Where I’m From

Here’s a poem I recently wrote at a retreat with other volunteers in Los Angeles that reflects on my time so far in Hollywood and how I might explain where I am coming from to people at my next destination.  If you have any questions or comments, send them my way!  Also, I’ve currently raised $6,025 of $6,500 – I’m so close to the goal!

Where I’m From

I am from sirens, a black cat, and talk about the weather.

I am from the purple porch, the graffiti graced walls, the green curtain (keeping out those who wouldn’t dare come in.)

I am from a stiff, black chair supporting my weight during Morning Mindset and coffee brewing in the kitchen. I am from an unpleasant order living in the carpet, masked by incense. And the day old pastries falling apart as they make the trip to my mouth.

I am from banana-peanut-butter-oatmeal and a nalgene of purified water.

I am from La Casa de la Communidad, from community dinners and hands held around the table giving grace.

I’m from standing in line at X2, eating umami burgers and sweet potato fries. From realizing that I can hurt others. From joyful.

I am from do not be anxious about anything, and a story that each friend has to tell, about alcohol and drugs, a broken family, and anxiety about where he will sleep tonight and where his dinner might come from.

I am from Hollywood.

Community Hours

After blessing a meal prepared by one or two of my roommates, we share
bits and pieces about our days and nourish our bodies while getting
ready for the neighborhood kids to come over.  Several begin to bounce
the ball outside before hours officially begin, but we quickly clear
the table and head out onto the court and into the community house.
It’s a Tuesday and we’ve told some of the older boys that they might
get to play basketball with some of the men from the First
Presbyterian Church.  Drew (a housemate) and I take the two boys that
showed up on time and direct them to the van after calling parents and
making sure that the field trip is ok.

We shoot for teams and I am even welcome to play with the guys for a
pick-up game.  The neighborhood boys seem to be enjoying themselves
throughly and are reluctant to leave when I tell them we have to get
back to the house but we’ll be able to return another day.

When we get back to the Community House I’m greeted by several kids
that have showed up while I was gone and one individual asks for help
with his homework. It’s math, of course, and my roommates promised him
that I would be happy and willing to help him out once I got back from
the church.  We solve some problems together, clean up the community
house with other kids and send everyone home until Thursday’s hours.

It’s amazing to me that shooting hoops with friends and playing with
numbers is considered ministry!  I continue to receive so much joy,
honor, and purpose from our community.  Even though we only officially
open our doors 3 times a week, the hours spent with these kids are
always cherished (even if they’re running through the house, refusing
to clean up the messes they helped make, or begging to jump rope for
another hour!)

 

A Taste of Chicago

Minutes after arriving at LAX, Lauren (a dear friend from Chicago) and I headed to Santa Monica beach to have a lovely picnic gazing out at the Pacific Ocean.  After munching on tuna salad, squishing our toes in the sand, and enjoying the brilliant sun, we headed to my home in Hollywood to show her my neighborhood.  After a quick tour of my house, we hopped on the metro and headed to Olvera Street and Chinatown for a tasty dinner and great conversation.

The next day was filled with miles and miles of biking and hiking, exploring different parts of Los Angeles. We started at the Center where Lauren met some of my friends experiencing homelessness, headed up to Runyon Canyon to hike and picnic with Drew (another YAV volunteer), and spent some time observing tourists walking down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.  With Trader Joe supplies in hand, we headed over to a neighbor and friend’s apartment for a grill out and relaxing evening.

On our final day we started with a jaunt through the Hollywood farmer’s market before catching the subway to Grand Central Market, Angels Flight, and a lovely Mediterranean lunch.  We returned back to Hollywood in time for community hours at La Casa de la Comunidad, service and worship at Reality LA, and pupusas and frozen yogurt with a new friend from church.

Lauren was just the taste of Chicago that I needed!  It’s always encouraging and uplifting to talk with her on a regular basis, but even more so to spend quality time with her in person.  I was grateful for our meaningful conversation, shared prayer, and fun!

Lauren also came at an important time of discernment during this year. I’m excited to share with you that I have committed to teaching another year in Honduras with BECA!  I would greatly appreciate your prayers that I would stay present in this year and present with my community even as I begin to prepare for Honduras.

