I know nothing about the homelessness 2

                                                   Seoul City

           I was scared, and terrified that I could not think anything. Really, I could have just took a bus or a train and leave. But at that moment, I must have believed that I was homeless – I thought I had nowhere to go.

            I kept looking for the old man, but I failed to do so. While looking for the old man, I found another man sitting on the other side of the stairs. I walked up to him and asked if he saw the old man I was with.

“He went down that way.”He pointed toward the opposite side of the station. “I have never seen you before. Where is your hometown?”

I answered him that I am from Incheon city. Then he asked: “Why are living out here?”

            He thought that I was homeless. I hesitated whether I should lie or tell the truth and finally, I told him the truth. When I told him the truth, he seemed mad.

“Don’t even dare to dream about experiencing the homelessness. It sucks.”

He almost yelled as he was saying the words. He was not mad at me, but it seemed like he was mad about his life.

“It is really dangerous out here. People steal things from each other and even hurt each other.”

He pointed at his teeth. He did not have 4 front teeth.  

“Do you see this? I lost them from fighting someone on the street. Fighting is very common here. Let me tell you a story, not too long ago, a drunken homeless woman stabbed three people with her knife in front of Seoul station. Out of those three, two were not homeless. Lots of people here carry knives in their coats.” And then he showed me a scar on his neck and continued.

“Someone I don’t even know tried to stab me while I was sleeping. That’s street life. If you have anything curious about it, just ask me and go back to you home.

I was frightened. This feeling was similar to the feeling I had when I was in New York City witnessing Ronnie (a homeless guy I met there) attempting to buy drugs from a dealer. Later, when the man calmed down, I asked him the reason he is out on the street.

“I became homeless during the IMF. I used to own a clothes factory and had 35 employees under me.”

            Soon after the homeless man finished his words, a man halted as he approached to us. I looked up and saw him coming toward us. The man stopped right in front of us and greeted to the man whom I was talking to. The man did not have focus on his eyes and he was rocking his body back and forth. He looked at me and said:

“Do you want a cigarette?” He lifted his right hand toward the pocket on his left chest. Then I realized that his hands were bloody that I could not even tell the shape of his hands.”

I told him that I don’t smoke but I could not make an eye contact since I was intimidated.  

“Do you really want to experience the homelessness? This is the reality kid!” The homeless man whom I was talking to shouted as he pointed at the man in front of us.

“Have you ever seen anyone dead? I was on the streets for 4 years and I don’t remember the number of people I saw dead. People who I drink with yesterday die today. I look like a tough guy right? But this life on the street makes me cry so many times.”  

I was speechless. I was just dumbfounded from the shock. The guy who tried to give me a cigarette went on his way. After he went, there was a few minutes of silence. Finally, I opened my mouth and asked him if he wants to eat something.

            “I wish to drink some alcohol. Can you get me some?”

I said I couldn’t and I told him I can get food for him. But he refused and asked for a bottle of soda. I ran to a store nearby and bought him a bottle of soda.

“Many people on the street cannot eat well. They drink too much alcohol and now their stomach cannot handle food well. Some people throw up if they eat. One time, I could not eat for 22 days and went to a hospital.” He said after he had a sip of the drink.

I asked him why don't people quit drinking then.

“You cannot live on the streets without drinking. That will be too harsh. You must drink to bear it.”

I asked him what would be a good way to help the homeless.  

“The homeless people have problems too. They should not make others uncomfortable. There are homeless people who pee inside Seoul station or even poop. But other people have problems too. One time, a worker in Seoul Station pushed a homeless on a wheel chair to kick the person out of the station. Unfortunately, the homeless person fell from the stairs and died. What’s more maddening is that the worker was determined as an innocent person at the court.”

 That was an appalling story. I asked him if anyone attempted to have a conversation in order to understand him.

“There have been some people who gave me food here and there, but for past 4 years, there has not been a single person who tried to talk to me. That’s for sure.”

For other people, the homeless were merely animals in the zoo who can be content only with food.

