog is inspire other young Black men and women to become involved personally in the life of a black child who has not had the benefit of a financially and socially stable family. I hope to inspire these men and women to action by sharing my experiences with my 'little brother' Jamal. Jamal (name changed for privacy) and I met yesterday for the first time with our case manager from Baltimore BigBrother BigSister.
Jamal is a 12 year old inner city Baltimore boy who has already dealt with some very difficult circumstances. His mother died a year ago from complications of her drug addiction, his father is a drug abuser and has sporadic contact with him. He currently lives with his Grandmother in a very clean apartment near downtown Baltimore. The block that he lives on is not very troublesome, but the adjacent area is known to be plagued with drugs and violence.
When I first met him, my impression was that he is quite shy and a bit smaller for his age. I have to admit that I was rather surprised at how polite he was as he let me in the front door and led me upstairs to the apartment. For 30 minutes we sat with the case manager to go over some rules for our friendship and outings. We wrapped things up by doing a little 'get to know you' activity where we shared our favorite things in a number of categories. Jamal and I have a lot in common it turns out. We both love playing basketball and video games, we both like drawing, and we both want to be doctors when we grow up. I had to run out to an evening event scheduled at the same time as our meeting. But before I left, I asked Jamal if he wanted to play some video games. He ended up crushing me in this car racing game that he's probably been playing for months. I hate racing games. But I had to build his confidence, you know.. give him a few victories before I introduce him to Halo 2 or some PS2 fighting games, games which I am known to dominate. I just think it's so sad when kids cry after a serious video game beating.