1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?
Well the first thing I did when I got back from break is Facebook one of the people I work with to tell them I'd be in this week. One of the things she said in her message was "i hate tha place sometimes i hate the ungrateful people . seee you wensday" I was a little taken back as she usually doesn't mind work, but it was an interesting message none the less. Work was pretty standard, I got my butt kicked by a few guys playing chess, and I won one. The conversation that I do remember was from one man who was complaining that the homeless were so lazy and just abused the system. Now that I look back the topic fits with the Facebook message to some degree. He is homeless himself so that speaks volumes as to what might need to be done with this nationwide problem. Another man when asked "How are you?" didn't reply with the usual "Good" like the other person, he simply said "God is good." I don't even think he knew what effect that had on me but it really got me thinking about where our joy and trust should come from. We hear from the bible about trusting God but this was a little reminder to actually apply it.
2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?
As I reflected on the conversation I had with the man about how the homeless are so lazy I was wondering how you can help them any other way without giving them a "free ride." His main point was that even though the homeless life is hard sometimes it is so easy to just take the free food, shelter and other necessities that getting off the street isn't worth the work. He also did admit that some of these people were genuinely disadvantaged due to major drug abuse, mental illness etc. but as he and I have both observed most of the Listening House patrons are very able bodied workers but chose not to work. One of the topics I will definitely research for my upcoming chapters is how to improve the services to the homeless to put out the fire and not feed it.
3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?
Well I did work for two of the evenings and I have put some good thought into structuring my paper as well as gathering the data. I also started getting a time set up for having my supervisor and Prof. Rock meet. I would give myself an A this week since I got a lot done and the work for my survey is coming along quite nice.