I asked him one more time if I can stay with him for one night to learn about the homelessness. He firmly said “No” and said that I must go back. I thought for awhile and eventually came back home. On the way back, I kept thinking whether I should have stayed or not. However, I came to a conclusion that I need to find a homeless who is willing to accept me to his daily life before I do anything. I will keep looking for the one as long as I am in Korea. Pray for me.

Issac Won

I know nothing about the homelessness 1

            My heart was pumping like crazy. I was sweating and tentative to walk forward. As I was getting closer to Seoul Station, my mind was spinning and changing thoughts hundred times per second. Tonight, I planned to sleep outside on the street with the homeless. Andy decided not to join me since such action could cause him some legal problems; moreover, he is too noticeable among the homeless in Korea where there are no white homeless people.

            I wandered around to find a homeless man to whom I can connect with. I figured that it would be meaningless to just sleep outside by myself since I would not be able to learn anything about the homeless. In fact, I was looking for someone like Greg (my homeless friend in Harrisburg, PA) who is willing to help me to learn about the homelessness. It was not easy. Many people were drunk and mentally unstable. It was almost to the point where I could not really distinguish between the homeless and simply drunk people.

            Finally, I saw an old man sitting on the stairs near the main gate of Seoul station. I approached to him and asked if he wanted anything to eat.

“I don’t need anything to eat. I just need water. Could you get me some water?” the man said politely.

I ran to a convenient store in the station and brought him a bottle of water and I discreetly sat next to him.

“Did you eat yet? Do you want some of my kimbab?” He asked me as he showed me his kimbab (it is a Korean dish that resembles much like Sushi rolls)

I told him that I am not hungry then he started to eat. While I was sitting with the old man I could notice the pedestrians looking at me weirdly. Maybe after he had 3 pieces of kimbab, he stopped eating.

“I can’t eat anymore. My stomach hurts.” The man said in pain and he continued: “My stomach cannot handle much food.”

We were sitting down together for like an hour. I asked him various things including the reason he is on the streets. The old man became a homeless about a month ago because he could not work anymore. His children are living far south of Korea; therefore, he rarely gets any help from them. After awhile, I carefully asked him if he can help me out to experience the homelessness in Korea.

“No.. I am afraid I cannot help you.” The old man said with his confused look and said: “I like to be alone.”

I tried to convince him but I couldn’t. He was saying that it is illegal to be with a young man (which is clearly a lie). I gave up to convince him and asked him where I can get cardboard boxes. He told me the location and I went there telling him that I will be back soon.

            When I came back, the old man disappeared. The sky was already dark, and I did not know what to do. I felt like I was abandoned. I have been to Seoul station perhaps more than 100 times since I came to Korea but the place looked too different for me tonight. It was cold, hostile and grotesque.

Issac Won

Stories from the streets of Seoul

            One thing that frustrates us the most is the transportation. Since our home is too far away, there is only one train per hour that travels between our home and Seoul. I remember one day when we had to run to catch the train. As soon as we got to the train station, we saw the train leaving. When we realized that we had to wait for another hour, Andy suggested to take a homeless person out for dinner. We walked toward the main gate of Seoul Station and on our way, I found two homeless people seating on the floor. An old man wore grey clothes and another man wore a grey and red shirt. Andy and I approached to them and asked if they had dinner.

            “No. But I am fine.” One guy said as if he was suspicious of us.

I had to persuade him that we wanted to buy them something. After ten times of asking, finally, they came along. Since we did not want to take them to a restaurant where we wanted to go, I asked if they had any preferred place to eat.

            “People like us do not deserve to choose. We eat whatever. Just go wherever you want to.” The man in a grey and red shirt said as he was waiving his hands.

            “We had dinner already so it is your pick. Just tell us whatever you want to eat.” I replied.

            “Uhmmm… what I want to eat is quite expensive though… I want to eat… fried chicken.” The man in grey shirt finally opened his mouth tentatively.

            All of us walked to a nearby fried chicken place. The man in grey, Andy and I walked in and sat down inside the restaurant; however, the man in red and grey shirt stood outside. I went out to take him inside.

            “Why aren’t you coming in?” I asked in wonder.

            “I smell bad and I look really dirty and shabby. If I go in, it will make the people inside uncomfortable.” He said with a smile on his face and again, he waived his hands as a sign of mild refusal to go in. Then, I have noticed that he only had his thumb on his right hand.

