I have been missing my team members lately. I miss their hearts and their kindness. I miss how well we all meshed together. How much we laughed. Oh, and laugh we did.
Here's a video of Elizabeth. This girl makes me laugh. Lots:
She doesn't like to be confrontational or angry. She laughs continually. Geoff thought having her say "I'm so angry" would help her. Well...it did help for an entertaining bus ride.
Geoff and Elizabeth and I had a fun experience in downtown London our last night:
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A Downtown Chicago Experience
This past weekend I had an interesting experience that keeps getting played over and over in my brain. I was sitting in downtown Chicago on a bench waiting for my bus to come to bring me back home. I had just come off a great weekend that involved very little homework, so I pulled out my book to read, put in my iPod and starting getting in the groove. All of a sudden I heard a guy walking up to me. He called out before approaching me and didn't want to scare me at all. I think the first thing he told me, and repeated numerous times, was that he wasn't a street person, that he had a $34/hr job as a plumber, and that he needed help. His truck tire had a hole in it, he needed to run to the nearest BP to buy the right stuff to patch the hole, and he didn't have any cash on him or his card to get cash from the nearby ATM. He asked if I wouldn't mind borrowing him some cash and if I gave him an address, he would send it back to me.
I ended up taking $60 out of the ATM and refusing to get paid back. Instead I gave him my Mocha Club url and told him to give the money back to Mocha Club. To join my team if he wanted. That Mocha Club and my trip was the reason I would ever do something like this. I sincerly hope he does it.
I know many hearing/reading this will think I am stupid. Giving a complete stranger $60? Would you think I was more stupid if that stranger was homeless and couldn't afford to give anything back? Probably. It doesn't bother me that he may never return the favor to me. It doesn't bother me that I will never see that money again.
What haunts me a little bit about the whole experience is how he felt the need to assure me over and over that he wasn't homeless. That he had a good job. That he was trustworthy. Isn't it sad that the first thing he said to me was that he wasn't homeless and had a job so I wouldn't be afraid for him to approach me? What kind of country do we live in that the meer fact that someone doesn't have a roof over their head means they are dangerous? That we are more willing to help out someone who has an 8-5 job than someone who doesn't and who needs our help more? When did we all get so freaking cautious and judgemental that we don't help those in need of it?
In all honesty, I have been waiting to give back to the community. I know that fella thinks I helped him out a lot. But I felt so grateful to be in the position to help someone out, to make an impact no matter how small, and to genuinely care about a stranger. That was who I was in Ethiopia. I'm not allowed to be that very often here at home. I am judged for it. I am thought to be unsafe and stupid if I talk to a homeless person. If I smile at someone. When did we forget that the other humans walking next to us are humans as well? That they have names and stories and deserve to be recognized.
I'm sorry if this post came off as harsh or condenscending. I don't mean it to be at all. This is not how I think everyone else should feel but how I personally feel. I only write it to share my feelings.
I ended up taking $60 out of the ATM and refusing to get paid back. Instead I gave him my Mocha Club url and told him to give the money back to Mocha Club. To join my team if he wanted. That Mocha Club and my trip was the reason I would ever do something like this. I sincerly hope he does it.
I know many hearing/reading this will think I am stupid. Giving a complete stranger $60? Would you think I was more stupid if that stranger was homeless and couldn't afford to give anything back? Probably. It doesn't bother me that he may never return the favor to me. It doesn't bother me that I will never see that money again.
What haunts me a little bit about the whole experience is how he felt the need to assure me over and over that he wasn't homeless. That he had a good job. That he was trustworthy. Isn't it sad that the first thing he said to me was that he wasn't homeless and had a job so I wouldn't be afraid for him to approach me? What kind of country do we live in that the meer fact that someone doesn't have a roof over their head means they are dangerous? That we are more willing to help out someone who has an 8-5 job than someone who doesn't and who needs our help more? When did we all get so freaking cautious and judgemental that we don't help those in need of it?
In all honesty, I have been waiting to give back to the community. I know that fella thinks I helped him out a lot. But I felt so grateful to be in the position to help someone out, to make an impact no matter how small, and to genuinely care about a stranger. That was who I was in Ethiopia. I'm not allowed to be that very often here at home. I am judged for it. I am thought to be unsafe and stupid if I talk to a homeless person. If I smile at someone. When did we forget that the other humans walking next to us are humans as well? That they have names and stories and deserve to be recognized.
I'm sorry if this post came off as harsh or condenscending. I don't mean it to be at all. This is not how I think everyone else should feel but how I personally feel. I only write it to share my feelings.
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