Project House with new
porch built by friends
A friend I had not talked to for awhile called today. We caught up with each other lives. I can say now she is an old friend but when I retired from employment about six years ago I did not even know her. She is among a number of new, old friends that I have made during this time. They are men and women of all ages but theses new old friend have some common characteristics. They are struggling in life with poverty and/or illness and they are all generous persons willing to give of themselves and what they have to others.
For example, the person who called today runs some houses for poor with mental illnesses who have frequently been rejected by other homes. She provides clean housing and some meals for them. But she has to struggle with the city housing inspectors who are constantly checking her few houses and she needs to work a part time job to survive. Some years ago a newspaper article misrepresented her housing situation and agencies stopped referring persons to her houses. It was at this point we met. I helped her get some volunteers from the Church where I was working to work on a house she had purchased with the understanding she would get a matching grant from the city if she would bring it up to city standards. She called this house to be the ‘project’ house. She had done her part, putting on a new roof, windows, a new electric system and more into the house. With the help of the Church volunteers we put on a new porch and made improvements in the house. The city failed to keep their part of the transaction and when we tried to advocate on her behalf the city inspectors made her pay. The volunteers have been working on the ‘project house over the years but without a new investment of money the process has halted. We have also worked together, with another common friend, on a garden on a vacant lot.
Each of my new old friends have their own story but I find they all have a common thread of struggling to survive, illness and being so generous and giving. These new old friendships I feel we are all as equals. We give each other strength and encouragement although we are all very different. I feel privileged and blessed. This is not to say my old friends, mostly white middle class and some still friends, are not good persons. They are wonderful people. But when I was living in solidarity with them the solidarity was mostly with words. We talked solidarity with the poor and marginalized but it was from a different viewpoint than one that is poor and marginalized.
I am not poor but have felt the sting of being marginalized. I have learned so much from these new old friends. Next week I am going with a delegation to show solidarity with the poor and suffering in Haiti. A friend who is already there issued us a travel warning today: “One final travel warning: be aware that you might fall in love with Haitians. I have after only 36 hours!”
I am looking forward to making some new old friends.
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