The group I went with to do service in the city stayed at a home called the Hubbard House. The house used to be a convent and was transformed into a home where volunteers and others stay. The house is named after Joe Hubbard. He is a man that has done a lot for the city since he was a teenager. There is a story about Joe getting mugged, and when the mugger saw the ID in the wallet and who it was he mugged, he went back and helped Joe up and apologized for mugging him. That is how well known he is in the city amongst the people in poverty and homeless.
Two doors down from the house is a school called the Sister Thea Bowman Catholic School. In this school, students are from a variety of families, but they are 100% African American. The students study, learn violin, learn art, and also learn ballroom dancing. In a classroom, 1/3 of the students don't have fathers due to them being in prison or from deaths. There is one story of a girl that Sister Marge, a wonderful lady that is in charge of the Hubbard House, told us. This second grade girl's name is Chloe. She lost her mother when she was 3 years old. Her aunt and aunt's boyfriend have been taking care of her since then. Chloe relates better to adults. Sister Marge said that it is like she is an adult trapped in a 7 year old's body. While we were at the school observing and helping out, I sat with her class at lunch, and she kept asking me if I would be her mom for the day. Just knowing the background of her made me wonder what her life is like to know that she doesn't have her mom with her. One of the other girls on our trip said that last year Chloe asked her where her mom was, and Chloe answered her own question by pointing up.
While we were in the city, we did homeless patrol and handed out 58 lunches to the homeless in the city. Paulyn was the lady that took us around to find the people that were on the streets and needed food. While she was driving us around, we looked under some bridges, and she showed us where some people slept. I was stunned at what I saw. They are literally sleeping right underneath the road under a major highway in ESL. I don't even know how they could sleep under there. She also told us about how people keep convincing the police that it is illegal to be homeless. So, when the police pick up the homeless, they bring them out of the city limits and drop them off, but it is also illegal for people to hitchhike. The system sets them up to fail. Also while we were on homeless patrol, we gave food to a man that goes by Wolf. He was talking to Paulyn about how he got jumped and lost his ID and that he needed to get a new one, but he didn't have his birth certificate. But to get his birth certificate, he needed an ID which he didn't have. It's set up for them to fail.
There is so much more I have to tell about the city, but I need to get to my homework. The one last story I have to tell deals with how much I saw God in the city and in everything we did. When we were at the soup kitchen, I went to eat my lunch and sat with a man named Allen. I wasn't quite sure how to start the conversation, but he just jumped right in and asked about what our group was doing in the city and where we were from. After we got through that topic, I asked him if his parents lived around ESL, but he answer saying that they were in the cemetery. I then asked him if he had any siblings, and he said that he had two sisters but they are gone too. I wasn't quite sure what to say. He then asked me, and this I will never forget, "What do you do when you don't have any family left? I guess you pray a little harder." I was amazed at how much faith he had even though he literally had nothing. He had no family and was homeless, but he had God.
