What a sight. I couldn't have imagined the mass of so many without a warm, soft, clean bed to sleep in; without food for the rest of the day; without family to go to in their time of need. It put a lot of things into perspective for me.
While passing out the cookies, Sweet Pea noticed that one of the men was deaf. When she told me, I immediately sought him out. His name is Archie. He was very patient with me and my 2 years of sign language with no practical experience. At one point in the conversation, I asked him what he was going to do for the rest of the day. He said, "Be bored." I thought about him the rest of the day. Especially as I was preparing our Christmas dinner/feast. It was all I could do to keep from asking Hubby if we could go back down there and find him and bring him home.
As the men finished up their doughnuts and coffee and started heading out for the day, Archie starting working. I saw him cleaning up and moving boxes. I could tell he was a worker. There are homeless people who are bumbs - they're there because they choose to be; because they are lazy. Archie's not one of them. I think many of the men there want to work, want to get out of that place. It weighs on my heart.
I invited Archie and his friend (also deaf) to church Sunday. I want to introduce them to my first sign language teacher who is also deaf. They said they would be waiting for us Sunday morning. I'll let you know.
