Collage

First of all, I would like to apologize for my inconsistency. This past semester has been very hectic. There were some major decisions I had to go through and some of them are still remain undecided. Also, I was kept reminded that my so called occupation is student; therefore, I focused on what I had to do (unfortunately, it caused my inconsistency with the homeless ministry). Thankfully, Andy already mentioned about our “new trip” to Korea.

Before I write about anything, I think I should mention several incidents we have undergone. First, our plan to go to North Carolina has been changed. We ended up going to Toronto, Canada. To be honest, we changed our plan to give a break for us. However, as we “had fun” in Toronto (who doesn’t have fun there right?) we continued to seek to learn more about the homelessness. We slept on the street first night. It was raining and I probably had 1~2hours of sleep. An interesting thing about the homeless in Toronto is that they sleep right at the middle of the streets. No one ever bother them go interrupting the pedestrians. I brought my guitar wanting to try to panhandle, but I ended up just playing and singing for fun in a park right next to the Eaten Center (at least got to interact with some local people including the homeless people).

The second incident occurred on my way back to Guatemala. My flight was from La Guardia airport in New York City. For a cheaper ticket, I had to stay one night at the city. As all college students are, I am very poor so I decided to sleep at the airport. Since I had whole night at the city, I tried to interact with a homeless person whom I met at a subway station. I offered him to buy a meal. We went to a pizza place. As we walked in the restaurant, the worker frowned his face. He was quite rude while we were ordering. I disregarded him and just sat down at a table with the homeless man. I asked him his name and he said his name was Ronnie. Ronnie was born in New York City and he has a house where he lives with his children. As Ronnie finished his pizza, I told him that I am currently trying to grow awareness in my school and asked him if he is willing to have an interview with me.

Ronnie paused for a while and asked me to pay him money. I thought about it for a moment, and finally said no. He mentioned about his family waiting for him at home. I felt really bad saying no to him but I did. As we walked back to the station we met each other, Ronnie asked me how long will the interview be. I said few minutes. He reluctantly agreed to have an interview with me. I pulled out my video camera and asked him questions. After I asked him maybe three questions, he abruptly ran to somewhere else. While he was gone, a big man approached to me and asked me where Ronnie was. I told him he went somewhere else. Ronnie came back shortly. As soon as Ronnie came back, the big guy furtively showed him a bag. I instinctively realized the big guy was a drug dealer. Ronnie shook his head and said “I don’t have enough money. Come to me later.” I was shocked about what I saw. I quickly said good bye to Ronnie and walked away (it was more like me running away).

So, those are the incidents I really wanted to share. Even though I have not posted for few months, I actually kept journaling on my notebook. I would like to post some of my thoughts; however, I should finish writing about our experience in Harrisburg. 

Issac Won