He's in on Monday

I travelled to St. Vincent Depaul to complete my service learning requirement today and when I arrived I was told the coordinator was not there so I had to come back on Monday. Ive been searching all semester for volunteer opportunities and have encountered much difficulty. Ive completed well more than half of the required hours. However, I feel even more so now like like twelve disciples as they were sent out to proclaim God's message. becuase they continually encountered difficulty and I am discovering the same. However, I am consistent in my approach just as the disciples were. I feel possibly this is my connection to the spiritual values: consistency.

Last day at the Sinsinawa Mound

Today, Friday November 17th was my last day at the Sinsinawa Mound. I've had such a great experience working with the Sisters and it gave me a great feeling knowing that I helped them, as they have also done for me. I was sad knowing that tonight was going to be my last night at the Mound. Working so closely with Sister Sarah, I've realized how much I looked forward to my visits and service hours at the Mound. Tonight, Sage and I helped her with a few tasks and we also joined her and Sister Mary Owen for supper afterward. We helped her gather the leaves outside in the garden into garbage bags. There were also more than a dozen bags of rock that were piled in the rock garden. She told us she thought they would look better if she put them in the back of the garden, so we moved them for her. For the remaining time, we continued cleaning the rocks for the garden. Tonight I realized how much we had accomplished in a little over 10 hours of service. Sister Sarah said she will most likely wait and finish the remaining part of the rocks for after winter, and that we are welcomed to help. I'm glad that I chose to do my service learning at the Mound. It was something different and I've learned a lot about myself and others. Both Sister Sarah and Mary Owen are such kind and caring women. I feel that are so aware of everyone around them and will make time for everyone. It reminds me of the parable of The Lost Sheep in Luke 15 that I had discussed in class. We talked about how many people are quick to judge others based on their past mistakes, and how we should be more forgiving. Sister Sarah and Mary Owen are great examples of individuals who are so giving to others. They never expect anything in return, but yet are so willing to be of themselves. And I don't necessarily mean this with physical objects, but more of their time, patience, and sincere care for others. They see good in everything, if something is bad, it doesn't have to stay that way. I feel so grateful to have worked with them and got to know them. At supper we visited with them both and Sister Mary Owen made an announcement to the group of sister eating that we were done with our volunteer project and they all thanked us by applauding. Some sisters even came up to us at our table and thanked us for what we had been doing. Many told us how great the rock garden looked. I was so appreciative of their hospitality and general care for us while we were there. I have gained so much for this experience and I know that I will go back to visit those I met.

Hope House

Tuesday, November 13th at the Hope House a group from Dyersville came and prepared the meal. They were a group of women and a couple of teenage girls were with them. Tonight I brought my son with me to show him where I had been going on Tuesdays and also to show the people I have met a big part of my life. Don thanked me again for the cookies I brought last week. He asked me about my son's father. Usually this could be uncomfortable to someone you don't know very well. But it did not really make me uncomfortable. I guess I am very comfortable about who I am here more than other places.

Hope House

This Tuesday night, November 6th, two groups of students showed up with food. One group from Loras and one from UD. Jenny told us how a few weeks ago no body brought the meal. She said since they get most of their food from the farm the only thing they had a lot of was eggs. They made omelets for everyone that night. I am sorry I missed this I would have loved to been there to help. After this conversation they decided to serve both meals. They would send the leftovers home with the people who came to dinner. Also, mentioned was the fact that this was the beginning of the month and not as many people had come for the meal because they have food available. I brought some cookies made with splenda because Don has diabetes and does not usually get any dessert because it is always made with sugar. He was very grateful. The conversation is about their family, and their everyday lives, people genuinely care about each other.

Hope House

I have been having a few problems blogging. I can't find my posting for this week so am posting a new entry. I write in a journal ever time I serve before blogging so I know what happened this week. This week I went to the Hope House Tuesday October 16th. A group of students from Loras came and brought pasta, salad, garlic bread, and dessert. I was going to sit by Don, a man I sat by before. But instead I went to see if any help was needed in the kitchen. After that I went to the livingroom where a different group was sitting to see if they needed anything. I sat and ate at this table tonight. One of the people at the table I sat at was a woman around my age. She told me about how her apartment was broken down and the landlord did not plan to fix it up. She was very open and willing to share her problems. After dinner I helped clean up and one of the men and I washed up the dishes with help from some of the Loras students.

