Walking around Philips
Even though it wasn’t that cold outside last Saturday, my feet were cold the entire time. The rest of my body can be fine, but my feet are always cold. I had on two pairs of socks and that didn’t really help. The bus ride followed by the light rail ride was good fun. Pastor Jake talked to us about the diversity of the community and what it’s like. We walked to Trinity First Lutheran and sat down inside and had one of the members talk to us about his experiences in this neighborhood. Then we went back to school.
This experience could be linked to the pictures that we saw of the photographer that took pictures of the poor people in New York City. Even though those pictures were taken decades ago and in a different place, we were walking around trying to catch a glimpse at what living in a poor place is like. We were like the photographer who wanted to see life in the slums for what it is. We wanted to walk around and look at the neighborhood. We didn’t talk to anyone except Pastor Jake and the church member, but we still got a small look into the lives of the inhabitants of Philips neighborhood.
When I was walking back, I was thinking what it would be like to leave school for a while and come to a place like Philips neighborhood and try to survive. What would it be like to leave everything and try to get a place to live, find a job, and try to connect with the people there? I don’t know if I would be able to do that. Would people recognize me? How lonely would I get? What people would I meet? How would it open my eyes so that I would no longer have huge barriers separating me from people? I guess that is something that I may be able to do sometime in the future.