This morning we decided to tour aroud the Tenderloin, taking pictures of street art and familiarizing ourselves with the neighborhood. We somehow stumbled upon this little niche restaurant called "Subway" We think they make submarine sandwiches.....? And they make them really fast! We took pictures of what turned out to be a bear, and found some cute gardens. Lothy got lost. Again. But she redeemed herself with papples
We ate another hearty breakfast, and we even caught a quick glimpse of the Q group before they disappeared off into the city again! For the second or third time, we tried to find out how many people the couch can hold, today we made it up to 5... but it could've been 6 we're not quite sure, people get pretty buried.
We gathered our courage and struck off into the wild, wild city. This time we were headed off to Potrero Hill, a spunky little district where the hills are bigger, the cars are older, and the street art is cooler, errrr, more hipster.
We checked out a place that half of us will be serving at this Friday, St. Martin de Porres Catholic Worker House. Although we didn't get to take a good look around, we got to see the courtyard where people can hang out, charge their electronics, and take a shower. St. Martin was also where we were meeting Addie's friend Kevin. Kevin is a man who rejects commercial society and lives a life where material possessions come close to last on the list of priorities. They met when Addie and Nancy served at St. Martin's back in November, and through facebook we were able to set up a second meeting so the whole group could talk with him and hear his stories.
For lunch, Kevin led us to a bagel joint we believe is called Noah's, but please don't quote us on that... While munching on delicious bagel sandwiches and sipping some tea out of plastic bottles (yes, Kevin had an opinion about those) we were able to listen to Kevin's nuggets of wisdom. His musings ranged from not wanting to conform to society, his shamanism, the study of anthropology, and how maturity is about learning to let go of things. He even showed us some of the prizes he had found amongst the rubble of earthquakes and drawings that had taken him an estimated 80 hours. As college students, we envy is work ethic!
Since our trip is all about food, we were very intersted to hear what Kevin had to say about food, and that is where we got the title for this blog. He recognized that food is theoretically a right but that in reality many people are deprived of this right. He also gave us insight about how to be better volunteers, that handing a person a plate of food is good and average, but if you give that person a little bit of yourself by having a conversation or exchanging smiles, then you're doing a greater good.
Then he gave us a tour around the neighborhood, showing us some gorgeous murals that had inspired him. We even stumbled across a little garden where a man named Jonathan was putting mind, body, and soul into a little slice of earth, maybe 20'x 40' squished in between 2 buildings across the street from a yuppie loft complex.
Kevin was even so good as to show us to St. Gregory's where we were meeting up with Sara Miles. The transition from someone on the receiving end of food services to someone who oversees an entire fresh groceries pantry network was quite sudden and fascinating.
St. Gregory's architecture was like that of Hogwarts, but constructed by Swedish gnomes for Epcot's Circle of Nations. Aka, we thoroughly enjoyed it! After meeting up with Sara, she showed us her gorgeous church and explained the worship services and how the pantry functions. We were all very tickled by what she called the 'dress-up room,' the closet where all the worship clothes are kept in. Sara even had Michael sing a couple notes so we could experience the full glory of St. Gregory's acoustics. In case you were wondering, Michael's rendition of 'Happy Birthday' was only a tad (okay a lot) off-key, but we still love him, he's more of a dancer anyways.
After finding a bus stop that in no way looked like a bus stop, we found our way home to the hostel and had some group reflection time. Although the hostel has signs posted everywhere that food is not allowed in the rooms, we enjoy munching during our meetings on a whole spectrum of munchies: guacomole chips, oranges, wheat thins, cookies, nutella, and dayquil. Ashely organized another delicious meal that consisted of vegetable soup and bread.
Post-dinner, we had some chill time and some of us headed off to Chinatown pt. 2. In the rain. We found a quaint little bubble tea shop and we each ordered our own unique conconction of tea with jellies, pearls, or mango juice balls. And lo! Lothy spotted some street art by world-famous artist Banksy! His infamous words "If at first you don't succeed, call an airstrike" were stenciled across the side of a building next to a black and white figure holding a backpack.
Then we found our way home. And started on this novel of a blog. And filled our quota of group massages, in which Harry was punching people in the back. Oh look! The Q group is back, but now we have to head to bed because we have to get up SUPER early tomorrow morning. Like, at 7:30...... But it'll all be worth it because we'll be walking a labrynth, and who doesn't love that?!!?
Peace out, dueces (not the poop kind) and MUFF
L
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