I almost tried to drag him in telling him it is ok. He, finally, came in reluctantly and sat with us.

             The owner came to us and had to verify that the homeless people were our companion. When I said ‘yes,’ the owner did not seem pleasant but I tried not to care about him. We ordered fried chicken and French fries. As we were waiting for the food, Andy and I conversed with the homeless people.

            “I used to make $ 10,000 a month.” The man in grey started the conversation. Then he continued: “I owned a small construction office and made tons of money. But, when I became sick, my children put me in a monastery saying that I need some metal care and took all my money and ran away. I don’t know where they are.”

The story stunned me and literally, my month did not close for few seconds. I did not know what to say to him other than sorry to hear that. Really, I was sorry for him. While listening to the man in grey, the food we ordered came out. I put one piece on each of us’ plates. To follow the Korean table manner, I waited until the older people (homeless people in this case) to eat first. However, the guy in grey and red shirt did not start eating. I asked him if he does not like chicken.

                        “No, I like chicken. I am just waiting for you to eat first.” The man in grey and red shirt responded.

When he asked me to eat first, I have noticed that his self-esteem is extremely low. He was recognizing himself as a lower being than I am. This is a big humiliation in Korean culture. I could not believe that an older person like him would humble himself like that.

            Once we finished the chicken, we walked back to the station together and said good bye to each other. Those two homeless men did not stop saying ‘sorry’ to us. I did not understand why they had to be sorry to us but soon, I realized that they think they made us to waste our time.

After that day, we encountered the guy with red and grey shirt several times. Every time we met him, he said: “Sorry about the other day.” It seems like the homeless people here are completely dehumanized.

          

Issac Won

Volunteering and beyond

            The director of Chun-ae homeless shelter introduced us to another place where needs more help. The place was called ‘Da si suh gi’ which means ‘standing up again.’ In Korea there are only three organizations like Da si suh gi in which homeless people can get housing, food, clothes and many other things they need to be resettled.

            Like Chun-ae homeless shelter, Da si suh gi was located in a hard place to find. When I heard about this place from the director of Chun-ae homeless shelter, I pictured a big building; however, I soon realized that I was wrong. The building of the drop in center was small and shabby. Sumin, Andy and I went in and met a person who was told about us through the director of Chun-ae homeless shelter. He led us to his desk in the office and introduced himself. His name was Jung Jae Lee and he was a full time worker. Jung Jae informed us about the place and his expectations from us.

“I will assign you to work at the soup kitchen. We do have an out-reach team but we do not want you to work there. If we put you in the team, you will most likely build friendships; however, you will end up be leaving the country, and that friendships might leave scars to the homeless.” Jung Jae had a “sorry look” on his face as he was explaining us the reason we got the soup kitchen jobs.

When Jung Jae told us about the reason, I was astonished. I never thought about people being hurt from not continuing the friendship. This realization made me to ponder upon the power and importance of friendships.

Since then, we volunteered numerous weeks. Luckily, we were able to join foreign volunteers on the Fridays and Sundays. For Andy at least, this meant a lot because he was able to connect with people who have similar back grounds. Frankly, Andy has been going through hard times as he was encountering new things in Korea. I ask you to pray for him.

Issac Won

Why should we even bother with the homeless?

“Homelessness is not a problem. There are economic, starvation, drug, and alcoholic problems which could lead to homelessness. Homelessness, however, is the result of multiple problems.” 

I think it was during January, someone from Messiah College asked me to write something about homelessness. I asked her where my essay would be posted. She said “the toilet booths around the campus.” I thought it was great; therefore, wrote a 500 words short essay about homelessness. The quote above is the sentence I concluded my essay with which I will belabor throughout this journal.

Maybe I am not an expert on Homelessness. I do not care if I am or not. Why? Because what I care is the homelessness not my expertise or title on it. Because I care about homelessness, I would like to jot down some of my thoughts based on my year long observation (strictly less than a year).

From my experiences with the homeless people, I was able to realize what the quote means. There is no one solution to homelessness and we need to take care of each person with love. Since homelessness is not a one simple thing that can be approached in one way, we need many different types of people. We will need economists, social workers, doctors, and so on to cure homelessness. However, there is a something that is most dire to be fixed.

