On a recent Saturday afternoon Kevin O'Brien, a first year VISTA from Arkansas, sat down with me for a few minutes to discuss his AmeriCorps assignment in Boston's Villa Victoria neighborhood. I discovered a young man (he's only eighteen) fully engaged in his community and loving virtually every minute of it.

Kevin works at the El Batey ("buh-tay") Technology Center in downtown Boston under the supervision of director Kim Lopez. The CTC's parent organization, Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion (Puerto Rican Tenants in Action), funds and oversees the center. IBA itself was originally established in the 1960s to ensure affordable housing for the Hispanic population in Villa Victoria.

Today, IBA continues to work with the community to safeguard affordable housing, yet they also spearhead community action and sponsor social services. Enter Kevin, who provides a wide range of computer technical support to predominantly Hispanic residents (Hispanics comprise 90%, African Americans 8%, and Asians 2% of the area's approximately 3000 residents. Additionally, single mothers head 80% of households in the neighborhood).

Kevin, chillin' outside El Batey

Since El Batey doesn't open until noon during the week, Kevin usually has some time on his hands in the morning. Every other day he works for his landlord constructing a house next door. "But tell people the money I earn gets deducted from my rent," he appended, wishing to dispel any rumors of a carpentry enterprise on the side. The truth of the matter, of course, is that this VISTA couldn't possibly find time to take on any more responsibility than he presently handles. From noon until three o'clock, Kevin responds to house calls from residents who schedule an appointment via the Center's support hotline. In order to receive support, a resident must have purchased her computer through El Batey.

"The residents can take a class to learn how to use a computer, and those who pass are eligible to buy a computer for $10 a month over a period of two years," Kevin said. The Center not only provides free training and free tech support, it also enables residents to purchase high-quality, low-cost hardware. (In addition to acquiring a new Hewlett Packard Pavilion 7940, residents also get a spiffy ink jet printer.) A number of corporate and non-corporate sponsors underwrite El Batey, including Cisco Systems, Inc., the Timothy Smith Foundation, and Empowerment Zone.

Kevin reports that residents most frequently encounter internet connectivity problems. He also happily adds that "unplugged phone or network cables" are the most frequent culprits. Still, one perk of making house calls is that residents often provide "meals and other various things," Kevin hinted. A select few residents too openly express their appreciation: "one woman goes as far as planting a big wet sloppy kiss on me after I solve a problem."

When 3pm rolls around, Kevin heads back to El Batey to tutor patrons one-on-one. Topics range from Microsoft software to Adobe Photoshop to web publishing. At 4pm Kevin switches gears again, this time removing his technical support hat in favor of a mentor's cap. Through the youth program next door to El Batey (El Cacique), Kevin coaches young kids with their after-school homework on a variety of academic subjects. When a pupil stumped him on a Physics question, Kevin called up his own brother to obtain the correct answer.

Taking into account the Hispanic majority and language barrier, Kevin himself becomes pupil to one of Villa Victoria's residents following the after-school tutoring. On alternate days Johnny de la Cruz teaches Kevin Spanish, and Kevin in turn teaches him English. After the language lessons, Kevin generally works on "training manuals and web site work" until closing at 8pm.

Arguably the most entertaining part of his duties involves teaching ScienceQuest classes to 9 - 12 year olds. ScienceQuest ought to be familiar to Caitlin, since she works for 'em. Additionally, Angela P. is developing a ScienceQuest curriculum on fuel cells at her sponsoring organization. For those who don't know the dope on SQ, kids pose questions they want to answer and employ the SQ model to find the solution. To get a better understanding of how atoms work, for example, "[the class] played electron freeze tag," Kevin said.

He finishes out the work week running a web publishing class aimed at teenagers for a couple hours on Saturday afternoons. Finally, his week has ended. One might think he would go home, kick off his sandals, and down a beer. Not this VISTA. Kevin manages to set aside a block of time in his schedule Saturday evenings to serve as a role model in the neighborhood off-hours.

"One of the ladies in the neighborhood felt that her son needed a male influence in her son's life, someone to look up to," Kevin remarked, recalling how the association came about. Mentoring this woman's son, Jeremy (9), had an unexpected result: other mothers in the neighborhood got wind of the arrangement and charged Kevin with their kids, too. There are 2 boys and 1 girl in total. "We play dodge ball, play on the swings, play tag, watch movies, eat dinner. We go grocery shopping sometimes. And they practice knitting - and the kids really like it!"

However, it's been somewhat of a culture shock to move from "red-neck bible-belt right-wing conservative [Arkansas] to a left-wing democratic capitalist society [Boston]." Kevin loves riding the T (his home town possesses no public transportation) but still grapples with "chowduh" from time to time. The racial and ethnic composition of Boston significantly differs from Arkansas as well. "I'm living with two Russians, one Bangladeshian, and my landlord is Iranian," Kevin said, a sharp contrast "from living with only gringos back home."

On the flip side, "everything's expensive here," he bemoaned, singling out the price of a movie ticket. "It's $1 at home on a weekend, $0.50 on a weekday." By email Kevin commented, "I miss my friends, and some of the hikes in the Ozark mountains, but I'm sure I will find more of both in MA." Kevin also made it very clear that he finds his experience "very, very rewarding."
"I like to help people, to make people happy. To make people understand technology… I'm really happy here. It's really cool."

(Kevin's only significant complaint is that the weather is getting colder, and he has no one with whom to snuggle. If you or someone you know might be interested in this modern day mensch, give Kevin a shout at the email address listed below. He can knit some bad-ass booties for you!)

Kevin O'Brien
Vista Volunteer/Computer Technician
El Batey Technology Center
(617) 399-1964

Links:
Villa Tech
IBA
El Batey History