I recently had a good dinner and this was my view.
I recently have been pondering on the thoughts of hosting a supper club, but I am not so sure nor do feel well equipped to host a meal. It is not that I am a bad host or a bad cook, I can cook to live and BBQ, and I thing that would do me good in the long run - but the idea of setting table and getting things arranged often puts me in a 'hard place'. I would love to one day set the table, but I am sure that it would have to take a lot of persuasion. But, the idea of talking to absolute strangers and learning life from a different perspective still appeals me. One of the ideas I am thinking of getting to do a 'different' type of supper club is 'Got Bread' . I know its a cool term and you are thinking what it is and where it is, I would tell you soon. I have still not talked to anyone about this idea, and once I get some clarity, I would make a link from this page. Thankfully today, I had a brilliant experience on something like my idea.
Everyday I travel in and out of London Bridge Station and yesterday was a day like that. I had got out of the station and was walking to Tower Hill - Fenchurch Street Station where I catch my train home, It was there where I met Mary (*name changed) . Mary was on the Tooley street, on the pavement, homeless and in the cold. I could have walked past her like I do with many others, but Mary did seem different. She had really nice shoes, a back pack and did look desperate. I had a chat with her and she said that she been homeless for 5 months and was on the waiting list of several shelters, hoping to find an accommodation in a hostel before the winter worsened. I asked her if I could forward her details on to an agency that works within greater London called No Second Night Out. My meet with her had been brief as I was in a hurry; in London - everyone is. I asked Mary if she had any dinner and she replied that she did and then I took the next bus to Tower Hill as it was getting too cold to walk along the Thames.
No Second Night Out / Street Link did contact me back and had got more details about Mary and I guessed that she would be gone by today. So, today after work, I took the bus to Tower Hill and after a minute on the bus, I saw Mary by the street. I got of the bus and met her, and after talking with her I realised that though she wanted to be accommodated, there was a shortage in places for accommodation. Even the charity that I volunteer at - GrowTH - was closed till December as we operated as night shelter only. Mary was rather optimistic that she would get a room by the following Wednesday as there was someone moving out from a nearby hostel - though this meant a week in the cold and rain too.
I would often leave here, as I am helpless in this situation, but I decided that I had some time to kill and decided to talk to Mary. On realising that she had not had any dinner, I went to the nearby Tesco Metro which does a price cut on cooked food at this hour and got Mary some dinner. To be honest, it was hard trying to sit on the floor on a news paper of a busy street and in many ways quite uncomfortable. But the conversation with Mary totally made this dinner amazing. She had been a victim of domestic violence and had to leave her kids with her husband (who abused her) for the sake of her children's well being. And the difficulty in not having an address in London is the rejection from jobs - no one hires a person without an address. As one homeless person told me some months back that once they are homeless, it pushes people to a vicious cycle - "no job means no home - no home means no job". This indeed is a difficult situation.
We talked about poverty, job crisis and attitude of people who approached a homeless. In-fact, sitting in a busy street is scary, the first five minutes I feared that I would be trampled on by the commuters rushing for their train / tube. After the first ten minutes, when I had gained enough confidence to look up at the people who walked by , I could feel the shame rising in my guts. It is a very painful situation. Before today, I always thought that people never saw the homeless person by the road, but being with Mary for sometime, I saw the look in the eyes of people, people like me, lost in the world of our own - thanks to the headphones - though noticing us on the road choosing to ignore. To be honest, I too am guilty of this behaviour. Mary said to me when I mentioned this alienation to her " .. well, its high time people learn to care for another, especially with the way markets are going and jobs are being cut, someone is likely to turn homeless every day" - and she is right; statistics say that there are at least 27000 plus households homeless in England alone and almost half of them may not be classified as homeless. The truth is even hard, many women have been approached in this vulnerable state by men who would offer them money for a sexual service. Mary, is not a sex worker, she is just homeless!
I agree, supper clubs are meant to be random people meeting and talking about life, and in some manner, I feel like I too had a supper club, Mary is a nice lady, very clean in both hygiene and does not use controlled substances that are ready available at some hostels. She was very thankful to the Manna Society who helps her and many other homeless in the London Bridge Area by running a day centre and providing them facilities to keep themselves clean and provide them breakfast.
I wonder, how could we a community of believers help people like Mary get on with life? Sure, she would get a place to stay - an address - then a job - may be - just may be. GrowTH does a really good work and having spend some time with them, we do need volunteers once we start. But there are a lot more people out there that GrowTH too cannot cover. Yes, I hear you say, we cannot support all, but may be , we can help one person - such as Mary .
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