After you finish your volunteer shift at Project Homeless Connect, record your observations from your experience here as a comment. Record everything you remember from your day and include as many details as you can. Be as descriptive as possible. As you conclude, reflect on what was significant about your experience.
IMPORTANT: Please do not use people’s real names. Use initials or pseudonyms. We want to preserve the anonymity of the people you interacted with.
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I sign up for the shift at 8:30 am, but I came in around 8 am. When I walk toward the stairs, I saw lot of volunteers. I waited until 9:10 am for my client. My client was an 18 year-old mother of 14 months old boy. The boy was under her mother temporary custody. I found that information later during the day.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first met her, I introduced myself to her and ask for her name. While we were walking toward the tables, I asked her what kind of helps she was hoping to get today. She told me that the main purposes were Colorado Identification Card, Food Stamp, Social Security Card and Birth Certificate. When we got to sit down, we fill out the applications together. Then we walk toward the Gates Fieldhouse, where all the helps she wanted to get were. First we went to get Food Stamp. We went to the information place to get the application for the Food Stamp. When we got the application, I realized how many pages of information needed to be filled out. The good thing was that someone was there to help us fill out the application and because she was young and had no working experiences or expense information, so we filled out the application very quickly. As the person in the Food Stamp section looking at the application, I started to get worry about if she can get the Food Stamp. Because she received three meals in her shelter every day and the requirement to get the Food Stamp is the applicant can’t have three meals a day, but she said she is going to move out from that place, so the person in the Food Stamp said she might be eligible.
Then we went to the ID/Birth Certificate table to get information about the process of getting an ID and Birth Certificate. As we were walking, we saw there is a long line for the ID, so we decided to go to the Social Security desk first. But we cut in the line by accident, and go straight to the information desk and get the voucher to get an ID. The disappointing thing was that the service DMV provided was not included first timer. So we wait in the line for one hour and a half for nothing. Still I help her to get lot of other things done also. She got messages, including back and foot messages, some medical, register with the workforce, and Social Security application filled out.
I felt kind of disappointed because the main purpose of she coming to the event was to get an ID, so she can apply for the jobs. And she had to go to the DMV office and get the ID. Other disappointment was she had to get to her shelter place by herself on light rail, because she missed her bus from waiting in the line to get ID.
As i waited in line for the clients to show up i kept thinking back to my experience last year. even though this was my second year volunteering for project homeless i was still nervous about the whole day in general. people after about 830 were just trickeling in and so i had no idea who would be my client for the day. Then the moment came and i was matched up. however i knew immediately that this client would be completely different than last year. As we began walking i had to try really hard to understand R.R because of this thick lousiana accent. i not only got a look at what it is like to live a hard but not homeless life in denver but also in louisiana. R.R left louisiana because of the lack of jobs and the chance to live a different life. born and raise in louisiana R.R lived and worked on a farm. he made it farther than some in school getting a 9th grade education. the one thing he really did learn as a child was the value of hard honest work. he came to colorado because he has a friend that lives in denver. that was very lucky for him otherwise he would probably be living on the streets.R.R said it has been hard finding jobs because he has little education and a few minor charges on his record. however, lucky he met a man trying to start his own company that employed R.R for a few weeks. This man saw how hard R.R was willing to work to make it in the world and so he has been really trying to help R.R. make a better life for himself. R.R. also tries every so often when the man trying to start a company doesn't have work to go to the day labor location. R.R also commented on how much different colorado was compared to louisiana because of how nice people are. Denver has more help in trying to get people off the streets and back into society more than he ever saw in louisiana.
ReplyDeleteLast year at the end of the day i felt as if i had not helped my client at all because he walked away without anything accomplished. today i walked way with a sense of accomplishment for helping a man move closer to living a more stable life. He got an ID and a birth certificate which was all he really needed. however, looking back on today this man accomplished many good things but there was an instance in the day when he was finally honest about some of his actions. he has shopped lifted before one in 1992 and one about 3 days ago. I wouldn't associate this instance with his nature though because he seemed the hard working type of man that was just trying to get somewhere. i shop lifting much have been an instinct of hunger or dire need. I know that this man was not dishonest because he was planning on going to work that night if only for 5 hours to make at least 50$.