Biggest “problem” I saw from the homelessness is devoid of love. People are scared of the homeless and in some extreme cases, people abominate the homeless. Sometimes, even non-profit organizations treat the homeless like pets they have to train. 

Often times, we call the Bible “The book of love.” Love, indeed, is the gist of the Bible. The Bible teaches us to love each other as Christ did. In my personal opinion, God left us a huge assignment in which we have to apply the lesson from the Bible – homelessness. To make all these jargons simpler, the Bible is saying that it is a Christian duty to help the homeless with love.

I have seen people who say “I don’t feel like I am called to help the homeless.” I believe that you need to be called to be a social worker, doctor, engineer or accountant. You would not be able to be any of those unless you have some sort of talent in each area. But, helping with homelessness is beyond just being called. We call ourselves Christians. If the term Christian means people who live like the Christ, the love, should not loving others (helping the homeless) be part of our daily lives?

From today, I ask you to show your love to the homeless “personally” so that they know you care. They are the ones who need love. You do not need to go to Africa or Central America to find the weak and poor people. Go out now and talk to a homeless person. Buy the person a meal! Build a friendship with the person. I am not asking you to do something extra; I am simply asking you to start living like Christians.

             

Issac Won

The final story from Harrisburg

                                       
                                           Greg reading the newspapers.

             Kyle put his face right in front of Mr. Boyd’s and started to curse at Mr. Boyd in a whispering voice. Mr. Boyd stepped backward and yelled at him saying: “Don’t threaten me.”  Everyone looked at Kyle and Mr. Boyd. Surprisingly, some people did not say anything as if they wished to see them fight.

            The dining room became chaotic as people gathered around us. I was very intimidated by people’s aggressiveness. It took few minutes for everything to be settled down. When people calmed down, we could not find Mr. Boyd. He must have gone out already. Kyle, Greg, Andy and I walked out from the soup kitchen and went to the state library. Again, there were more homeless  people resting inside the library. We went all the way back and sat around a long desk. Greg, by himself, went to the newspaper section and read newspapers and rest of us just chatted. For the most of the part, Kyle led the conversation. He said: “Issac, I advise you that you never go out with an Asian women.” Kyle told  me his "crazy" stories with his Asian ex-girl friends. Even though it sounded bit racist, I would have to admit that he was very funny.

            Around 5pm, Kyle left us for he had to meet his friends. Greg, Andy and I went to Bethesda Mission to see if we can all stay there for a night. Since the Mission serves dinner everyday, we had dinner together. After we ate, we looked for Jacob, the man whom we had the interview with.

            “Hey what are you up to?” Jacob welcomed us.

We asked him if we can stay one night at the shelter to learn more about the homelessness. Jacob peeked at Greg and whispered: “Is he with you guys?” When we said ‘Yes,’ his face became serious and asked only Andy and me to follow him. 

“I know people like him. I know that you guys want to learn about the homelessness, but don’t stick                                                          around with a person like him too much.”

Jacob did not let us to stay because he did not want to make an exception for Greg. We did not tell Greg about what Jacob told us. Like that, we had to say goodbye to Greg.

Few months later….

Greg:


Many students at Messiah College expressed their interest in our ministries. There was one event when 4 other people volunteered to stay a night at the street with me (Andy could not come). Next morning, we went to Grace Methodist church for the breakfast. Fortunately, I was able to meet Greg there. I asked him how he has been doing. During the past few months, he got a job and got laid off again.


Kyle:

Kyle and I are Facebook friends. Shortly after his experience on the streets, he got hired at AT&T. Few days ago, I saw his facebook status saying that he got rehired at Verizon.

 That was our story from Harrisburg. However, there are more stories that not many people know of. I wish that people who read our stories will strive to listen to the stories that homeless people have. 

Issac Won




                                    
   The homeless need people to whom they can rely on. 

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

More steps forward

The early birds in Harrisburg are the homeless. But they only catch the left over worms.

