Thursday Thirteen #36

Thirteen things about visiting a Housing Project...I went with a colleague to visit a local housing project today. It was to get a "feel" for the situation of a family we are adopting at school for the holidays.

1. I've been TO the projects before...but never IN them. It was QUITE an experience. I don't really "want" to go back--although I will I'm sure.

2. I had to step over three condom packages just to get from the car to the door of the lady's house.

3. She is living in the project with three of her FIVE sons. They are in the minority racially in this project and are scared because of it. One of the boys was "jumped" coming from the bus by a drug dealer and had his collar bone broken.

4. If you really want to know what "milling about" means, then driving into the housing project is a great way to describe it. There were a lot of people just "milling about". I had to wonder about the kids that looked like they should have been in school?????

5. Everyone had a "watchful eye" as we pulled up in a large SUV, though. I had to wonder what thoughts were running through their heads. I know many people approach those areas with an "I need to save them" attitude. I hope they didn't think that about us....I mean people are people in my opinion.

6. The walls are made of cinder blocks. To hang things on them and make the space look "livable" you have to drill into the wall. This was a three bedroom two story apartment. The stairs are concrete.

7. There is one window downstairs. It is at the backside of the project with a fence going behind it. No lights back there. The window slides like a small sliding glass door. She has been broken into twice and is scared "they" are coming back. So she stays up at night to make the house look "active" and then sleeps during the day while the boys are in school.

8. Some people living in the projects are doing the best with what they have. She has decorated well and has kept the place clean and tidy. I have to wonder, though, about things like cigarettes, tattoos, and body piercings. Who is paying for those? And what SHOULD that money be used for?

9. She is a Christian and knows about grace and love...but she is afraid to go to church. She is agoraphobic. I wonder which came first...living in the housing project....or the anxiety and fear?

10. The boys wish for the holidays was for a sports bottle for drinks so that they can use them when they have to sleep in the car to avoid drug deals and such. They are also hoping they can get their "OWN" bath towel. Right now, they share.

11. There are broken things everywhere. Her stove has been broken for months. They keep saying they'll come fix it...but they haven't. So she and the kids eat TV dinners everynight cooked in the microwave.

12. I had to wonder what they looked like in the beginning. Sure they must have still looked institutional...but the broken stuff wouldn't have been there.

13. It is NOT a life I would EVER want to live. It DOES remind me just how blessed I am...and it makes me want to reach out to others out of my own abundance.

In some ways, adopting this family has reminded me just what a skeptic I am sometimes. Working with the population my school serves, I know that there are people who use and abuse "the system". My visit today let me know that there is a need and that it is legitimate...But the things I learned went MUCH MUCH deeper than that. May we all find some way to reach out to those in need this season. Blessings.