Last Day on the Farm

Friday November 9th was my last time working on the Catholic worker farm. Mary had me pull some broccoli out that was done for the season. After doing that I used a sort of tiller to break up the dirt where the broccoli had been. Once that was finished I got to go inside to warm up. I sat at the table with Mary, one of her friends, and Jessica to drink some hot cider. We got on the topic of pets because Ester, Mary's daughter, had just got a new cat. So as we enjoyed our cider we talked about our pets and so on. once we were warmed up Mary had us go and lay hay down where I had tilled to prevent weed growth for next year. After that there was nothing really left to do so I walked around with Patrick and Ester to help them gather the chicken eggs. I found this exciting because it is fun to look in and see all the fresh eggs that the chickens produce. Once we were all finished I thanked Mary for everything and went on my way.
I thought working at the farm was a really good experience and it actually turned out to be quite fun. I feel as if I have got a clearer idea of what it means to be a catholic worker. Mary and her family inspire me to try harder to give up sometime and help others. The farm they have, all the work they do, all the food they grow is meant to provide for others. I greatly respect what they do for those people at Hope House. If they were not available where would their food and shelter come from. I feel privileged to have been apart of providing for those less fortunate people. I believe that I have grown slightly from this experience. I now tend to look at everything I do to make sure nothing is taken for granted, because there are people out there that are very unfortunate. I hope to someday be as generous as Mary and her family are. I think that this is possible, but change does take time. Overall, I thought it was a very good experience. I may not of enjoyed the gardening part of it but I have to realize that my hard work really helped Mary out, and I am helping the less fortunate in the long run.

St. Vincent DePaul

On November 8th, I was at St. Vincent's Warehouse from 12:30-5:00pm. The first task I was assigned was to peal price stickers off of dishes in order for them to be placed out on the floor. The dishes we were working with were beautiful and appeared to be brand new. I ended up asking where they were from, and came to find that a store that was going out of business donated them. I was so impressed that they even received donations from corporations. A couple of the regular employees where sorting through clothes near by. I think that her name is Kelly, but she was trying on just about everything that passed by her. By the end of her fashion show, she ended up sporting a classic clip on tie and hunting hat. She was stunning. All of the employees make the tasks humerus and enjoyable. They are full of life. After peeling a tons of stickers, I began to sort jewelry. It was pretty overwhelming at first because you don't know where to start. I just started matching earring and sorting them into boxes. I felt pretty clever because we didn't have plastic bags or containers to place matches in, but i began ripping square pieces of paper and sticking them through it. It worked really well and helped to organize some of the chaos.

Into the Streets

I know that this is coming later than Sept 15th, but I have had the most difficult times with my blogger account. On Saturday Sept 15th I participated in Into the Streets and I volunteered at Presentation Lantern Center in Downtown Dubuque. We were greeted by Sr. Corinne, and she made us feel welcomed right away. She said that she has a theory that within the first 3 minutes of entering a building, a person knows whether or not they feel welcome/comfortable, so her goal is to make everyone feel welcomed as soon as they walk in. Presentation Lantern Center is a volunteer-based program that provides tutors for people who have just moved to America from all over the world and cannot speak English well or at all. Sr. Corinne had just had knee surgery, so she needed help cleaning the entire building. I scrubbed the floors, vaccuumed the rugs, swept the floor, wiped the blinds, dusted the furniture, and disinfected the toys. It was a lot of work, but it was great hearing Sr. Corinne's inspirational stories about some of the people who have passed through those doors over the years. My favorite story was when Sr. Corinne decided in the middle of a task that we all needed to take a break and have some coffee and "just talk." She didn't care if we'd get everything done, she wanted to talk about who we were. She told me that at 11am everyday, no matter what, a bell rings and everyone has to stop what they're doing and sit at the large table and take a break and enjoy each other's company. I thought that was a great demonstration of hospitality. Sr. Corinne said that she always makes sure there's a pot of coffee and some treats for visitors to enjoy. After finishing all of the heavy cleaning, I was eager to come back when the building was open to experience the tutor-student interactions.