After reading Barbara's book on how she lived on about 5-7 dollars an hour i was suprised to hear R.R. has he made a pretty good wage. 10$ an hour is quite a bit of money even here in denver or colorado. the mountains of colorado are more expensive and the average wage is 10-11 dollars an hour. if he were to save up some money then he could definitely build a life for himself. he is able to save money as well because he is staying with a friend and just paying for food. I really had a great day and i am glad that the services offered this year were able to allow people to walk away with something in hand.
Even after having previously volunteered with project homeless connect, I found myself still quite nervous when the day began. As the homeless people began to unload from the buses, I kept thinking in my head of the many possibilities for the day. I was trying to select someone in the list of people that I would want to be paired with. I realized this terrible approach. After all we've discussed, I found myself judging their appearance. My client last year was a woman. She appeared nice and somewhat shy. This year, I found myself hoping for a woman once again, but as I looked around, I noticed quite a different variety of people from the previous year. It seemed to me that more people were men this year. In addition, I noticed people in the homeless line that were nicely dressed in suits, had cell phones or nice sunglasses and such. It was shocking. It just goes to show that whatever you think homelessness is, you're wrong. It just can't be classified and there is no true stereotype.
ReplyDeleteThis year, I was paired up with a very nice man. He had no interest in getting food, and said "he didn't eat much." Instead, we proceeded to get coffee and sit down at a table to discuss his goals for the day and fill out the client profiling form. He provided me with his information immediately and was very open. This middle-aged man, who seved in the U.S. Army for about 4 years and currently has a job was living at a salvation army shelter. In addition, he had been homeless once before this time. He explained that he had lost a job when living in Tampa, Florida, and that he moved back to Colorado but due to the economy, he was simply failing to support his basic needs. Furthermore, as I got to know my client better, I realized how intelligent he truly was and is. He taught me about archeology while we were waiting to get his hair cut. He was also very nice and respectful. He had great manners, and I remember him asking me if I minded if he smoked while we were waiting outside. It stood out in my mind, because for some reason I don't immediately think that homeless people have those type of manners. I don't know why. He taught me a great deal, even about life in general and his laid-back approach.
The day also brought about other thoughts regarding the process and project homeless connect itself. When my client and I were outside, he saw a friend and began to talk with him. His friend mentioned that the job fair was not useful at all. They required a recommendation or referral in order for them to assist anyone, and this man had everything besides a referral. In addition, the hair cutting people failed to show up, which was disappointing. That was one of two services my client was interested in and he never recieved it. I just realized how unorganized these systems are and how ridiculous some aspects are. How is that useful, especially if no one has knowledge of what is required?
I had quite a different experience this year, but it was beneficial in many ways. It opened my eyes to a wider range of homeless people, and because I was less stressed about the situation itself, I was able to see the services and the system from an outside perspective. I was able to connect the discussions from class to the actual experience.
I arrived just after 7am for my shift, and was greeted by the sight of hundreds of yellow shirts milling about, with some blue, orange, and red speckled among the crowds. After wandering around and familiarizing myself with the layout of Gates, I got in line for my client and waited through the rally. I didn't wait long at all for my client - I was partnered up with a wizened black man I'll call Phil.
ReplyDeletePhil was nice enough, but both of us were kind of closed up a bit. As we walked to get drinks and sit down, I started chatting with him, but not knowing really what to say or ask, I stuck with figuring out the information on the questionnaire. Phil slept at a friend's house last night, and came here on a bus from a shelter. He had a small legal matter he wanted to clear up, but was hesitating on telling me what it was. So, the first thing we did after getting through the questionnaire was head over to the legal services tables. We waited for a few minutes before being sat down in front of a guy and a woman who turned to Phil and just said - what's the ticket for?
