After Philly

Last week I had a great and eye opening experience in Philly. I have gone to a big city before, but have never gone to one where I have opened my eyes to the other side. Most people who go to these cities only go to see the sites, but they do not see the other side, which is the homeless side, the poverty stricken side. I guess they do not see it because they do not want to see it. On Sunday, after the eight hour drive up to Philly, we got settled into our row house and then went on a pryer tour of the city, which was the first eye opener for me, I saw very clearly the other side and the problems that follow. The second day, we did something called Philly explore, which is we went up and down the parkway, and asked questions about the homeless problem in the city, and we got some interesting answers which I do not remember all of them. On Tuesday, we went to Sunday Braekfast, which is an emergency shelter for men, but they also have a woman's shelter and thrift shop also, but while we were there we helped stock food items that had been donated by a number of people, but after that we went and did their chapel service and we also served them lunch, so we had a very eventful day that day. On the forth day we went to a retirement home called the Simpson House, and we spent some time there speaking with the elderly that were there, but that night was the most enjoyable. What we did was pack bag luches and toiletries and then went to the parkway and handed them out to homless people, and we were also able to just talk to them and find out what they used to do and whatevere else they wanted toi disclose to us. On Thursday, we went to a place called manna and helped them with some of the jobs that they had to get done, and we also delivered some food packages to some people, it was not the most enjoyable thing that we did, but I was happy to be there and help out. Finally on the last day we went out to a site with a organization called Ray of Hope. What we did there was clean up a horrific looking lot that was just covered with trash but when we were finished it looked alot better. In the afternoons we had the opportunity of going to Camden New Jersy, and work with Hopeworks which is an aftershcool care program, and they were glad that we had come to help them with all the jobs that needed to be done but they just did not have the time to do them so that was enjoyable. Then on Saturday we packed up and left for home. All in all I believe it was a good trip and that we did our part to help out the city of Philly, but I feel we could have done alot meore if we had the time. For me this was an eye opening trip, because I can see all of hurting that is going on in this country, and I am now better equipped to go out and help in other places, and I hope I can do that at the earliest opportunity that I get, and also go beck to Philly and do more work there.