Here's to Weathering

      

       The weather has been wonderful this week, in my eyes at least. I love the rain; I love the clouds, the wind and the cold. When i stepped out of my warm vehicle into the cold wet rain on Wednesday I felt like a kid again, wanting to run and jump into the first puddle I could get my feet into. I knew I would enjoy standing in the rain as i dished out bowls of soup, but I didn’t know what to expect from those waiting in the line wet and hungry. I thought there might be some hostility, some hatred and bitterness towards the cold. But, I didn’t hear any one complain about the weather. We all seemed to be enjoying out first storm of the season together, warm bowls of soup and hot tea in hand we continued on like it was any other day as the lightning lit up the sky around us. 

        As nice as the weather was to stand out in and watch the rain drops bring a new look to the dry desert around us, I realized I wouldn’t want to stand out in it all day. I loved being able to turn my heater on and warm up my feet on the drive back to my warm dry house. I realize that my love of the rain is in big part to the fact that i do not have to be in it, it is an option for me. However, for those numerous people that might not have an escape from the cold I had anticipated the opposite from their point of view, but they seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.

       It’s an easy thing to take what you have for granted on a daily basis. It’s easy to enjoy the rain storms and lightning from behind the windows of our heater blasting living rooms. Life and the many things we have in it are precious; our loved ones, our homes, our blankets, and our fuzzy socks. So, this week as we watch the wandering dark clouds that bring us that smell of the clean rain let remember to be happy for the many things we have.

Abriana Foster wrote on her expereince of volunteering with Soup and a Smile.

       The most amazing experience in the world is giving back to the community. Last Saturday, I was given the opportunity to feed the homeless with Phi Theta Kappa the honor society. Most people have forgotten that blessings are not materialistic in nature – they are simple and rare in our current society. Offering people sugar and cups for their coffee made me realize how fortunate I was to have the friends, family, and the place that I live in. It helped me to understand that it is best to appreciate what we do have and no matter how difficult things may become that it is necessary to have a great heart and to constantly give back to your community. I challenge everyone to pass on these beliefs so that the world can become a better place.

The Joy of Volunteering

     

        It’s a wide variety of volunteers we see every day at the Las Vegas catholic worker. You have the old and the young. There are grandparents, mothers, fathers, children, brothers and sisters, all types of family members. There are Students from CSN, UNLV, differing high schools, middle schools, and once in a while those in elementary. There are many different organizations, churches, charities, and service groups. There are bankers, retired principles, union workers, teachers, chefs, entrepreneurs, and even the domesticate housewives. There are volunteers from all walks of life, and it is apparent in their mannerisms, characteristics, vocabulary, and dress. But, there is one thing that brings them together; The hopes of doing something good, to share a smile, and wish to make a difference even if just for an hour, even if just to one person.  It’s great to see so many people come together and show kindness and love, especially because the many people in search of a hand or a warm meal come from all different walks of life as well. The people waiting in line with a smile every morning have done things and lived lives similar to the ones we are living, they just have stumbled, by choice or by circumstance, into something many of us have not nor will ever experience. 

        In the short amount of time it takes to help those around us that are in need we can learn many things about ourselves, about others, and about life. It is an eye opening experience and can open your mind to many things if you allow it to. Knowing that you are selflessly giving up less than an hour of your day to make a difference in the life or lives of others is a simple thing, and can be very rewarding.

       This month Shar Berroyer, Alpha Xi Beta's secretary and fulltime student shared her experience and what she thinks of volunteering with Las Vegas Catholic Worker.
 

       Soup and a Smile is an amazing event where the community can go help the Catholic Workers to serve food to the homeless.  I know that sounds very simple and like what a lot of people do but now I understand why.  You see, many of us take for granted the fact that we have homes. Many of us drive cars and we are able to pay for the insurance to do so. We know where our next meal is going to come from and we know how we are going to cook it. We also know that we have a warm bed waiting for us before we go to sleep each night. These people don’t, they don’t even know when they are going to be able to take a shower. Some people are there because they have issues and you just assume that they are unable to function in society. Some have been hit hard by the down fall of our great nation’s economy and some have just never been shown how to live. By sharing this small act of kindness it helps give them hope in a sometimes hopeless world. It is hard for me to describe how serving breakfast for these wonderful people makes me feel. It fills my heart with an amazing love for my fellow man. For me, I know that what I am doing is right and the time I spend helping these individuals is time well spent. I am a full time student, have a job and a family and like so many others I am crunched for time. In this instance time seems to go out the window and before I realize it breakfast is over and it is time to go clean up. The time I spend helping I have found does not cut into my study time or anything else that I need to do in my life. To see their smiles and to hear their “Thank you’s” is enough to bring me back week after week.