 “Hey! Hey! You can’t sleep here!” The security guard yelled at us and walked away. I rubbed my eyes and got up. My mind was blank for a while. I looked back and asked Andy what time it was. “Guess it. It is 12:00 am,” Andy answered with a frustrated tone. I was stunned and began to understand the situation. My thoughts were not coming together. Panicked and baffled, I was thinking “where should we go? It is too late and cold to find another place!” On the other hand, Andy looked placated and he started to wrap up our sleeping stuff.

We walked to the Presbyterian Church with our blankets and made our beds again. The wind was stronger than it was at the parking lot; the wind carried snowflakes so every time the wind hit my blankets, it made noises (which prevented me from sleeping for an hour or so). I opened the bag from Angel and started to eat the snacks. Munching the snacks in the cold gave me mixed feelings. I was very upset and depressed about my current situation. I was kept asking myself the reason I was out on the street. A strong desire to go back home quickly dominated me. Stifling my anger and depression, frankly, was extremely hard.

Andy anxiously walked around our sleeping place. “Andy what are you doing?” I asked curiously. “I need to pee” I paused for a second and burst out laughing. “Just find a place and take care of it” Andy pointed at a blue box and said “I think that is a portable bathroom but it says ‘No trespassing’ on the sign.” Andy ended up going some other place. As I laid my head on the my pillow (which was in fact a rolled sheet of blanket), I felt like Andy and I were completely abandoned by everyone that night. It was a tough night.  

            I opened up my eyes when I heard Andy bustling. Even though I did not have my watch with me, I could tell that it was too early to wake up since I was still very tired and the sun has not risen yet. Andy asked me if I heard a guy telling us that he will buy us Dunkin Donuts and coffee. “No I didn’t,” I replied trying to express my tiredness with my voice. We waited for the guy for about 20 minutes but he did not come back. We were still not sure whether he will come or not; therefore, we decided to go to Dunkin Donuts. Surprisingly, there were many people in the store at that early time. We went inside the store so that we could keep ourselves warm. Andy bought a cup of coffee and I bought one Boston cream donut (probably my favorite kind).We sat down and started reading books. I took out my water bottle (we got it from Angel as well) from my back pack but I could not drink much since it was frozen. After I had water, I looked around and found guys sitting on the other side. They were talking furtively as if they were CIA agents or something. My eyes stopped at the box of donuts and several cups of coffee in front of one of those guys. I whispered to Andy “Andy, I think that guy is it!” but Andy frowned at me telling me not to say anything. Eventually those guys left.

            “I think those guys were dealing drugs,” Andy told me as he was explaining his action. He continued “One guy had a wad of cash. People who would have wad of cash in Dunkin donuts at 5 in the morning would either be wicked rich or dealing drugs. And… they were definitely homeless people.” I could not believe the things we were experiencing. I could only see this kind of things from the movies but now I was seeing them in the reality.

            We came out and walked to Salvation Army to get breakfast. We were supposed to meet Greg there – yesterday, we asked Greg if we can hang out whole day with him. There was already a line of people but Greg was not there yet. We figured that Greg will come for breakfast, thus went inside to get breakfast. Apparently, the cook at Salvation Army got fired so lately, the homeless people have been getting cold meal for their breakfast. When I heard the story, I was expecting cereal at the most. I waited on the line and got a bag of food. I opened the bag to see what was there and could not shut my mouth; there were 5 sandwiches (they looked really good). I had a bite and it tasted just fine. I have heard from the homeless friends that it is impossible to starve in Harrisburg and now I really know why they are saying that.

            Eating a sandwich alone made me thirsty. So I grabbed a bottle of chocolate milk and started to drink it. However, it tasted little different from my expectation of chocolate milk taste. I looked at the bottle and realized that it was outdated. “Well, I wouldn’t die drinking it,” I rationalize myself drinking outdated milk and emptied the bottle. I was beginning to notice that I was preparing myself to see more ingrained cultures among Harrisburg homeless people.

Issac Won

A line of the homeless in front of Salvation Army

The way to Veritas?

