What we did was we road with Angelas mom again and we finished the toy room that we were wroking on. We had to clear out this room full of toys and we just had to make a path way or something to open the door and get thru. Then we took some new toys to the play room to update the play room with new toys. While we were doing that this little boy came and i handed him a truck and he started playing with it and talking baby talk.
I must say that I really enjoyed when Ricky and Stuart came to talk to us today. By having Ricky tell us his story I learned first hand one way that someone could become homeless. He told us why he became homeless and how he struggled with his alcohol addiction and basically lost everything. It was one time when his daughter really told him that she was worried and he saw how torn apart she was. That made him want to change the way he was. He went to Guiding Light Mission where he received help and treatment for his alcohol addiction. He told us that every day is a struggle for him and how its very hard to abstain from it. I have a lot of respect for Ricky because he went though something so hard and is still keeping at it. I also really appreciated how much Ricky cared about us. Most of us were strangers to him and he still wanted to help us realize the dangers of alcohol so that we wouldn't have to go through what he did and so that we wouldn't end up where he was. I thought that that was very thoughtful of him and I really enjoyed having both of them come talk to us.
Before today I already knew that homelessness could happen to anyone at anytime, but only because of medical bills or job loss. Now, since Ricky talked to us, I know that it could be for bad decisions we make in our lives right now. It could be drugs, alcoholism, basically any addiction there is out there. So that was something I learned. And then something that moved me is how much someone's decisions effect the people they love. Even if you don't think anyone cares, they do, and they want to help. But when you're addicted to something that becomes all you care about, so all you're doing is pushing your support system away without even knowing it. The most powerful thing I learned from Ricky's talk today is that one bad decision can ruin your whole life. One drink of alcohol, one cigarette, can lead to a whole life of more bad decisions, which lead to even worse things. So make your decisions wisely.
I have been very grateful for this class mainly because my entire outlook on homelessness and homeless people has changed dramatically. When we were talking about stereotypes the other day all I was thinking about what how a week ago, that was me. I thought all homeless people were lazy alcoholics. Even though that stereotypes does still hold true for some homeless people I really have realized that for most homeless people that's not the case. Some homeless people could be any old Christian like me with a house and a family and children and then all of a sudden something would happen like an illness where they had to pay hospital bills and they lost their house. Knowing that that could happen to anyone really has changed how I look at homeless people, how they didn't want to be homeless and not all of them are lazy and some of them are actually really trying to change their situation.
Today is the fifth day that we have been at Shepherds of Independence. Most of the days that we have been there we have cleaned mostly everything in the building. We've been hard at work sweeping, mopping, and cleaning windows. It's not what I pictured doing at a shelter. I thought that we would be working more with the residents instead of cleaning. I'm disappointed that we haven't interacted more with the residents but what I'm doing there is helping them in more ways then I know. Many of the residents are extremely thankful that we are there cleaning the building. Many of them have said that the building has needed it for a long time. Even though we haven't done much with the residents this experience is opening my eyes and I'm extremely thankful for that.