A Wanna be Photographer

Last Saturday was the infamous Pancake Day, and members of Phi Theta Kappa were there to help!

Here are a few pictures I was able to take.



Our wonderful Shar handing out nectarines.




Cynthia on chocolate milk duty!



The new loved tomato and cucumber salad.

Dustin and Abriana helping to sweeten up the coffee.

Smiles are always better!



Richard and Cynthia with chocolate milk in hand.





President Rains

     It's always fun to see if new volunteers are going to show up, and what experiences they can share with all of us volunteering with the Las Vegas Catholic Worker. We get new ideas and points of view from every volunteer and even from the many people we help out in the lines every morning. Some ideas can inspire and challenge us to want to do more, volunteer more often, come up with different ways to help others in our daily lives. But, the best thing about the ideas shared between volunteers is simply that, being able to hare our thoughts and opinions on things and feel like someone is actually listening, and that we can make a difference.

     This week's entry is from Phi Theta Kappa's Alpha Xi Beta's very own President Dustin Rains. He has done more volunteer work throughout his life than I hav room to write about in this blog entry. He strives to make a difference in the world, and in his community.

    

Were you meant to be a teacher? Were you meant to be a doctor? Were you meant to go to college? All of these decisions come back to the core point of having different opportunities. Some people are blessed with multiple opportunities in their lifetime; some don’t have it that easy.

Not everyone chooses to be homeless. People become homeless because of unemployment, death in the family or even a mental instability.

I’ve only attended Soup & a Smile on two occasions, each of them very different. As you arrive to the vacant lot on G Street and McWilliams, you start to wonder about each of the stories these folks have. What has happened to each of them? Why are they living on the streets? Is there an opportunity that you could lead them to?

I like the idea of Catholic Worker giving food to the homeless but I think the meals should be given along with other types of help.

Each day, Wednesday through Saturday, they see the same faces of people lining up for a good meal. If we continue to provide food without adding something to it, why would they ever change or turn their lives around? They have no reason to go and get a GED or apply for various programs if they aren’t given an incentive to do so.

My suggestion to Catholic Worker is to give out a hot meal every day. I’d be glad to help as much as I can. One morning a week before the meal, make them attend an information session on how to prepare the perfect resume or how to apply for different services they can qualify for and then provide them a great meal.

If people are forced to gain knowledge before they get a meal, will they show up and help themselves or will they allow themselves to starve?



You can't see his face, but thats Dustin handing out bags of candy.



Hunger Pains

This week I have pictures from the famous Spaghetti day!

The pots of spaghetti and tea.

 




She was kind enough to be my model for the day serving spaghetti with a smile.

 

Hunger:

Noun

1.      A compelling need of desire for food

2.      The painful sensation or state of weakness caused by the need of food: to collapse from hunger

3.      A shortage of food; famine

4.      A strong or compelling desire or craving: hunger  for power

Most of us have been lucky enough to have never experienced the excruciating hunger that the numerous homeless people in our community do. The embarrassing growl that our stomachs release during the school test or meeting with the boss is not the hunger that I am referring to. It is the hunger that leaves you weak and tired, the horrible pain that leaves you sitting or laying helpless waiting for the warning signal your brain and stomach are sending you. This pain I know I have never experienced, I have been “starving” at times because I had neglected to feed myself for a longer period of time than usual. But, I have never gone a day without food, let alone having to do that more days of the week than not. Hunger is an issue in so many people’s lives, one that can lead them to do almost anything to stop the ear shattering grumble of their stomachs.

This entry is from a volunteer who will stay anonymous, an entry that I feel is extremely deep and moving. It made me stop and think, and I hope it does for you as well. 

  

 

Hunger Pains

I pause to feel the emptiness of my stomach. The pain and movement of hunger will soon pass, I tell myself. With each wave, the body becomes smaller and more beautiful. Discipline.