            Andy and I got bored and decided to go inside the Hilton hotel to just hang out. One of the most famous hotel branches in the world has been very generous to the homeless in Harrisburg. Homeless go the Hilton hotel when they need to use the bathroom. Andy and I walked into the hotel and sat down on the fancy sofa in the lounge area. Sitting down in a hotel was not too exciting. While I was sitting there, many things popped up in my mind – my college classes, home in Guatemala, and many exciting plans I have. When I came back to the reality from my imagination, I realized that I am not a homeless. I knew it from the beginning; however, this realization at this time made me sad because I couldn’t imagine what it would be like thinking like a homeless. I wanted to believe that they have more exciting things to think about than I have.

            It was uncomfortable to be in Hilton for long time because we did not fit there well with our shabby clothes and dirty back packs. Since we were tired anyways, we decided to go to bed. We made our beds at the parking lot and I laid on our “beds.” Shortly after I covered myself with 4 sheets of blankets, a young, well dressed guy with an old woman walked toward us. He was smoking weed (I did not know until Andy told me later) and the old woman was leaning her head on the guy’s shoulder. When the guy found us about to sleep at the parking lot, he started to tell us the places where we can go to get helps. He introduced his name as John.  He said: “I was a homeless myself as well so I know you situations.” I went to Andy and whispered “That guy thinks that we are homeless.” I was not quite sure if I should have taken as a compliment or what. John told us that there will be a family that will be coming soon to give out food. We wanted to see who this guy was; therefore, we decided to delay our sleeping time.

While we were waiting for the family, we were able to talk to John more. According to John, he worked his a- - off to get out of the homeless situation. He had lots of complains about the shelters in Harrisburg. John said: “If you don’t have any problems, you can’t go anywhere.” John told us that shelters in the city have programs for drug addicts and others with problems; however, for normal jobless people, they only allow them 10 days to stay. “You can’t get a job in 10 days!” John shouted with a frustration.

Finally, a white van came and parked right in front of us. A Hispanic guy with his friends and children got off from the van and started to hand out chicken soup and snacks. Few minutes after his arrival, many other homeless started to show up. Among those homeless, we found Greg. I was really happy to see him again. Greg and us talked and tried to catch up each other. Greg was hired but got laid off soon after his employment. My Christmas vacation stories from Quebec City and Montreal stopped right at my throat and I swallowed them back.

Greg introduced the Hispanic guy to us. His name was Angel who has been helping the homeless for past 3.5 years individually. He told Andy and me many testimonies such as the donation of the white van and God providing food to give out every week. Everyone there looked so happy. I could tell that Angel’s family and the homeless have built a stong bond between them from the way of their interaction with each other. Angel’s children were playing around with the homeless and Angel was joking around with the homeless. It was really nice to see an individual Christian who has leaped forward with faith and love and provided minor help that the homeless need. It was nothing professional or fancy but a mere action of love.

Everyone was gone and it was eventually bed time. I bent my legs to stay warm and compelled myself to sleep (it was ver cold). Maybe after an hour, I fell asleep. It was a sound sleep and it was quite sweet until the midnight. With a vicious voice a security guard shook us up.

Issac Won

A Christmas decoration on the second street of Harrisburg

That is me! Too many clothes on.. Can't see my face.

Angel in the middle, his wife on the left, and his freind on the right

                                     

The First Step

Andy and I

                                             

            Andy and I decided to make a documentary on the homelessness. Building friendships and attempting to live like them were precious experiences for us. However, as we experienced these “crazy” things we realized that helping the homeless was not a rocket science. Through this documentary, Andy and I want to grow awareness of homelessness among Messiah Students (our college friends), and accentuate the importance of small steps over their bubbles.

            It has been almost a month since last time we went out to the street. With all the supports from our dearest friends (and with the cameras from my friend, Lance Williams), Andy and I headed to Harrisburg. Kevin Manieri, a friend and a part of our ministry, took us to Harrisburg. We put our blankets in trash bags and piled them right next to the Presbyterian Church where we used to sleep with our homeless friends. There was another pile of blankets but icicles were forming around the blankets. I prayed that our bags will be fine. With a worried complexion, Kevin said “see you later then.” Unlike other days, Andy and I were planning to stay out in the street longer so that we can document more parts of the homeless life in Harrisburg. We said goodbye to Kevin and he went back to the campus.