Want to read more about my previous year in Honduras?  Check out last year’s blog: http://karenagoestohonduras.wordpress.com/

A Visit to Honduras

I’d been planning a trip to Cofradia, Cortez Honduras since last November after visiting Nogales, Mexico and missing my home from last year.  Britney, a friend from Los Angeles who completed the DOOR volunteer year last August, got on board in January and we started anticipating the culture experience we would have together!  I warned her about the basics of cold showers and not flushing toilet paper and we hopped on the plane together.

Although we started our visit with a trip to Wendy’s on the way to Cofradia (since all of the local places were closed), our bellies were filled the rest of the week with fresh guacamole scooped with plantain chips, pupusas topped with incurtido, baleadas filled with beans and queso seco, fried chicken and tajadas, and refreshing licuados (a milk-based icy beverage).  We spent a lot of time chowing on typical Honduran food and swinging on the hammocks on the back porch but we also had time to catch up with current and past teachers, hang out with some local Hondurans, visit my evangelical church, and witness how the first graders I once claimed as my students have developed into beautiful, better behaved second graders. 

In addition to hanging out on my old stomping grounds, we also took a trip to Copan, a quaint, cobble-stone tourist destination overflowing with souvenir shops, corner coffee shops, and locals selling everything from a half an hour of mariachi (a great bargain!) to mangos in a bag.  We arrived into the pitch-black city realizing that the power had gone out, but minutes after checking in, the lights turned on!  We wandered down the cobble-stone, purchasing some street food and listening to the mariachi then headed back to the hotel room for a good night’s sleep uninterrupted by the roosters that make noise at all hours of the day and night in Cofradia.  The next morning, we were determined to find some horses to ride and after asking several people selling in the central park, we found a gentleman willing to get a guide to bring us on a tour alongside a river and up a mountain.  After a trot and some beautiful sights, we had a lovely lunch outdoors and hopped back on a bus to Cofradia to finish off the weekend with more friends and food.

Being back in the classroom reminded me of how much I missed being there.  The time we spend with the kids in the neighborhood in Hollywood has been very rewarding and reminds me of my days in the classroom.  Weekly I help Andy with his math homework and spelling words and I often get the chance to read with Andrea or Eliu.  Last month I even got to revisit algebra with one of our high school neighbors! 

I’m glad to be back in Hollywood with my family in the Gregory Ave. neighborhood, but a part of my heart belongs in Honduras.  After returning back to the States I was presented with the opportunity to return to Honduras with BECA once again at a new school located about an hour from Cofradia on the grounds of an orphanage primarily serving children at the home.  As I enter a time of discernment about what to do next year, I ask for your prayers!  As always, thanks so much for your support.

Silence

Silence.  Leaves rustle above, wet sand mashes below, a breeze gushes, quacks come from the pond, chirps come from the trees. We’re on a retreat of silence at a nearby monastery enjoying a chilly day away from noisy Hollywood. While I can silence my audible voice, I cannot silence the sounds around me and I certainly can’t silence my inner thoughts no matter how hard I try. In the moments when I attempted to clear my mind and simply count my breaths, I ended up taking a nap on the chair at about “62.”

During this retreat I have been reminded in the silence of the beauty of God’s creation – the hills, trees, stones, sand, and setting sun. Hollywood has a beautiful view of the mountains, but has also been filled with streets, billboards, and people. I am reminded that a smile has the power of many words and that facial expressions and body language can speak volumes, but can’t always articulate exactly what you might want to say. I’m reminded during our silent lunch that I enjoy eating primarily because of the conversation and communion that happens around the table and without words, this space can feel somewhat awkward. I am reminded that although I often feel uncomfortable in silence, it is a necessary and wonderful thing.

Here I am reminded of the sacredness of silence and how you really can’t listen unless you are silent, even if only for brief moments. I have this challenge when talking to strangers, acquaintances, friends, family, and even God. To really be in relationship with anyone or anything, you have to be silent. I am guilty, at times, of waiting to interrupt during a conversation, of formulating a response after a few words rather than waiting to hear the complete thought. At the Center I’m surrounded by people who want to be heard (who doesn’t?) and who aren’t listened to very frequently. It is with pleasure that I ask about their stories, their lives before and while experiencing homelessness, and their beliefs. I try to really listen, to ask more questions, to let their story be heard, because it’s what everyone deserves. Sometimes they ask about my story, and sometimes they don’t – I’d rather just listen here anyway.  I’m already being heard; thank you for listening and encouraging.

