Day 2 Hope Community Vis

Today I got to go to Hope Community for the second time. We brought several different crafts for the kids. We had crayons, coloring books, stickers, and pipe cleaners. We set up all the crafts on tables and waited for people to come. Though it took awhile we had our first family come out. This single mother had a three year old little girl and chubby little four month baby boy.  The little three year old girl was ready to go play with all these new things. Jumping from lap to lap she tried everything. Making necklaces out of pipe cleaners, plastering her paper with stickers, and attempting to color in the lines. Her younger 4 month old brother was passed from person to person. Everyone wanted to hold the adorable little boy. Eventually another mother came out with her three year old girl. At first she was very shy, but it only took a few minutes for her to join in jumping from lap to lap trying out new crafts. As we made bows, necklaces, frogs, and some drawings we had our last taker in the offer. She was a mother of two girls. One was 11 and in 6th grade and another was 19. Even though her kids were at school she enjoyed doing a few crafts on her own. She also took a few coloring book pages for her 6th grader.  She ask where we were from and we had a good conversation about her niece who graduated form our school. I had a fun time connecting to all these woman who have gone through so much.

I have learned a lot about homeless people so far this week. I have learned that it is very important not to stereotype people. Most aren't anything like the things that come to mind when we see a homeless person. Today I met a woman who is an amazing mother and she talked about traveling the world once her children are out of the house. It took me by surprise at first, and then I realized she wont be homeless forever. One day she can travel the world because she knows she can work hard and reach her dreams. Another thing I learned this week is how easy it is to become homeless. In the "game" we played yesterday I realized there were choices that would make me broke, but I'd still make them. It didn't hit me until then.