Phil eventually came out with "open container," which I figured meant he got caught with a beer in public. Meh, not really a crime, right? Phil was also going on about some other past transgressions, something to do with a domestic violence charge against his now-deceased wife. Nothing came up in the computers though, so no harm, no foul. We eventually got on the docket, and on the way to the court stopped by one of the foot-massage stations to get some socks. I wondered why Phil insisted on not getting his feet cleaned...I think he felt self-conscious about their appearance. We went upstairs and talked to an attorney, and waited for the judge to show up. While waiting, Phil and I bonded when the talk turned to crappy jobs we both had. He had worked in a shipping center for a very large retail chain, and told horror stories of receiving containers from Taiwan and China and Korea full of products but also full of exotic bugs. We also talked about working in warehouses (which I had the opportunity to do several summers ago), and we both shared the mutual sentiment that warehouse jobs suck solely due to ambient outside temperatures.
We went into the homeless court, and I told Phil how nervous I was because I'd never been in court before. He was genuinely surprised, and asked how old I was. I told him 22, he just whistled quietly. After the proceedings, we headed downstairs to get a haircut, but were disappointed to find no stylist showed up. Phil asked if I minded he take a cigarette break, and we went outside while he smoked. We talked for a good long while about his history. He's from Chicago, and moved out to Denver in '81 because he got restless. He told me about being 17 and working at a television factory during the '68 Olympics, and how he'd be putting parts on televisions as they passed on the assembly line, and get 15-second glimpses of the Games as each T.V. passed. He told me about being a Black Panther sympathizer during the Vietnam era, and how his friend dodged the draft by accident (he overslept).
We went back inside, checked on the haircut (no luck), looked at the social services line (too long), and ate lunch. We talked more about life and its shortcomings, he talked of temp agencies full of shysters (his word), and munched on some decent chili-mac. After lunch, we went to the social service table, and got referred to BAART because Phil had a legitimate claim, but were confronted with a very interesting character. The woman who greeted us was a no-nonsense social worker with make-up like Amy Winehouse and a weave to match. She cross-examined the hell out of Phil, but eventually admitted he had a decent shot at getting social security benefits.
After that, we were done. All in all a pretty interesting day, and I feel good that Phil got to take care of some of his issues, like the ticket, and BAART, and got some info on housing too. Phil was a cool guy, and if I ever see him around, I'll give him a holler.
I have never been an early bird, so waking up at 6:15 on Friday morning I was not in the greatest of moods. However, that mood began to change as I walked to the Ritchie Center with fifteen other people who volunteered from my floor. After arriving and grabbing a Nutragrain Bar and a cup of water, I sat outside with friends to wait for the rally. With some confusion, I was then ushered inside and asked to stand in a line. The line was incredible, it just kept going and going and instead of walking back down to where the swimming pool was, I jumped in the middle of the line with some other friends. Once I was lined up outside, I realized that I would be one of the first volunteers to be paired up with a client. I froze, not knowing what to expect as I slowly made my way towards the front of the line.
ReplyDeleteAfter reflecting back upon the morning, I realized how lucky I was to help Juan, a homeless man working at INVESCO Field at Mile High. Homeless four times, twice in the past year, Juan is living in a shelter and working seven days a week in order to try and make ends meet. He came to Project Homeless Connect in order to get food stamps and find a home, two things that he was unable to attain. When we first walked through the Ritchie Center, he got some food and apple juice (his all time favorite juice) and informed me that all he needed was food stamps and to look into housing. Walking through to where the “housing” was suppose to be, he was disappointed to see that it wasn’t housing at all, instead it was local shelters, many of whom he had stayed with before. The food stamps were a bust as well; he had no way to prove that he was working (he needed his check stubs from work) to show them that he could pay for the food. Although he didn’t attain the two things that he had come for, Juan surprisingly kept an upbeat and excited demeanor, something that helped me get through the morning.
One thing that I noticed early on in the day was Juan’s shyness and how timely his responses were to my questions. The lower part of his head was shaved and there was a very intense scar at the bottom of his hairline. I can only guess, but through his behavior, I feel that he may have experienced some head trauma that caused his hard times. Juan graduated in Texas and moved out to Colorado to be in the mountains. He has mostly worked in the food industry, prepping food in restaurants and currently prepping food at INVESCO Field. While working on his resume – one thing that he was ecstatic about – he mentioned a degree in printing, something that I was intrigued about. He told me he had gone to school for it, being one of five kids, he had to pay for it himself. Because he has education in a highly technical skill, I can’t help but think about the scar that I saw on the back of his head, and I can only imagine how that added to his hard times.
