Stop! No - Don't End!

September 29

Sometimes I want this experience to be over and other times I don't want it to end. Today was frustrating, sad and I laughed the hardest that I have laughed during my whole trip. I have mixed feelings about my new assignment at Hirsch - it is SO huge- maybe 1,200 people - and today it was VERY chaotic. I sort of liked the cosines of Southern and the way it was possible to be in touch with everything that was going on. This shelter is different, there are clothing rooms for men, women and children, a baby food room, a baby supplies room, toiletries room and a shoe hallway. The floor of the arena is mapped out with the streets of New Orleans in tape and people have pretty cozy bed setups - including some people with two air mattresses or actual mattress sets. But grated they are VERY close to each other.

It is weird to not know any of these clients and to fell as if i had gotten comfortable and familiar with the others but not to know these people at all. Just in the few days we were at Southern things had become predictable and normal in some ways. You knew who would smile at you and chat with you. Who might be cranky. Which kids would listen and mind and who would not. Familiar. Now back to the unfamiliar.

So much of this experience has been about that - stretching and moving beyond the unfamiliar- trying new things and meeting new people. Opening myself up to new experiences. I am so blessed to have had this opportunity to grow and change. To meet people and see things that I hadn't before.