It's about losing your self-respect, family, property, and human rights. The minute I stepped off from the train and walked out into Union Station in Washington, D.C. I saw several homeless people and began thinking about what exactly I had gotten myself into. My first reaction was to look away to avoid making any eye contact, separating myself, not making myself a viable candidate for a possible 'spare change' donation.
The first day, our group worked at SOME Kitchen, which stands for "So Others Might Eat". The people in there were absolutely incredible. One woman moved to D.C. a year earlier with her husband who was a Marine, and started volunteering there once a week by cooking all of the food that we would in turn help serve. Another woman who was "older than all of us put together" as she claimed, lived in D.C. all her life and worked at SOME for thirty years. Then there was Russell. Boy, was he a character! His energy was always extremely high, ready to work and prepared for anything. He explained to us what to do in about .6 seconds and surprisingly we all caught on almost immediately and began to do the work. Some of us served food to the guests, some of us served water and coffee, some of us took the plates and scraped them off when the guests were done. While cleaning and serving food may not sound glamorous, it was an amazing experience. I made sure to smile and say thank you and you're welcome to anyone who passed by just to let them know that I acknowledged them as human beings and not just random strangers coming in for some free lunch.
The second day was by far the best day of all. My team and Mr.Gustave went to do yard work at an elderly woman's home. She had tall grass, weeds running wild, and some trash and leaves that needed sweeping up. Our efficiency and hard work, allowed us to be finished with all of the work in only an hour, and let me tell you she really appreciated it. It was such an amazing feeling...I can't begin to explain it.
Later that day, we had to prepare, serve, and share a meal with some homeless guests who would be visiting the Church that evening. As the guests came in, we began playing games with them and having light-hearted and sometimes not so light-hearted conversations. I know that I got my butt kicked several times in Connect Four, and Brittany got owned in UNO. The YSOP leaders said they were so impressed with the fact that we all spread out and shared quality time with our guests, instead of clumping up in one group and avoiding them. I met so many great people that night, intelligent, caring and well-spoken people. That night really taught me that there is more to a homeless person, they aren't all drug addicts, they don't all have mental illnesses; sometimes it just depends on one decision that someone makes that puts them in their position.
The rest of the week was a lot of chopping and cooking, bagging chicken nuggets and filing away medical papers. The week at YSOP doing all of the different projects changed my perspective on community service, especially working in homelessness and hunger. I will always try to do it with a smile on my face that comes from within and be happy that I have what I need in my life right now.
Finally, without the two wonderful chaperones, Gil & Mr. Gustave, the trip wouldn't have been the same. They were there because they wanted to be, and put in as much sweat and effort as we did all four days. THANK YOU!
*CARLENE
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