Walking through housing, food stamps and preparing a resume, I figured he might want to head home, but Juan had no such idea in mind. He desperately wanted a hair cut (which he never got) as well as socks (which he did receive) and food. Also, as we walked around, he noticed the child support table set up in one of the corners and asked me if we could head that way. Sitting down at the table, he gave he volunteer his social security number and she told him that he owed almost 4,000 dollars in child support. He then explained to me that because of his debt, his driver’s license has been revoked along with several other inconvenient stipulations. Seeing all of these things pile up, I finally realized how such a wonderful and educated person was homeless. He was in debt to his children’s mother without a driver’s license working at a job that only paid him $7.50 an hour. Wow.
Lunch was served and after checking Juan out, he saw his roommate who he decided to go home with. Not really knowing what to do I just thanked him for coming and gave him a good luck wish. He then proceded to give me a hug, something that I don’t think I would have initiated, but it was something that had a huge impact on me. I had walked around with Juan for only four hours, yet he felt that I had helped him enough to give me a hug. Leaving Juan at the doors, I walked around to find another client, but upon seeing none I decided to head home. Nothing could beat my morning with Juan, period end of story.
I got to Ritchie Center around 8:10 in my light-blue bi-lingual shirt, hoping to be paired up with a Chinese speaking client. Later I discovered, for some reasons, I didn’t see any Chinese, or Asians in general today during the whole event. After waiting in line at the entrance for about one hour and a half, I finally met my client, a middle-aged man that I would call Jeff. Jeff told me he saw the Project Homeless flyer this morning and, on his way back after picking up some free food at Father Woody’s, he saw a PHC bus stopped by the roadside and decided to come here and see what he could get.
ReplyDeleteAs we were walking to Gates Field and prioritizing our schedule, Jeff told me that he needed nothing expect a job. He said he didn’t need a shelter since he “preferred staying on the streets to living in smelly shelters” and he didn’t need food stamps since he “didn’t eat much.” He told me he was the hard-working type of person and he used to have his own business and be rather well off. Though he didn’t show any self-pity of his homelessness when he was talking about his house remodeling company and that he used to be a subcontractor for Safeway, he was really obsessed with the “old glorious days” and hoping to rise again. It was surprising to see that after being homeless for years, a person could still be full of ambitions to “win his 50,000$ back.” He told me that he could easily get himself out of homelessness by moving in with his mother or a sibling or a relative as he got “518 relatives here in Colorado”. He used to support a family of 11 people and still run a good budget by stripping walls for Safeway. However, he was involved in lawsuit later and lost all of his money and tools for business. He ended up in prison for quite a few years during which time he had a terrible divorce with his wife. “Everyone thought I’m a loser,” he said, “and I’m the only homeless person in my family now.” I assume that the reason why Jeff doesn’t want to move in with a relative or even his own son is that he still can’t face the fact that he was turning from helping others to receiving help. At the same time, he has such faith in himself that he can come back to the height he was at.
So we went to the ID/Certificate area to get Jeff a Bursar’s Certificate, which, by Jeff, was necessary for restarting his business. Things went smoothly and after a few minutes talking with the lady we got every paper work went needed and Jeff was told to show up next week at some government department to get the certificate. I didn’t expect it so easy to get something done and when we were leaving for the next place, both of us were excited and seeing a productive day. We moved on to the job-seeking section and learnt that Jeff needed a resume before starting since he had never had one in his life. So we went up to the Resume Lab which was right beside the job fair and were referred to a young lady who was going to help us form a resume for Jeff. She was really skilled in guiding Jeff figuring out his advantages and putting these in his resume. For example, he had over 25-year experience working in construction and house remodeling, he had a vocational college diploma in house-building and once had his own company, which would all add to his chances getting a job. After this, we entered the job fair area and started the key part of today.
We went through several booths until we arrived at the Brown Brothers at the corner. We both stopped as we saw the company tri-fold board and learnt about their business. It’s a construction company. They build roads, factories, houses and almost anything made of bricks and concrete. It seems a perfect job for Jeff, and after filling out the forms and a short interview, the person told Jeff that someone would contact him in three days. Obviously his experience on the resume made him a desirable employee for the company.
