Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Serving L.A


I signed up at the beginnig of the semester to do a freshman serve L.A weekend. There were many incentives to do this including:

1. Free Lunch
2. I knew I would have nothing to do on the weekend
3. Free T-Shirt
4. Meet nice new people

When I woke up at 7:00 Saturday morning I was kind of frusterated since I have 8:00 a.m classes everyday of the week. The only days that I get to sleep in are Saturday and Sunday. Well it was worth it in the end. I was placed in a group of about 10 girls and 2 guys and we went to the Downtown Women's Center near Skid Row in L.A. It was my first time on an L.A freeway and my first time to see the downtown area. I had a really fun time. When we arrived at the center we unloaded our groceries that we were going to use to make a mexican lunch for the ladies. The kitchen was centerally located in the living area so the ladies would interact with us while we chopped fruits and veggies, sauteed onions, and cooked beans and beef. We we had one little misshap when Annie and I were trying to use a salad spinner. You can guess what happened. We were spinning the salad and all of a sudden little leaves of lettus were whirrling all over the room. It was a rather large mess to clean up but it was also got us a good laugh. We eventually served the ladies their food and were also able to eat with them. On our way back to the Campus, we decided to take the smaller streets rather than the freeway. It was really interesting to drive down skid row and then five minutes later we were driving down Third and Highland. (This is a very wealthy area of Los Angeles where there are tons of mansions) we saw the world famous Rodeo Dr., Lamborghinis and Maseratis parked on the streets, and people dressed in the latest designer clothes. This is when it really hit me, it seems like everyone is living in there own little world in LA. (and everywhere for that matter) and many times are ignorant to the real world around them. Skid Row is part of that real world and the poor that live there are too. Sometimes it takes a service trip, a television program, or a friend to make you open your eyes to the suffering that goes on in places that you might have never heard of. So, while all of the incentives that I listed above were accomplished, the best thing about the trip was the gratification I had was feeding the ladies at the downtown women's center; it certainly opened my eyes a little more.

1 comment:

Brent Caswell said...

Estelle-
We really enjoyed reading your service to the Women's Center. The experiences you have are really important to us, so thanks for sharing!