MeganWebber

Megan Webber

ASB Reflections

March 7, 2009

So today was Day One of working with the homeless population of Nashville and I have yet to experience actually working with the homeless. After going to bed way too late and getting up way too early, our day started at the Nashville Rescue Mission. As we arrived at the Rescue Mission, there were definitely a lot of people standing in the parking lot. Come to find out, those people were those participating in the Half-way House program which is held in the building. To give a small background, I found out today that the Rescue Mission is 100% privately funded and is the serving place for about 900 homeless people living in the area. Of the three floors, the basement is a HUGE storage room (and also where we spent the majority of our day), the second floor is where the kitchen, “cafeteria”, and dorms for those in need of a warm bed, third floor is where the program members live.

We started the day in the huge storage room breaking down boxes, sorting shoes and sheets, and stacking blankets on pallets. It really amazed me how much stuff they had in the room. There were so many random items that people give them. At one point, someone was sorting through a box and found a towel rack. Honestly, why would someone who has no idea where they’re staying night-to-night need a towel rack? At the same time there were so many awesome things that people give. Our group had 17 members and we all split up in our own individual groups to get small tasks done. I mostly sorted through sheets and towels and stacked blankets on pallets. Willie was one of the workers in the Rescue Mission and also the main person telling us different things we could do. Even though our group asked him a bunch of questions, he was upbeat the entire time and never once acted like we got on his nerves, even after lunch when our entire group was exhausted and basically got nothing done.

Speaking of lunch, the food was not bad at all (although from about 6pm until now every time I think about the lunch we had it makes me feel nauseous)! We had spaghetti with bazillion different types of noodles, a bag of popcorn, some type of dessert, and SUPER flat soda. I think it was at one time Pepsi, but by the time we got it the drink was super flat and watery. It’s just weird, although I ate the food without a problem; I guess it’s just the difference of both worlds. I just tried to make the best of both lunch and dinner, but I guess my stomach didn’t have the same idea. One thing that happened around lunch time that REALLY made me angry was when one of the members of our group made a small scene about eating the lunch. She was just so disrespectful, even though no one really heard her comments except for the two or three of us that were serving the food. Someone asked her if she was going to eat and her comment was “I’m going to try.” It was just so rude, she acted like she didn’t even want to attempt to try the food…not to mention there was nothing else to eat, the Rescue Mission is where we’ll be eating for the majority of the trip. Another frustrating moment: feeling like nothing we were doing in the storage room was making a difference. The room was just so big and there was so much to be done it seemed like we weren’t even making a small chunk of difference.

My favorite part of today, and the most rewarding thus far, was during lunch when I sat down with two members of the Half-way House program and just chatted. One of the men, Donnie, was so excited because he had a pass for the day…he got to leave the Rescue Mission for three hours. When I asked him where he was planning to go he talked about how he didn’t know, that he thought about going to the pawn shop down the street to just look around. Donnie talked a lot about how he took stuff apart in his free time, and how he wanted a pen pal. I felt bad when I had to tell him I wasn’t good about that stuff and would probably forget to write him back if he ever wrote me, but I just felt like talking to him and asking questions was enough. The main thing that kept running through my mind was that I had to remember Donnie’s name incase I saw him at any other point during our trip. Well, that’s about all for now. I have so many thoughts and different things to say running through my head, but I want to save some ideas for tomorrow and other days to come. We’ll see what Day Two brings…