During the whole day Jeff kept talking about his family, his sons and daughters and how they used to live happily. All the things he talked about are from a long time ago, usually in the 80s, which was his “golden time.” He said that was a prosperous time with booming industry and asked me if it was the contemporary situation in China. Though he didn’t say it, I think he didn’t see his family often, and it makes me feel so sorry him. There was also an incident when we were waiting in line for resume. The person waiting in front of us was Jeff’s wife’s nephew. They had a verbal conflict that was put out by several volunteers before things got out of control. He said his divorce was a lifelong pain. Jeff was a respectable man with good manners but he didn’t cover his ambitions at all. He told one employer at the job fair that their hour wage, 11$-14$ per hour, was too low to “restart his business,” even though he was currently homeless. He totally changed my opinion about homeless people.
As I arrived to the Richie Center around 8:10am, I walked into the Gates Field Room to look around. After seeing the different stations, Bandy and I went to check in and get into a long line to wait for a client. After waiting a few minutes, Bandy left with a Spanish speaking client and I waited in line until I was paired up with someone. The line was really long people said buses stop coming at 10. When 10am finally came and I was still in line I thought that I would not get a client to work with. Finally 20 minutes later, a few people walked up and I was paired with a nice lady that was around 42 years old. She has 2 sons, but they are grown up and she doesn’t really see them.
ReplyDeleteShe has been homeless 4 times in her life, this time because he father passed away and they sold the house. She has been staying with friends because after living on the streets for a year, she knew that she did not want to be there again. At first we filled out the paper work and she said all she wants from today is an ID and birth certificate. She was not hungry or thirsty at that time, so we walked to get into a huge line to wait for an ID. As we waited in line for an ID we talked very little. She was not much of a talker and was really shy. She told me about her 2 sons and how they have not been the best sons to have. One of them has 8 children and the other has 1. She currently lives with her boyfriend whom did not think she would actually come to PHC. He couldn’t come because he had to go to work. She has been trying to get a job for awhile, but without an ID that is not possible. We waited in the ID line until 1pm. During this wait, my client saw many friends that she has met and talked to them a little. She was very open to all her friends, but was shy towards me. After getting an ID, my client and I went to get her birth certificate. Since it was the end of the day, there was no line and we were able to receive that quicky.
One incident that my client told me about was how she was arrested and in jail for a year. She didn’t give too many details other than she would never want to go to jail again and being there was miserable. The reason for going to jail was because of a dope case. She seemed to be very nice and is trying to get her life on the right track now. She knows that she would never like to go to jail again so she won’t make those kinds of decisions any more.
My overall experience at PHC was very good. It felt good to be able to help someone that is in need. She knows what she needs to do in order to help herself and she is on the right track. Now she has an ID and birth certificate so she can finally get a job to help support her and her boyfriend. She left really excited that she can finally get a job and was very thankful for all the help. It was a great feeling leaving that day knowing that I made a difference in someone’s life.
My shift began at 7:00. After getting my name tag and clipboard, I sat on the steps and tried to mentally prepare for the day. I was in a bad mood after a long week, and then had difficulty that morning trying to park after realizing my volunteer packet was missing a parking pass. I was further annoyed when after stressing about arriving on time, I sat on the steps for at least a half hour waiting for clients to arrive. On the steps I ran into Lucia and we began talking. Her excitement for the day got me out of my bad mood and I was then prepared to help the clients. As the clients arrived, I was less surprised about the number of cell phones and mp3 players than I was about the amount of collared shirts.
