I think it is really easy for me to be blind. Blind to what is going on around me because I'm scared to face what it really means. I don't want to feel bad or guilty. So instead I ignore it because it's easier than being vulnerable.
One of my assignments for my Human Relations class is to do some community service. We were given a group of choices and one of the places was the hospitality house in Waterloo. When I was younger I remember watching a show about poverty and crying myself to sleep because I was guilty of what I had. How I would have given up my bed that night to anyone. Ever since then I seem to look the other way or make myself "blind" when I see someone who is really poor. I haven't ever interacted with the really poor. When I was in high school my family drove to Florida and I remember staying in Atlanta. We saw people in living under bridges. My first reaction was fear.
This fear is what I felt going into this experience: fear of the unknown, fear of not knowing what to say to them. I also am possibly going to Nicaragua for my student teaching. Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the world and in less than a year I will be living there. My perception of the homeless was old men sleeping in the park who were either on drugs or alcoholics. I expected all of them to be lazy, not wanting to better themselves. My expectations for the house were that it would be similar to a coffee shop atmosphere for the homeless. Neither the people nor the place aligned with my imagination.
While sitting at the dining table during lunch on Saturday I had a surprising moment. One of the ladies that had come in that day was talking about when she went to UNI. This lady was trying to get a job doing landscaping. She was following up on a lead she got at the hospitality house. I wouldn’t describe her as lazy by any means. She had just hit rough patch in her life. The trigger was that she had gone to UNI. She was a college student just like me at one point. She had lived in the dorms and figured out her schedule and walked around the same campus I now do. Now she was living in her van and showering at the hospitality house. Made me think about how it could happen to anyone.
This morning I spent sometime driving around the neighborhood before I got to the house. It is like something I've never seen. It's just 15 minutes from my apartment but it's a whole new world. Tilting houses, high speed chases, and fences made out of tin: this is what the neighborhood is made of.
The house is just that, a home for the homeless. It has a bathroom where the homeless people can bathe, a washer and dryer where they can do their laundry, computers where they can catch up with family or look for jobs, clean clothes, a TV and games were the can relax and of course food to eat. Joni, one of the directors, saw a need in the community and has been working to meet that need. Shelters like the Salvation Army and the Catholic Workers House will let people sleep there but there is no place for these people to go for lunch or if it’s cold or rainy outside. I also learned that the Salvation Army only lets people stay there for twenty nights and Catholic Worker’s House only lets people stay there for ten nights. After that they are back on the streets.
I think I learned that sometime you have to be willing to walk in someone else’s shoes. We are more alike than different. It also made me very thankful for what my parents have done for me and the status I was born into. I know if I ever had troubles they would take me in to help me back on my feet. This lady needed just that, a little help to get her back on her feet. I also realized how much I take for granted. I have clothes that I don’t wear. While I was there a man came in and took clothes from the clothing room. The clothes that I wear would be better utilized by them, than they are currently being used by me. I would recommend everyone get to know someone who is in poverty it really changes your perspective and let you see how privileged most of us are.
I also look at Joni and how her heart just breaks for these people. She not only saw something that needed to be done but she did something about it. She is the one advocating for the homeless in Waterloo. She gives so much of herself to these people. She is truely dedicated to her mission. There are only two other places like this in the Midwest: one in the twin cities and one in Chicago.
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