Nursing home visit

Well I couldn't find one of my post from october. I must have done something wrong and it never was published. Well I went to a nursing home to help out with mass and observe the anointing of the sick. It was really amazing to see the elderly so excited be able to attend mass at the nursing home. It is really a highlight of their day. most of the elderly from the whole nursing home was there. I had to stand in the corner. My job was pass out song sheets and rosarys. I suprised about how many family members come in from the community to attend mass with their loved ones. I noticed a couple in the back. He was sick with a terminal illness, he couldn't swallow very well so he had to spit out all his saliva. She was very helpful and ok with the fact that he couldn't help it. She helped and supported him, you could see the love just pouring out of each other. It was one of those bitter sweet experiences.
After mass, we visited a lady that was diagnosised with MS at the age of 15. By the time she was 20 she had to stop working and needed assists with all her daily activities. She is now blind by she has a good sense of vision. She knew was I was in the room. It was amazing we talked about how she lived her life and never was bitter about the disease. She told me that you need your time to experience all you can! You never know when you can come down with a disbilitating disease.
Just to wrap this whole service learning experience up, I learned alot from the members of the St. Joesph the worker community and the community of Dubuque. All the people I visited with told me stories about growing up and living in Dubuque and it just made me appreciate what it has to offer today. It was very interesting hearing from the people. They love Dubuque and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I met people that have lived in totally different ways of life. but they all said that the parish and their faith was always the center of their lives. They told me that they could not get through the hard times of life with out God, family and friends.

Sinsinawa Mound

On November 1st, Heather and I continued our volunteer work at Sinsinawa Mound. We were chatting with Sister Sarah as usual and she informed us that she would be traveling to Miami for a few days for a national Treasurers Conference. She said that the topics of the conference would focus on Medicare, social security, and Medicaid. By the sound of it, it is annual and she was looking forward to seeing other Sisters from across the nation. This shows the wider connection that Sinsinawa shares with the nation - sending members to attend conferences in which helpful knowledge for all is acquired for outreaching service and conversing with others from all over to share news and glad tidings. I look forward to hearing about how it went from Sister Sarah.

November 10,2007

Today I went to volunteer at the Sisters of Charity, Carmel Mound. I was looking forward to volunteering because I had not volunteered for a couple of weeks. In the activity center Joanne ( worker in this facility) was showing a video of her father in the Korean War, since it was Veternans day this past week. I helpped transfer a couple of sisters to and from thier rooms. The movie was eye-opening. I usually do not have an interest in the events in history, but it was interesting since I had a personal connection to the person being interviewed. Buster Welter, Jo's father was drafted into the Korean War for two years when he was 18 yrs old. He discribed how he was GI ( government property) This meant that he worked for the government, but you were basically just like a tool or weapon because they did care who you were. I found this really disappointing and shocking because it reminds me how some individual's in society do not think those with disabililties have emotions and feelings. Therefore, these individuals do not always recieve the appropriate education, or services necessary. Also, many people may stare at those with disabilites, when really all they want is someone to talk with them. Buster relates being in the army to hunting. He used to always go squirrel hunting because you are out at night looking for the Chinese, and waiting for them to show up, then you fire. The only difference between squirrel hunting and the army is the Chinese fire back. I believe the community that Buster was appart of had to have a really close bond. There had to be a sense of trust, communication, and support. All of the army members needed to support eachother, and motivate one another to keep fighting for thier country even if one individual felt they could not continue. There needed to be strong communication so that all members new their role and responsibilies. This movie was very eye-opening and I thought i was able to relate some of the content to what we are learning in our religion class.

St. Vincent DePaul

During my experience at St. Vincent Warehouse I was assigned many different activities. During my first time I organized books into different categories, and then put them on display for people to buy. My second experience I was assigned to peel off price tags off of dishes that were donated to the warehouse. Then after that was accomplished I began the very big task of organizing through jewelery. On my third day of volunteering I was instructed to help one of the employees organize shoes, place them in large barrels, and weigh them for shipping.
During my days of volunteering I met some very interesting and fun people. The employees that I worked with made my experience worthwhile. They kept me interested and laughing throughout my entire experience. It made it seem like I wasn't even volunteering, but instead like I was just hanging out with some of my friends. They all had a very open mind and got along with each other very well. It seemed like they had a very successful community.
One of the things I never realized was how much stuff gets donated to the warehouse. In the back there was an entire cage full of clothes, and it seemed as though every time I came back there was always something new or new books to sort through. Also it was really neat to see how appreciative the people who came to shop there were. They were so grateful for all the things offered at the warehouse. It makes me realize how lucky I am, and to be very appreciative for all the things and for all the opportunities I am presented with.
Even though I have completed my 10 hours, I think I will want to go back and continue to volunteer there.