Second Day at St. James

As Leo Tolstoy has written in Anna Karenina, all happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Before this trip, all those unhappy people and unhappy families meant nothing but those who always wandered in the streets either drinking alcohol or had already been drunk. Now that today I got an opportunity to meet the people that are suffering from poverty and homelessness, there was nothing I could regret more than of not having helped those poor people earlier in my life.

Since St. James Food Pantry is located near Chinatown, around 80% of our clients were from China.  I was at the front door greeting them and sometimes doing some translation, however, most of them did not speak Mandarin which made everything more difficult. They arrived there one hour earlier before the service started. With all the free food they wanted, some clients became crazy and the part which Yi and Cathy were in charge of became a little out of control at that time. I could tell that they got terrified whenever someone was near their food or telling them you could only have one.

I will not say they were rude. I guess poverty has changed them into who they are.

Nevertheless, as we have talked during our Reflection tonight, I met a middle-aged man today and he asked me for two numbers. I told him that one person only got one, he told me without shame that his wife was parking their car and she needed one number too. I was shocked at that moment but I was not the one to judge if they really needed the food or not. I could not turn them down.  On the contrary, an old lady who could hardly walk and a man who walked with his ankle had to walk all the way there. I could not imagine how long it would take them to walk back with all the heavy food or how difficult it would be, or I would just say that I am too afraid to even think about that.

I remember opening the door for one of the clients. He was so happy after getting his food. When I said have a good day to him, he said 'Thank you and that was a beautiful smile' to me. I saw his beautiful smile too and was so happy about what the Food Pantry has been doing for them.

We had a busy morning. I greeted 65 clients, Shayla and Yi helped 13 clients with their lunches, others of us packed hundreds of bags and tried their best to serve the clients even though they did not speak the same language. During dinner Sara said that our group seemed smaller and smaller because we were becoming closer and closer. Even though when Alex wanted to high-five with me the other day I stared at him wondering why he called my name, we feel all the same when we help with people and care about them without any culture barrier.

I remember yesterday when Alex said 'we are like a family now' and I was like, come on Alex, we already are.

-----------------------------Kat (Qianru Huang)