Cycles of the Ghetto
by
Andrea Woods
Andrea
Woods does a marvelous job of telling her story in "Cycles
of the Ghetto". I wish her the best in breaking the cycle (and
am positive she can do it too). It is my hope that she will write
a follow-up book to "Cycles of the Ghetto". She has a
promising career as a writer.
This
is the true story of a family living in the heart of the ghetto
in South Central Los Angeles. On top of the poverty in the ghetto,
each possess his or her own cycle of ghetto living, within the ghetto.
Andrea's
father left when she was three years old. For years she waited for
him to come for her because he loved her...but he never came. He
never sent support checks either.
Then
DJ enters their lives. Her mother's boyfriend, he is addicted to
crack cocaine. His addiction brings destruction to all of their
lives. Every day is filled with drama.
Andrea
is close to her brother and sister. Wesina has a different father
than Andrea and Li'l Bobby do. Even though their mother was in the
home she didn't act like a mother and Wesina became the mother to
her younger brother and sister. She's the one who took care of them
to the best of her ability. Way too much responsibility for a little
girl.
They
moved from motel to motel, apartment to apartment, anywhere they
could find a place to stay.
Since
her mother rarely bought soap or shampoo, opting instead to spend
the money on beer and cigarettes, the children went to school dirty,
wearing dirty worn out clothes, with uncombed hair. This affected
their self-esteem and caused them to feel "less than"
others. Andrea didn't want to go to school. She felt out of place
with the other children and their nice clean clothes.
Things
only got worse as her mother's alcoholism escalated. Instead of
taking care of her children Andrea's mother spent her time chasing
after her crack addicted boyfriend and begging him to come back
to her. This on-again, off-again relationship between Andrea's mother
and DJ lasted for twelve years. There were several men in between
and Andrea's mother now had six children with at least four different
men. At the closing of this book she was expecting the seventh.
Having
come from a childhood full of different men, violence, drama, fights,
dysfunction, abuse, and drugs, Andrea finds herself in the midst
of an abusive relationship. But Andrea leaves her abusive husband
and is determined to break the cycle of the ghetto and strives to
find a better life for both herself and her daughter, Victoria.
|