Norms vs Beliefs

I still am confused about the differences between Norms and Beliefs. To get a better grasp on the difference I looked on wikipedia and the definition of Norm is the sociological term for the behavioural expectations and cues within a society or group. They have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. This definition confused me more because it seems if I am correct that Norms help define Beliefs.

Indecent Exposure

By definition Indecent Exposure is the deliberate exposure by a person of a portion or portions of his or her own body under circumstances where such an exposure is likely to be seen as contrary to the local commonly accepted standards of decency , and may in fact be a violation of law. I find this definition interesting, because it leaves the definition of what is indecent open to "commonly accepted standards". What constitutes indecent exposure depends on the standards of decency of the community where the exposure takes place. So in some places its indecent to show your stomach and in others its indecent to show genitals and nipples. Once I saw a show (Dr 90210) Which is about plastic surgery. One episode had a female to male transsexual who was getting her breasts removed to look more like a male. In the show it blurred her nipples during the consultation and initial surgery and as soon as the doctor removed the breast tissue and reduced the nipple size they weren't blurred anymore. I just think its interesting that even if they are female breast, once they are altered to resemble male breasts then they are fine to be viewed.

Fish Food Bank continued

The last time I have gone instead of spending the day working directly with the people I have been also participating in the back. In the back of the mini store there is a little warehouse where canned and dry food is stocked and there is also a big refrigerator where they keep milk, veggies, bread and birthday cakes. I put bread into boxes to weigh them and also made bags of frozen potato wedges. I also helped stocking the shelves and bringing the lunch from the church to the service site for the volunteers. The volunteers often use the food that is donated for lunch while there. I thought it was interesting how differently they treat the volunteers and the people who are there for community service. I have had a few volunteers not trust me until they found out that I went to PLU and was just a volunteer, rather then someone who is there for getting their community service done for something they did. One thing that I noticed when I was there was that even if their are two families living in the same home/apartment, they can only be counted as one. I thought that was odd, because two families should be counted as separate, but if the address is the same they count them together. I also don't like with how they distribute the food, someone who has one person in the family gets one loaf of bread, while someone with 13 also gets one loaf of bread. Someone with one person gets 1 can of food, while someone with 2 people also gets one can of food.

Service Learning- Fish Food Bank

For my service learning project I choose Fish Food Bank. It's mission is to distribute food to needy people. It does this by donation from individuals and companies. Companies like Safeway donate soon to expire or extra food. The population we seemed to be servicing was the elderly and often mothers of large families. A lot of the people who came in spoke only Spanish. I thought I was going to be unpacking food and working in the warehouse area. But when we got there it was full, so they trained us to be "runners". The job was very interesting. We stood with small shopping carts and waited for costumers to come to us after waiting in line and filling out information, including showing ID. When they came to us, we would collect a number card (size of family) and sometimes a colorful card (note baby). We then let them have the cart and followed in front of them telling them how much they were allowed depending on the number on the card. I interacted with a lot of people who had large family size, many who brought children with them. I enjoyed my work, each person who came it was very understanding and thankful. I tried to make as much conversation as i could, so they were more comfortable. One lady in particular asked for my name and introduced herself and thanked me and said I was sweet. I enjoyed all my costumers, none made me uncomfortable, because at first I did fear that I would mess up and tell them something incorrectly, but after the first 15 min, all my fears quickly faded. Some things were hard though. I didn't like every volunteer's attitude, some I felt were nicer to some but not to others. I think its important especially in volunteer situations to give each person respect and dignity. I'm looking forward to seeing what this Friday brings. I hope I'm able to make people who come in experience there a positive one.

Fish Food Bank

I just went to my first day of community service at Fish Food Bank. It was actually a lot of fun. I was nervous about having to tell the people how much food to take and which ones they could choose from. After a few people I got the hang of it and it was fun interacting with different people and helping them get what they want. They were all very kind and I'm excited for next time.