The rotting hole in my stomach feels strong today. I brace myself for it to pass, focusing my mind on other things. Each shock of hunger that I can sustain, allows me to give the little food I have to my two babies. Discipline.

The belt wrapped around my waist needs another hole. Soon, I will need new clothes. My profile is straight, flat, thin. In control.

My jeans barely stay up anymore. I wonder if the mission can give me a belt. The children are cranky, poor things.

Breasts once were all you saw. Large. Shrunken down to nipples and flesh. Feels unfeminine. I once had curves.

Nourishment, sustenance once came from these breasts. I should have four more months of breast-feeding left. Nothing. Shriveled and dry. My baby’s nutrients gone. I could once provide for them.

My heart thumps loudly in my chest. Its strained efforts to keep me alive are frightening. I pause to walk up steps, afraid of the blackness that often enters my sight. Zooming in and carefully zooming out, the floor closer to my face than ever before. Will I survive this? How did this happen?

My heart aches in the hole of my chest. Panic, fear, loss, broken. My children have stopped screaming from their hunger. The silence of their emptiness is haughtily worse. There is no energy left for them to scream out their injustices. Will we survive? How did this happen?

Hunger.

Everyone Has A Story of Their Own to Tell

   

     Today as I was driving home from Las Vegas Catholic Worker’s Kitchen I saw one of the guys from the soup line. This man is always so polite and genuinely thankful; it can be seen in his eyes.  He has a bright shining smile that he shares with me every morning in the line, a smile that lights his face behind its mask of hair. I have never had a bad encounter or day with him, he always puts a smile on my face as he leave. We have only shared a few sentences, a simple hello, a good to see you, and the unspoken happiness that shines through his face. But as I was driving home I saw him standing by the road; I thought he was waving at me but as I got closer to him I realized he was talking to someone, there was no one around him. He was not angrily shouting at the passing wind, but looked as If her were having an ongoing conversation, as if someone were standing before him sharing their thoughts and ideas and listening to his in return. 

     A feeling began to gradually sink in and grab hold in my heart. Any day hundreds of cars pass by him, and I am sure they judge him and make assumptions as to why he is talking as if he is having a conversations. I am sure harsh words are thought and expressed, and it hurt to know so. I do not know this man, I don’t even know his name, but I know him enough to care about him. I would not want any one making assumptions and saying rude things to the ones I love, and this is what happens to him.

     I bet his story is a good one. I bet when he was young he had dreams like all of us do; I bet he was even happier than I know him to be today. It made me wonder what his story is. I wanted to know why he lives on the street and talks as if there is someone near him. When I see him on the line he does not talk to whatever or whoever it is he feels he is talking to. He does not seem like he is a ranting lunatic, and when he talked to what he does he seems to be fully engaged in the conversation.

     It is wrong for us to judge him and think we know what he has faced and what he is going through, because we are wrong if we do so. There is no way to know if the loss of a loved one, the hardships of a childhood, or hatred and criticism have led him to the path he stands on today. But I feel like I want to know, I want to know if he is talking to a long lost loved spouse, or a friend he made up a long time ago, or even a former version of himself. I want to be able to understand rather than feel like I should feel sorry for him, or judge him.

     I heard a quote a few days ago by Elbert Hubbard “To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” Many people feel this way about the homeless in our society, that they are nothing or that they choose to be nothing. But still they are criticized. So that must mean that they are something, they are someone, someone that matters to someone else. And that has to count for something; people should not treat the homeless and needy with disdain, rather put out a kind helping hand because we do not know their story. And I can only assume we would want others to know our own story before they make such harsh judgments.    

    

Lonely and feeling detested he stands unaided waiting

His balding hair knotted and soiled.

Pitifully he looks into the hundreds of cars passing

His dirty misshapen hands reaching for help.

Looks of disgust and hatred he bows his head from

Harsh words strewn out of the cold windows passing.

Words he has long ago grown accustom to.

His face burnt and full of worried weathered lines

Hardened to the world he looks to for kindness.

The flashing lights turn on as he is handed a simple piece of produce

Greedily his dirty hands and mouth work to devour it.

He is sent away once again rejected

To find another place to beg.

Somewhere else to seek a helping hand.

Slowly with a head weighed down

Shoulders slumped he limps away

Filled with hate, pain and rejection.

Slowly my once full, bright and hopeful heart

Disintegrates and darkens with the

Lack of love and kindness in the world.