ReplyDeleteI was paired with a duo of female clients. As there were two, I worked alongside another client services volunteer. Of the two ladies, one (F) was there primarily for legal services and getting a SSC. The other lady (R) said she was there primarily to support her friend and provide transportation. R did identify as homeless though and also sought legal services. The two were living in the same motel and that is how they met. F found out about PHC through "road call," from what I gathered is a rehabilitation program for felons. F was looking for legal counsel to find out whether or not she could go back to jail for not paying her restitution. She owes two grand and has only paid two hundred. She is unable to keep paying restitution and stay off the streets. She was advised that she will probably be okay. As long as she keeps making efforts towards improving her situation, the judge will probably sympathize with her and not send her back to jail for being behind on restitution payments. R wanted counsel on if she could take action against their motel owner. Her children are getting sick from mold in the motel rooms, as well losing sleep over bed bugs. R has had to pay a lot of money for prescriptions for her kids, and her children are missing a lot of school because of their illnesses. R says the owner refuses to improve the living conditions or pay her back for kids medicine. R is having a tough time besides legal trouble. She works part time as a nurses assistant at a hospital but can not find more work. Her husband got laid off and just recently sustained a fractured ankle. I was taken aback when R told me she worked at a hospital. I never imagined getting care at a hospital from a person borderline homeless. Apart from the legal counsel, R did not feel any other PHC resources were necessary for her. The rest of the time was spent with F getting her SS card. F and R went through PHC pretty quickly, and I was back on the steps before ten.
Again on the steps, I saw all these kids bringing over bikes, and then saw some people I knew from Campus Cycles. Apparently the bike shop, in conjunction with a school class, organized a bike drive, and volunteers from campus cycles tuned up the bikes for the clients so they could have transportation. I wished this was made more known, because I have a fair amount of patches, tubes, pumps, etc. I could have brought.
My next client, with whom I spent the rest of the afternoon with, was K. K is currently in a half-way house, having been released from prison a little less than two months ago. K came to PHC for the job fair. He already had all his i.d's, resume, and other things to work. K hoped to find a job in construction or a warehouse. He was excited to see Brown Brothers there. He applied there, another roofing company, and also gathered as much information as he could about other places hiring.
At first glance, K is quite intimidating. His head is shaved, his arms are riddled with tattoos, and he is very, very, muscular. At the start of the morning, he told me he was a felon. All morning I was burning to ask about his felony charge, time in prison, etc., but he seemed focused on the tasks at hand on concentrating on the future. I felt it would be rude to distract him and bring up things that he might not feel comfortable sharing. If I were in his shoes, I am positive that I would be really annoyed by having a naive DU student asking me personal questions all morning. In the end, I am glad I resisted the temptation to pry. While not concentrating on K as a hardened felon, I could better see him as an individual. In this way, I enjoyed my time with K much more than with the two ladies in the morning. K had great sense of humor and it was really great to see him enjoy PHC. He was amazed by all the services that were offered and intends to volunteer next year. I also enjoyed seeing K connect with also these people he knew there. It seemed like every ten minutes he ran into another friend looking to improve his own situation as well. It made me think about how tight knit this disadvantaged community really is. I could keep writing lots, but I think these are enough observations for now.
I had a very good day at project homeless connect. The waiting in line for about an hour and a half but once I was paired up with my people it was a very good experience. I got paired with a couple that was not exactly homeless but they were living in hotels and temporary housing. The first thing they wanted to do was to see legal services because their kids had been taken from them by the government. So I took the husband to the legal services and then me and the wife went and got some free clothes. She was super excited about getting some relatively nice clothes because she thought it could help her with her job interviews. When we were done with that we went and got her signed up with Colorado work force. She didn't have time to visit the job fair because her husband and her had to attend a parenting class. One thing that struck me was that she had only completed the 9th grade. Also she had lost her last job at a gas station because her mom was in the emergency room and she had to stay with her. The manager still fired her. This just shows how hard it is to get back on your feet when you become homeless. Even though the husband was at legal services for an hour and a half he didn't get anything done. They were so grateful for me to have helped them. It was a really good experience.
