Day Four

Well, today was a slow day but still a good one. I woke up at around 7am, and we went to St. Anthony’s. Fitz talked to us today about the working poor and the ladder of society. He talked about how many people were in the middle rungs, but somehow they lost their footing and ended up on the bottom rung. Fitz also said the lowest of the low wwere immigrants because they start out with absolutely nothing, and they are still poor. After that, I did the Meals that Heal program with the Salvation Army. That’s where we bring food to people that are home bounded. I did it with Audrey, and we walked all around the Tenderloin serving meals. It was a pretty fun experience because we got to see the SROs and interact with different people. Mr. Shag, Sumner, Cristina, and Rian did it as well but separate from Audrey and me. After that part, we got back to the Salvation Army and we helped out this guy named Larry by loading clothes in a plastic bag and then putting it somewhere upstairs. We then went to St. Anthony’s and ate lunch. I ate lunch by myself today! I was nervous at first, but I felt pretty comfortable. In line to get lunch, I met this really great guy named Dennis, and he was so nice. He told me many stories about his life and how hard he worked. He told me that he had a job that started at 4pm and it would go until 4am. It was fun talking to him because he was very talkative. Then during lunch I met this other guy who called himself Frankenstein. He is the probably the funniest guy I met in the Tenderloin. He’d make fun of me in a joking manner and then he’d laugh at his own jokes with such a weird laugh. I think he was once a comedian before he ended up in the Tenderloin because he was so hilarious. Anyway, after he left, I met this woman named Gilda who was very sweet. She reminded me of the kind of resilience Fitz was talking about today. She told me that she is a drug addict, and that she’s addicted to cocaine. She is really trying to get into one particular rehab program. I hope she got in because she said she had a meeting at 1pm. I also told her about the St. Anthony’s drug rehabilitation program, and she said she’s look into it. She was a very sweet lady. I really admired her determination to get over her addiciton because she told me that her addiction is killing her. So after that, we went back upstairs and Fitz introduced us to this guy named Daniel. He elaboprated more aobut the working poor and it was kind of interesting. However, he showed us a video that was really boring (to be honest) and I did not pay attention at all. When we finished up at St. Anthony’s, we went to the produce market and we bought 2 meals for under 20 dollars. It was pretty amazing. So now I’m back at the St. Francis room and I’m writin in my journal.

Bianca Manalansan