service learning log #1

Denver Rescue Mission

The week before my community service at the Denver Rescue Mission I was very excited for it. Through my whole life I have volunteered, I like helping my community to make it better. For me this is something that I like doing but also because of the sight of the smiling and the warm feeling that it brings to my heart. Yet this time it was very different. I did not volunteer myself, this way going to be part of my grade which took away the whole purpose. I like to volunteer to give back and to try to make a difference. This to me practically defeated the purpose of volunteering, because now I am getting something in return for my services.

When the day came I was somewhat nervous, not because I was volunteering at a homeless center. Though it was pretty different but because of the experiences from my peers that went before me. They said that their shift was basically prepping for dinner. They had to chop onions boxes of them and also peel potatoes, sacks of them. I was okay with everything I mean it couldn’t be that bad, I compared it with my job that I once had at Subway. There I would do practically the same thing prep for a day of sandwiches. Although it was very similar there is something that scared me. I was scared and nervous after the Monday’s class; this was when my peers that had all ready went through their service told us about their experiences. What made me nervous and somewhat scared was when they said that they had seen mice at the Denver Rescue Mission while they were doing their volunteering.

When the day came to do my part at the Denver Rescue Mission I felt awful. I felt this way because I did not want to go to this place because of my phobia to mice after sitting on the light rail for twenty minutes I realized that if it was not because of my class I would not think twice and simply avoid the situation completely. When my stop came and I got off the light rail and started walking I convinced myself that I would gain more than just a passing grade from this experience. Ten minutes later my colleague Jacquie and I arrived at our destination. The first thing we were told to do was to sign in at registration were everyone including everyone that needed their services. Then we went to the Kitchen where we were directed to the sink where we could wash our hands put some sanitary gloves on and were we could start cutting strawberries. These strawberries were apparently going to be used for toping on a cake. Later we chopped some radishes, we were to take the edges off and put them in a container. After we finished with this task the next one was to wrap sporks around a napkin as they do in restaurants, we were doing this with all of these tasks with other volunteers from the afternoon class and also with some boy scouts.

Later on while we were finishing up a very well dressed man sat with us and introduced himself. He said that he was asked by someone else to come and share what it was like to be homeless and what services they offered. His name was Joshua he seemed very nervous about sitting there with five girls explaining what life as homeless can be. Yet while we started talking and asking simple questions he would go deeply into his own life. In less than forty-five minutes he gave us the story of his life. This was more than I thought I would gain. I learned that I should not stereotype and or judge a book by its cover. Either because its cover might be nice or crappy not because of what it contains but by how good of a job the artist did. This means that it is that yes homeless people are the authors of their life but they are not the ones that portray themselves they do not paint themselves a certain way everyone sees differently. This man Joshua taught me to look at this world in a different way. It showed me how lucky I was to have a family that cares for me, and how lucky I am to have a roof over my head. His life story was amazing and so inspiring