ReplyDeleteIt was a really great day in my school year. I was teamed up with an American student to service a family includes Mother and Son. The son is about 30 years old, he had worked at a warehouse for nine years. But later on he moved and he had no more jobs. We were waiting at the ID station for a long time, so we divided into two teams that I take the client to the next station and he stay in the line. I took him to the Colorado indigent care, Employment, housing, medical, and social security. He lost his Colorado identification card, which means the life is even harder for him. Every time he was trying to find a job that he got denied because of he has no identification card or driver’s license. He divorced with her wife because both of them were homeless, even they stay together for about eight years, neither of the families allow them to stay together, so he moved back to stay his mum. He almost had a chance to get rid of homeless was about two year ago that he find an opportunity that to work at a moving company of being hard labor in Las Vegas, but because of that trip he lost his identification card. As I realize from his face and his words that he was really a hard worker before. But why bad luck comes to him? He said it was first time to hear the Project Homeless Connect, in fact, they did not know the PHC until last night, they see the flyer at the street side. He had been sent to the police station and he was really in trouble at that time. He, his wife and a friend of his wife were hang out once, the friend was asking money from them and they had no money to give. The reason the friend was asking money for was to buy the drugs. Of course they had no money to give her, the result was they had been sent to the police station because the friend blamed them on stealing the car from the friend’s working place. His opinion about this was “This world is going crazy.” “Well, I have to say why the society is such unfair for him!” We had lunch together, and I really think I should do more to help him out. His case is not the only one, lots of lives maybe even harder than him, but my hands are not enough, so we really need everybody to contribute our love and time to help these people out. By the end, I asked some questions about Asia, he is very interest in Asian histories, his impressions about China was a huge nation with lots of people. It was a really good experience for me of this Friday.
ReplyDeleteOn Friday morning, as I was walking toward the Richie Center, my nervousness began. I was really excited about the day ahead, but the question remained who I was going to be paired up with. As my roommate and I approached the line to get our clipboards I was surrounded by yellow shirts, because I was wearing a blue shirt (for bilingual speakers) I felt kind of odd in that sea of yellow. The lines for the volunteers seemed to be never ending, so my roommate and I took our spot and waited. However, five minutes into the line, the guy that was in charge of pairing up people yelled “any Spanish speakers?” so I raised my hand and he pointed me in the direction of two women. I introduced myself to my client happy with the thought that I had skipped that long line. As we walked into the building I came to the conclusion that she wasn’t a Spanish speaker, nevertheless she seemed like a very nice lady and since we were already inside the building I decided that however this mistake had happened, it was alright.
ReplyDeleteMy client was there with one of her friends, and they didn’t want to be separated, so the other volunteer and I decided to stick together with these two ladies. We sat in a table and began filling all the paperwork. My client was more than willing to tell me her life story right then and there, which I found to be very impressive and surprising. After that we went directly to the tax booth, because our clients told us that they needed to apply for some sort of tax form. Since I am not very informed about taxes, I was surprised to see that our clients knew exactly which forms they needed. However, the person in the booth didn’t have the forms they were asking for, so the best she could do was to give us a pamphlet that had the address and phone number of the office she worked at.
Next, our clients wanted to seek some legal advice, so we went over to the main gym. However, on the way we encountered clothes, and like most women would do, our clients decided to take a stop. It was then that I begun to see their interactions, as they were picking clothes for one another, and often mistaking each other’s sense of style. About twenty minutes later of mixing and matching we made our way to the legal advice service. We sat down and my client began seeking some advice about being able to see her grandkids, since her situation with her daughter in law was kind of complicated. However, the lawyer only seemed to be able to give her information that she already knew. Next, we walked outside, since our clients wanted a cigarette break, that is, of course, after we stopped in the clothes section for another twenty minutes.
Once outside we all had some really interesting conversations. They shared with us about the hassles of the place were they live now, we talked to them about the university and our areas of interest. There we were, sharing stories and laughs and it touched me how people from such different backgrounds can all be united through a project such as this one. Since our clients had to leave by 10:30 because there was a bus picking them up we only had the chance to do one more service. My client chose the massage. I thought this would be a great idea, because it’s always good to pamper yourself, and living in the circumstances that they do, pampering is not always available.
On the way out, we realized that they had begun serving lunch, so we decided to make one last stop. Saying goodbye to my client and her friend was saddening in a way. In those two hours that I had spent with them, I felt as though we had made a great connection. I wanted so much to keep on helping them, to fix their situation and all the rough things that they were going through, yet I knew that I couldn’t, and that was the hardest part; letting go and realizing that I had done all that I could, at least for now.