Chicago part one

Things

Arizona and things.

Hello. I've been home for a few days. Here are some pictures.

This is a cactus. It's called a saguaro. I suppose you can call it whatever you'd like, if you are really opposed to the name "saguaro."

Fun fact about saguaros: They are mainly active at night when they hunt rabbits in small packs. 

Here are some rocks and more cacti. Also, houses and a golf course.

We call this ocatillo. I learned not to step barefoot on ocatillo when I was five years old. It was an important lesson.

This is cholla. I have been learning not to fall into cholla for several years.

This is sky, for when I forget what it looks like during a Syracuse winter.

This is a giant shallow hole in the ground. I don't know why I took this picture. 

So warm

In Arizona, when it's 110 degrees outside, most indoor spaces are kept around 70 degrees. I think that's a really nice temperature. You can do stuff in 70 degrees. Here in Syracuse, everything is cranked up to 90 degrees. All I want to do is sleep when it's this warm inside.

So warm.

So tired.

I wanted to vent a little bit yesterday, but I didn't find the time.

Yesterday I answered a few phone calls. As I mentioned in a previous post, I talk to people who are usually very frustrated and angry. I didn't mention that I usually get one or two calls with people crying. Have you ever talked to crying stranger on the phone? It's not pleasant.

A couple of people called looking for assistance with keeping a motel room for a few days. For reasons I can't really go into, the Department of Social Services wasn't able to help them. We couldn't help them either, we don't have funding right now for motel rooms. (To explain, DSS can give money to people who are being evicted to stay in a hotel until housing is found for them- it's a lot cheaper overall for taxpayers to have people to stay housed and paying rent than for them to rely on the services homeless shelters provide) So, I told a sobbing single mother that there was nothing anyone could do for her, except for her and her children to enter a shelter.

Later I told a crying man that I would have my supervisor call him back because I couldn't tell him myself that there was nothing I could do for him.

Most of my calls went like that. A few people called to donate furniture- that was nice.

Everyone has a story.

...

Why do I have to tell people that there is nothing I can do to help them?

What can I do to help them?

I love working here

I really do.

It snowed!

It snowed a lot! Or a least I think that it did. Creede, one of my housemates, says that it barely snowed an inch. It seems like a foot to me.

I've never seen a real icicle before. They are pretty crazy things.

Here are some pictures. I've been meaning to take pictures of the more tragic looking abandoned houses around where I live. Not every place in Syracuse looks like this. The suburbs are very nice. And these houses are right next to other normal looking ones.

I assume that houses like this, and the issues that cause their existence, exist at home in Phoenix. The thing is, in Phoenix (or even in Santa Clara) I don't live in neighborhoods that look like this. Here in Syracuse I can't ignore that there is something wrong. I walk or drive by places like this every day. My job entails that I visit the people who are living in, or who have been evicted from, houses like these. I didn't take pictures of any client's houses. These are just random abandoned ones.

Over the past few months the initial shock of how some neighborhoods look has faded but walking around in the snow brought those feelings back.

This is the JVC house! Eight of us live in this converted duplex.

These are houses that are a little down the street. You can't really tell from the picture, but the house on the right is also condemned, but it hasn't been boarded up. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about why houses here get to be like this. I've heard multiple horror stories about how landlords use false names and rent out property to just collect a check. The worst landlords just leave their properties to decay and foreclosure. The tenants are often left without running water or electricity for months before the city declares them to be "unfit for human habitation" and condemns them. The tenants are evicted. What happens to them next depends upon what the Department of Social Services, or organizations like Catholic Charities, has funding for.

A house on the same street.

Also a house on the same street.

Not a house, but also on the same street.

I thought this was a snazzy picture. Creede and I wandered downtown from our house to visit a new coffee shop that opened there.

I found a crossbow today

It was awesome.

Jesus died for him too

One of the things I do at Practical Assistance (when I'm not messing around on the internet) is answer phones. Some people call to donate furniture and other things. Most people call looking for some kind of assistance. The grants we have restrict us to helping only homeless individuals, specifically individuals who are leaving shelters for unfurnished apartments. We are also able to assist with paying for prescriptions. security deposits, first month's rent, storage, and helping people who have court ordered evictions move to a new place.
Right now is an awkward time for me to answer phones. The funding for most of these programs has run out because of the constant need in this city. I have to tell multiple people that we don't have funding for their security deposit, first month's rent, etc., and that they need to go to the Department of Social Services. A lot of people get angry at me for saying that. Some people yell.

Today someone told me to suck their dick.

While that was unpleasant, I think it's important for me to keep in mind that when people call, they are very stressed. They're all struggling with things that I have never really felt. It would be nice if people didn't lay their frustrations out on me- I'm not cause of their problems- but their anger and frustration is understandable. I believe that we can make this world any way we want it to be. The thought that our collective greed, anger, stubbornness, etc., prevents us from making it a just and peaceful world makes me frustrated and angry.

Later today I helped a few clients apply for financial aid for their prescriptions. The clients I helped for the rest of the day were very nice. They restored my faith in humanity.
I also saved Sal- a Jesuit novice, coworker, and overall snazzy individual- from bonking his head on a pipe. I think that the Society of Jesus owes me something for saving one of their novices from a possibly very bad head injury. Also, since rescuing my coworker from self-injury, I've decided that I've accomplished all that I possibly can today for achieving social justice.

Hello

So, I hope that this goes well. I've tried to blog before but I always get distracted by something else and the blog dies.

Perhaps I should have a mission statement so this blog has a purpose. I'm going to write about my JV experience in Syracuse, no matter how random or uncomfortable the topic happens to be. That seems like a good mission statement.

Today I'm at Practical Assistance. I've been here for a few hours entering information into a database. I should get back to work.

Have a nice day.