Jen's Journal

Day 3

At 7:45 am Stacie and I returned from spending the night in the Luther Place Night Shelter. With sleepy eyes, a bit of a headache, and an aching back thanks to a cot which dipped so deeply in the middle I didn’t think I would ever get out, Tuesday had started. We as a group were supposed to be at Community of Hope – Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center by 8am but we apparently underestimated the walking time and there was no direct metro to the location. We were also unaware of the fact that spending the night in the shelter meant waiting till 7:30 for the ladies to all leave and then locking up; yet another unexpected delay. Needless to say, we arrived at our location slightly late but no harm was done, other than to our ego’s and pride, as the parents whom we were supposed to speak to were not scheduled to arrive till about 9am.

As the morning progressed, we dealt with several more unexpected moments but fortunately we had the resources and knowledge to deal with each situation. This made me think, how do the homeless deal with all the unexpected situations they encounter? If we were knew our destination was beyond walking distance we could have called a cab. Unfortunately cabs are a luxury which most homeless do not have as an option; the choice between a cab and walking could mean 3 less meals for the week. What if you had planned on taking the metro with the spare change you collected over the past few days to attend a job interview and the metro was delayed due to a crash or you underestimated the time it took to walk there? You then are late or worse yet, miss your interview which in turn makes you late for your next appointment with the food bank…it can be a viscous cycle.

As frustrated as we were Tuesday morning we were able to keep our heads held high because we knew everything would be okay at the end of the day. If we were homeless however, this probably would have been a disastrous day.