DC Trip Week 2

My experience on the trip to work with YSOP in Washington DC was full of surprises. My first surprise of the week was the day we arrived when I saw the incredibly clean and neat condition of the Youth Hostel where we were staying. It was much nicer than what I had been expecting. Then, that same night, while we were visiting the church in which YSOP is based we were split into groups and given our folders that determined the different sites we would be going to work at that week. This was my second surprise because I had not realized we would be working with different organizations that all addressed the issues of homelessness. The first day my group went to work with Elder Buddies. We went to a subsidized housing unit where we met an amazing social worker named Karen who explained the whole process to us. Our job that day was to help clean the apartment of an elderly woman who was unable to maintain her apartment by herself and was running the risk of being evicted. At first, this woman, Mrs. H., did not want our help. She was very insistent that we were not supposed to be there until Thursday and that all she wanted cleaned was her oven. Karen spoke kindly to Mrs. H. as we waited patiently in the hall and she eventually succeeded in convincing Mrs. H. to allow us into her home. The first thing that struck us was the smell. It was awful and then as our eyes adjusted to the lighting we could see that a lot more needed to be cleaned than just the oven. We immediately went to work cleaning the oven, cabinets (inside and out), counters, dishes and eventually the floor. I was surprised someone could live in such a filthy environment. The whole time we were there Karen, the social worker, talked with Mrs. H. and tried to make our presence in her home as positive as possible. By the time we were about to leave we had run errands, made noticeable impact in the messiness of the apartment, and had opened Mrs. H. to the idea of volunteers helping her to maintain her home. After we finished, even though a lot more work could have been done, the manager of the apartments came up to inspect our work. She was very happy with the progress we had made, and surprisingly so was Mrs. H. She kept thanking us and saying how when we first arrived she “was getting madder by the minute” but now that we had done such good work she would allow for volunteers to come in once a month. This news made Karen extremely happy and she also repeatedly thanked us and said how perfect the whole day had gone. After working so hard and in such a sad situation, an elderly woman living alone in a dirty apartment with no one to look after her, it felt really good to know we had made a difference. This experience was one of my favorites of the entire week because we were able to directly help and interact with the people we were offering our service to and we were able to see the happy and positive results of our actions. Over the rest of the week, the majority of our work was not as direct. We worked at DC Central Kitchen where I chopped at least a hundred green peppers, at Food and Friends where I unpackaged and repackaged tons of raisin boxes and helped assemble bagged meals, at Community of Hope where we attempted to help kids with their homework after school (even when they did not want to do it or “didn’t have any”), and at an organization that helped homeless women put their lives back together where we cleaned a kitchen, sorted clothes, and moved in new beds. Another great part of this week that I really enjoyed was the Community Meal. This meal was really special because we cooked, served and shared this meal with 40 guests who were part of the homeless community. This meal gave me the opportunity to get to know some really interesting people and hear their stories. I learned to play poker, was able to hear lively singing while I ate, and met an amazing artist who drew portraits with colored pencil that if you saw you would swear were a photograph. The entire trip was amazing and filled with pleasant surprises. I could not have asked for a better experience on my community service trip. I really want to thank all my classmates who were worked next to me through both the sad jobs and the fun jobs and I want to thank our chaperones for watching us and making us feel safe.

Thanks,
Lauren