 

Fundraising Update: $5500 (goal $6500)

If you’d like to hear more about supporting me this year, please send me an email at renamalmgren@gmail.com.

Feeling Welcome

Romans 15:7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Since our arrival to Gregory Street in late August, we have felt nothing but welcome from our neighbors. Friendly faces picked us up individually from the airport introducing us to our new home for the next year. Past dwellers (others that have completed a year of service in the years prior to this one) were happy to give us hints about the city while still giving us the freedom to explore and discover on our own. For the first two weeks in our new community we were continually fed and welcomed by new friends from the neighborhood, the board, the church, and Hollywood at-large. We were even welcomed into our own home with a welcoming party from all the neighbors and a giant pot of posole, a traditional pre-Columbian soup or stew from Mexico. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozole)

We have continued to feel this welcome as the year progresses with monthly dinners at church members’ homes, frequent invitations from past dwellers for events and meals, and from the kids that stop by La Casa de la Communidad several times a week as we share this community space with them. As several of my housemates have expressed, we, the dwellers, are the ones being blessed and welcomed by the Gregory Street Neighborhood and Hollywood rather than being the ones offering this service. We are continuing to see the face of Christ welcoming us and we hope to be able to return the favor, for the glory of God.

Recently, we had the opportunity to share in the celebration of Fall/Thanksgiving at our Harvest Festival at La Casa. Friends from the neighborhood brought food and fun to share. In addition to eating tamales and assorted treats from across the neighborhood, we participated in activities like a cake walk/dance, donut-on-a-string contest, and piñata breaking. Coming up late this month we have been invited to participate in La Posada, a nine-day celebration beginning December 16 and ending December 24 representing the pregnancy of Mary carrying Jesus. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Posada)

While we hand out the flyers and open the gate, it is truly our neighbors that welcome us into this space that they have known and loved long before we arrived.

Home Walk

Twelve thousand people lined up near Exposition Park preparing for Kobe Bryant to give the countdown to start the 5k walk/run raising funds for United Way.  Home Walk invites people from Los Angeles to walk together and raise funding to end homelessness in this city. While I’m skeptical that homelessness will end anytime soon (and so was the gentleman that I was walking with, who isn’t currently housed), the hearts of many participating in the 3+ mile walk are in the right place.

The sponsors of Home Walk also made an effort to spread awareness regarding the issue of homelessness by placing large signs throughout the walk encouraging participants to share them via twitter/Facebook/instagram. While most were true to the issue, some made me cringe as I walked by with several participants that are currently staying on the streets. One particular sign read “imagine if this was your best option for a bed” and was accompanied by several high -end sleeping bags on the pavement. While it’s true that many of the participants I see coming through the door at the Center do have sleeping bags, many don’t have much more than a thin, dirty blanket or a piece of cardboard. Most are not afforded the luxury of high-end camping gear that was displayed here, and I even heard one of our regulars comment that he would like to have a sleeping bag that nice!  On the opposite end, several of the people that stop by do have housing, temporary hotel arrangements, or shelter housing (often accompanied by bed bugs).

I have a difficult time wrestling with fundraising and philanthropies such as Home Walk. Such events are raising valuable funds for trying to eradicate homelessness and other travesties in our world, but I can’t help but see all of the resources that are used to put on such events. It’s obviously more fun to participate in a fun event that has a great cause and to get a free t-shirt in the process, but is that the best use of our time and resources?  I honestly believe that without the event and special guest, Kobe Bryant, the event wouldn’t have raised nearly as much.

Despite my criticism, I am very grateful for the thousands of people in this city that care not only about this issue but also about the individuals that are affected by homelessness.  I am also encouraged daily by the compassion that God has placed in each of my coworkers and volunteers at the Center and other organizations in Hollywood and across Los Angeles. And I’m grateful for each of you supporting me in this learning experience in Hollywood.