TiffanyMcMahan

Tiffany McMahan

Reflection

March 10, 2009

Today, we were at the Campus for Human Development. It was very different than the Mission. I really enjoyed today because we met some of the homeless people and we had more interaction with them than at the Mission. We helped clean a building, wash walls, and clean up tree branches. While there at the Campus we experienced different things such as the classes offered to the homeless. Some of them could draw very well and all of them seemed to enjoy their art class. When Wendy told them about the new center that was going to be built for them they were all excited and happy. Many of them were very nice. I cannot stop thinking about the one who kept telling us that he could not believe that we gave up our spring break to come help them, and he also explained how he hoped that we took the idea of a homeless shelter back to West Virginia because he would like to see more shelters in the country. This really made me sad because we never know how it is to live like them. Something I never thought about was how the homeless receives mail or phone calls like for a doctor’s appointment or for a job interview. At the Campus they can get mail twice daily and also use a generic phone message there to receive phone calls. I never thought about this until it was mentioned today at the Mission. Also, while we were cleaning out the can food items from the burnt building, one of them homeless men was taking the cans of food to keep for himself. I found this very hard for me to understand and to deal with because it made me think about how wasteful we can be, and how someone not as fortunate as us would appreciate the things we throw away. Also, something that made me feel a little unsafe was the fight between to homeless men there while we were working. Wendy apologized for the problem and asked one of the men to leave the Campus for the day. This was very different for me and it made me somewhat worried and scared. This gave me a better insight into how the street life is for the homeless. I feel that today was the best day because of the interactions with the homeless.