Slowly I become the dejected.

A First Time Volunteer

Phi Theta Kappa members keeping their smiles after volunteering with Soup and a Smile for Pancake Day.

     This was an exciting week for Soup and a Smile. On Wednesday ribs were served to the twenty or so homeless men invited to the house to shower, do laundry, have a great lunch, and relax in a home with friendly company. On Thursday we had five special guests from Nebraska. I have forgotten the names of these five awesome people, but not their story. They came to Las Vegas to celebrate one of the woman’s birthday, when they arrived here the birthday girl got onto the computer to find somewhere in Vegas they could give back to. It was amazing to me that on her birthday trip to Las Vegas she went of her way to fins somewhere to volunteer, and to pick one that they would have to get up so early to do. They were extremely joyful and fun to be around. On that day we had about 10 people come back to the kitchen, so I asked if they wanted to help separate and make tea bags for the next morning’s tea. They happily obliged and I got to hear their fun conversation, and learned that they were here celebrating a birthday. I found their story extremely heartwarming, and knew it had to be shared.


     Saturday was the ever popular Pancake Day, the menu was huge. There were of course pancakes, sausage, and hash browns as the main dish. Along with those delicious mouth watering dishes there were Starbucks pastries, cakes, croissants, candies, milk, tea, and all the toppings; butter, syrup and salsa. The best part was the number of volunteers that were present, we estimated about thirty showing up and volunteering. The members of Phi Theta Kappa were there to serve with a smile, and had a great first time volunteering as a group. It was exciting to start a new project with Phi Theta Kappa and there was a healthy turn out, one we only expect will grow. There were so many people that a few of us got to walk around and talk with some of the many people that were there. It was a great experience seeing so many come to help those that are in need and do it with a smile on their faces, even if it was a little too early for some.

     This weeks entry is from Angie Robinson, my sister and hard working student at CSN. It was nice being able to get her involved in volunteering on a special event day. She works late nights, so waking up after only three hours of sleep was a little taxing on her, but I believe she is happy she did so.

     I volunteered for the “Peace of Cake” event for the organization Soup and a Smile on July 1st. It is a service provided to the homeless to give them a hearty meal to begin their day. It was the first time I had ever volunteered for a soup kitchen service. I had no idea what to expect. These people who were there to eat were unfortunate in their lives; somehow, somewhere they fell into this hardship. They were so grateful for the food provided as well as a nice “Good Morning!”



     They patiently wait for the tables to be set up and the food to be opened, uncovered and presented on the little white tables. They form into very neat conformed rows of what is most important to them. Some of them want a steaming cup of hot tea, or a refreshing cup of ice cold water, or even an old water bottle that needs a filling, while others want their first pick of a special doughnut or a particular type of muffin. They quietly move to the other lines after they give their grateful “thank you.” There are some that wait until others have eaten and stand in line again to get extras for themselves as well as their families who they left in “their comfortable place.” re


     Many of us take advantage of the fact that we have not just three but as many meals a day as we want. We have refrigerators full of food that half the time spoils because we don’t eat it fast enough. Las Vegas is one of the most obese cities in America because we over indulge in whatever foods we feel like eating; they are grateful to get any food they can into their stomachs. We take advantage of the fact that we have running water and can drink when we are thirsty any time of day or night we please; they do not have the same commodities and privileges.


     They do not have homes, or a place to call their own. They are harassed and shooed away from places that they are just trying to get comfortable in (as comfortable as one can be in 115 degrees.) They do not have places to wash themselves nor their clothing and are not able to use public restrooms without being criticized and watched. They cannot afford to buy something at convenience stores so they cannot use the store restrooms. They have no means of transportation to get to and from the little dirt parking lot where they receive their food, drinks, and occasional clothing so they must find shelter close by (within walking distance.)


     I believe that every volunteer that comes here feels sympathy for the homeless. I think that most realize how lucky or fortunate they are to have what they have: comfortable homes, with air conditioning and heating, warm beds, bathrooms, and kitchens, as well as transportation and the opportunity to eat whenever they feel like it.


     I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to serve others to take advantage of their free time and help someone in true need. The feelings you get alone from the experience is unexplainable. The truly grateful smiles you receive are more than enough to make you happy all day. It is a feel good service that I was privileged to be a part of.

Angie serving tea and a smile.