Our Shari Prestemon Social Justice Interns have graciously agreed to share some of their journal entries so that you can hear about the experience they’re having at Back Bay Mission! You can read a journal entry by Bethany Beaver below.
When working with clients, I consistently was asked about home. Everyone always wanted to know where I came from. When I told them Ohio, I always got the same comment, “It gets pretty cold up there, huh?” It was then always followed by the inquiry “Do you like our weather?” I always replied that after dealing with negative 30 degree wind-chill last winter that their 90 plus degree heat was simply thawing me out.
And in a sense, I meant this comment more than they could possible know. As a student, one gets caught up in the numbers and the textbooks. It is difficult to study so much without getting a little numb to the numbers. It really causes one to forget about people.
And Back Bay Mission, with its clients, its employees, and its volunteers, have all thawed me out. I was able to work in the food pantry three days out of the week in which I would train volunteers, hear their stories, and then take the clients through the pantry where I would hear their tales. Diarra and I headed up a resume program that forced us to look at the homeless not as a group, but as individuals in a community. You cannot simply generalize people. However, that is what we commonly try to do. If you walk into the Micah Day Center (the day center for our homeless guests) it is not populated by drug addicts and alcoholics. No, you will meet ex-CEOs, college graduates, certified construction workers, and one-time small business owners. I am not saying that this population does not deal with drug and alcohol addictions, but they are so much more than that.
I did not come down here this summer in hopes of feeling proud of the work that I did. I came in hopes of enlightenment and a perspective change. But I did not get that entirely. I was enlightened by the programs and the work of non-profits in an area that has faced disaster time after time. I did not get a perspective change; I was just reminded of what it is to be a person in such a trying world. In today’s time, we are fed numbers everywhere. It is not until we see the face to the situation or the name to the tragedy that it becomes real to us.
So, although I am sad to leave Biloxi, I will never forget this beautiful place. I will never forget these people and their perseverance against all odds. I also will never forget their stories and the lesson that hearing those stories taught me.
