Day One

June 18, 2007

Today was our first full day of immersion. We all got up at 7:00 a.m. to make sure we would have enough time before we left. We left at 8:15 to catch the bus on Haight Street that would take us into the Tenderloin. After a full bus ride, we made it to St. Anthony’s. We were first introduced to Angelina, and SI alumna. She gave us an overview of what St. Anthony’s is, who goes there, and what its mision is. She also explained some facts about the Tenderloin neighborhood. We then got our nametags and walked a few blocks to the clothing store where we had our first job. We met the director there, Trish, who showed us where the families shopped and the rules/logistics for the clothing distribution. She then took us through the furniture/utensil store and into the back room. There, we hung all of the recently donated clothes. After this, we walked back to St. Anthony’s and paired up into the lunch line. After standing in line for a while, we got our lunch, and sat in pairs at different tables. When we were done, Angelina took us on a tour of the Tenderloin neighborhood. During this, a man claiming to be a historian, gave us a brief—and colorful—description of what the Tenderloin “really” is. This was the end of our day. We took the bus back to St. Agnes and took about an hour nap—we were tired. Then we got into our dinner groups that Mr. Shaughnessy randomly chose. I was in the shopping and cooking group with Audrey, Rian, Sumner, and Theresa. We bought a spaghetti dinner for $18.00!! It even included garlic bread and corn! While we were cooking and shopping, the other group was journaling and showering. After dinner the other group washed the dishes and we went back to do our journals. Then we all got together to do a group meditation/prayer and end the night. We walked back to our room, took showers, read/played games, and got ready for bed.
Katie Nolan