            Andy and I started to walk around the city. We got a paper that has all the locations of organizations where we could get help from. Looking at the paper, Andy suggested me to go to Salvation Army. Salvation Army was about 30 minutes away from the place we were. The wind in the city was very strong and sharp. Even though I wore 4 layers of clothes and a thick jacket on top of it, the wind blew right through those clothes. Just like the saying “misfortunes never come singly,” it snowed the day before we came to the city. The 4 inches of snow on the ground made it tougher to walk around –  embarrassingly I became weary only after 30 minutes of walk.      

            Finally, we arrived at Salvation Army; however, the place was closed. Andy pulled out the information paper and looked through it. After he glanced over the paper, he pointed at Bethesda Mission. Bethesda Mission was about 20 minutes away from Salvation Army. It was not hard to find Bethesda Mission; the building was noticeably big and clean compare to other buildings in the surrounding area. Andy and I went inside the building. There were few homeless people walking around the lounge area. For few minutes, we wandered around aimlessly. One homeless guy noticed that we are new to the place and he came close to us and asked: “Looking for help?” I nodded as a positive answer to his question. He pointed at a skinny and tall white guy who was at the information desk. Andy and I awkwardly went to him. He peeked at us as we were walking toward him. I opened my mouth and asked “We are from Messiah College and we are trying to make a documentary on the homelessness. Could you have an interview with us?”

             The skinny and tall white guy led us to a glass walled room. He told us that his name is Jacob and he is a house supervisor. I held the video camera and taped our interview. Andy asked him the questions we prepared. Jacob talked about 40 minutes. Throughout the interview, he threw lots of statistical information at us as if he was trying to prove that he is a professional Christian social worker. After the interview, we thanked him for his help. Right before Jacob was about to open the door, I asked him if I could interview anyone who used to be a homeless but currently working at Bethesda. Jacob paused for few seconds and said “I will ask Tony.”

            Jacob put us in another room and few minutes later, a big black guy came in. Tony told us about his life stories. One thing I have noticed from him was that Tony was quite thankful to God for His mercy on him. He had a rough life in Philadelphia and he heard about mission organizations in Harrisburg thus he came here. Just like Tony, it seemed like there are many homeless people coming to Harrisburg simply because of the organizations in the city (because there are so many organizations, homeless people get 3 meals everyday) The interview was not too long. Andy and I came out of Bethesda and walked back to the Presbyterian Church. There was no conversation between us for a while. We were both tired. I just simply wanted to sit down and rest but there was no place for us to sit down. The silence did not last long; I told Andy that I would not mind just living in Bethesda. Really, Bethesda was a cozy place especially during the winter.

            By the time we got back to the Presbyterian Church, the sky was getting dark. We looked around the area trying to find the place to sleep over and decided to sleep at the parking lot of a Bank (the homeless people told us that we can sleep there). While I was moving my blankets to the place I decided to sleep, a guy came to me and asked if we had any food. We took him to a pizza restaurant nearby.

            The guy’s name was Mike. He was surprised when we told him that we are from Messiah College; he actually thought that we were homeless. We had a light conversation with him. Mike really appreciated us for buying him a piece of pizza. Like a person who starved, he finished the pizza in an instant. It only cost us 2 dollars to make one man be full and befriend with him. After Mike emptied his plate, we wrapped our conversation and stood up. Before Mike was about to take off, I asked him if he can help us by having an interview with us. Mike hesitated for a second but allowed us to interview him. The interview was quite straight forward. When we asked him how people can help  the homeless, interestingly, he said not having judgmental attitude and providing the need.

            Andy and I were back to the Presbyterian Church again (The Presbyterian Church has become our central location of activities in Harrisburg). When we got back, a familiar face was there – Stanley. Supposedly Stanley has lived the homeless life for a long time. He is very seclusive so that he does not enjoy talking to people. Every time either Andy or I try to talk to him, he would avert his eyes from us. Even among homeless people, he is a mysterious guy; no one really knows exactly how long he has been out on the street.  I greet to Stanley and he greeted back. He was carrying a trash bag stuffed with blankets in it. It was very familiar to me so I looked at it more carefully. It was our bag. Andy and I did not want to take it away from him; therefore, we did not say anything.

