Tiny Portraits

In the line for dinner last night, we met a guy who was working--full time job with benefits--in a soup kitchen line! He said he barely has enough money to pay the bills, so he is forced to stand in line for his food--and he only gets to eat dinner--so he eats dinner at the missions every night--first one dinner at the Blanche House (twice through the line!) then going to another mission to get dinner there--three meals in one hour!

Yesterday, Gus and I decided we would work for a bit in order to raise money for a greyhound bus ticket over to Chicago. (I recently checked it and found out that it costs much more than I thought!) Anyhew, we heard about an opportunity to work through some other guys on the street--holding up signs for seven bucks an hour. So we went to the Burger King parking lot across the bridge on Saturday morning, and joined the little mill of men (and a couple women) who were waiting for the trucks to arrive to pick them up for work. When the first one arrived, we all gathered around it and one of the younger guys started chatting away to the truck driver, trying to be one of the ones he would pick. Gus and I looked at eachother--knowing that what he was doing was probably the last thing one should do to get picked for the job. Gus and I finally got picked by the last guy to come by--we had been standing around for about two hours until we were finally picked. (In the meantime, I shaved off the sides of my face in the parking lot with Gus' help, trying to look as clean cut as possible, because the sign picker had picked the cleanest cut men in the last pick up). So the guy picked us up and dropped us off in different locations holding up signs. We were supposed to wave them around at the oncoming traffic. This would go on for five hours--perhaps the longest time I've stayed in one five meter radius standing up! Thankfully, God was gracious enough to bless me with many smiles and waves during the time, and a wonderful conversation as well. I made it my goal to smile at everyone who drove past, and though most of the people remained in their depressed looking state, some people smiled back, and some even waved!! I think I even got a few honks, but I'm not sure. Anyway, a smile is a wonderful thing to share with people. And you never know what you'll get back. I was also able to talk with an interesting fellow named Mike--who came up to me after hearing that I had hitchhiked up from LA last week (through another guy walking along the street who must have pointed and told him about me after I mentioned it to him!) Anyways, it was good to talk with him and encourage him, because he said he doesn't have many people to talk to, and struggles with depression. Hopefully he'll take up my suggestion to start reading his Bible and connecting with God. It's funny how God sets up appointments to talk with people in His time. After my five hours were up, I was picked up by Mr. sign boss man again, and we drove around picking everyone up. After about five minutes driving, he dropped us off at the train station--not anywhere close to where we were originally picked up from in the morning. Gus and I just assumed that the stop we were dropped off at was in the "free" zone (the area where you don't have to have a ticket in order to ride). So we jumped on, and suddenly realized that we were not in the free zone, and that if a ticket checker came through, we could be fined hundreds of dollars!! So we hopped off at the next stop, and started walking back towards downtown, by this time rather miffed at sign boss dude (really friendly and nice outwardly, but I'm sure he's milking all the money he can out of us sign holders--paying us only 35 bucks in cash for it). We walked all the way back to the next stop, and decided it was ridiculous to try and make it back walking (we were trying to get back to the square by 5:15, when a Bible study for street kids was supposed to start). Anyways, the day was a reminder of how the poor are exploited with poor jobs. The Bible study afterwards was a definite relief, although both of us were tired out of our minds.