Cards

Last night, when walking in Center City Philadelphia with Ana, a sister with whom I live, on our way to the subway after attending a musical in which her uncle preformed, we passed a man who was panhandling and likely homeless sitting on the South Broad Street sidewalk shaking a paper cup. When I was in New Orleans, I often had business cards with me which I could hand out on such occasions explaining how Unity Welcome Home might be able to help. Actually there is probably a business card from New Orleans still floating around in the bottom of my pocket book, but it would have done him no good to know the address of an agency in NOLA that does outreach with fewer resources than the agencies in Philly. I felt helpless. I wanted to respond, however I don't as a rule give cash to people who pan handle. It helped that he did not verbally request anything from us. I simply nodded and said hello the way I might to any neighbor I pass on the street, as I walked on by. In retrospect I could have called the local outreach team, or responded with a little more compassion but I did not think of it at that moment.

Outreach is another aspect of my New Orleans experience that I really miss.

Even though it has been a month now since I left the Crescent City, I am still in the throws of "reentry" trying to process and integrate the experiences I have had. Oddly enough, getting reacclimated to familiar places and schedules since I returned home has been more of a challenge for me than was adjusting to strangers in an completely unfamiliar city eight months ago. Life is interesting.