            Biggest mystery we had about Stanley was the reason he does not go to the shelters. Unlike other homeless friends, he does not like going to the shelters. Rather than going to the shelters, he would sleep on the street. Andy and I got some more blankets (we got donations from people) and gave them to Stanley. When we handed those blankets, he opened his mouth and said: “Since you guys are helping me, I will tell you something. I am going down to south because there will be a big flood and it will destroy everything. You know in 2012, this city will be gone.” Andy and I looked at each other dumbfounded and did not know what to say.  

Issac Won

                                                 Icicles forming

A pile of blankets

Going to the Pizza restaurants with Mike

  

Our bags of blankets



Not too bad.

            This time, Andy, Chris and I left the campus earlier in an attempt to spend more time with the homeless people. We arrived at Harrisburg around 7pm but even then, some people were sleeping already. I looked around and I have noticed that there were more people than there were in the beginning of the month. Usually, people get money from the government in the beginning of the month; many homeless people are hard to find during that time since they are busy squandering the money.

            I greeted Mr. Boyd and he seemed happy to see me again. Mr. Boyd is from Dominican Republic and currently an American citizen. He is very short, and he always wears a turban on his head.  As soon as I greeted him, Mr. Boyd started to talk about the same thing that he has already told me when I met him first time. While talking to Mr. Boyd, I realized that he had some sort of patterns in his stories. Funny thing was that he ended the conversation with the same sentence that he used last time: “I am Mr. Boyd, and I am an advocate for the homeless people.” As Andy said, Mr. Boyd knew “how to talk the talk.”

            After the conversation with Mr. Boyd, I walked to the guy to whom Andy was talking. The man’s name was Don.  He was a short but big white man. Don had a delightful personality but seemed to like women too much – every time women with short skirts passed by, he whistled and cracked some inappropriate jokes about them.

            Don had a turbulent life. He worked as a painter for a long time but his girl friend who was a drug addict stabbed him in his stomach and he miraculously survived. He raised his shirt and showed us his scar on his stomach and said that the doctor told him not to get any job that stresses him. For past three year, he did not tell anyone in his family and lived a homeless life. I asked him why and he said that he did not want to worry anyone. When he was talking about his family, his voice started to tremble and his eyes turned red. And he continued: “I am going back to my home tomorrow by bus. I need 6 more dollars for the bus ticket. Can you guys help me out?” When Don asked for money, honestly, I was a little suspicious of him but did not say anything and let Andy give him 6 dollars from the donations we got from our friends.

            While we were talking to Don, there were two policemen walking toward us. Don seemed little bit nervous when he saw the policemen and suddenly suggested us to walk around the city. As we were walking around, Don was keep peeking backwards; I looked back and noticed that those two policemen were still stalking us. Don was pointing at the buildings and was mumbling about something but I could not understand what he was saying. He probably was distracted by the policemen.

            We ended up walking around the city for a while and the policemen were gone already. We finally came back to the place where we were originally. Around 10pm, a van from Bethesda mission organization came to provide the homeless food and supplies. Homeless people from all over the city surrounded the van and tried to get whatever they needed. Among the bustling people, a young girl caught my eyes; she was walking in between the homeless people wearing a very thin blouse and was shivering. But people were too busy and no one seemed to care about the girl. Eventually the man who drove the van gave the girl more clothes to wear.

            I got sandwiches from the van and ate with the homeless. During the dinner time, I met an old man whose name was Walter. He graduated from Harrisburg Community College and worked as a mechanic for 20 years. I asked him the reason he is living on the street and he said “I sleep on the street once in a while. I love gambling and unluckily I messed up with my money this month so I have to sleep on the street for now.” In an astonishing manner, I asked him if sleeping outside is uncomfortable and then he replied “No, it is not too bad. I have my blankets and they are comfortable.” Walter’s responses were very shocking to me. And I was sad to witness the ironical situation with the mission organizations in Harrisburg.

            Chris got gloves and a scarf from the van since he did not have them – they are very effective at keep the warmth. After Chris got them, we set up our beds and laid down on our beds. I covered myself with the blankets I brought. It was relatively warm night. Looking at the dark sky, I whispered to myself what Walter said: “It is not too bad.”

Issac Won