New Year's Eve downtown-2012

Hear my prayer, O Lord;
   Let my cry come to you.
Do not hide your face from me
   in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me:
   answer me speedily in the day
        when I call.  --Psalm 102:1-2
 
This is the plea of every homeless person in the middle of a cold and lonely night.

My prayer and priority before making Monday's trip was to alleviate as much suffering as I possibly could.  Some people who see the homeless are apt to make judgements about them as to why they are homeless (ie. bad choices in life).  This often leads them to the conclustion that they somehow "deserve" their fate.  For some reason, I don't get hung-up on those issues.  I simply see a person who needs a friend to talk to and a helping hand.  As cold as its been lately, the nights are very difficult for people living on the streets to get through.  I just wanted to help them as much as I could.  Fiscal cliffs are irrelevant to these people, only right now counts!

I guess with this mindset, this trip was going to be different from all the rest.  I arrived a little after noon time and started looking for folks about 12:30pm.  I found Eugene and Wayne in one of the barbecue alleys, and then headed over to where Gary lives off Washington Blvd.  The last couple of weeks I haven't seen him, but I did find him yesterday.  I had talked with Gary before about riding around with me and showing me places on that side of Washington Blvd where I might find people I could help.  Also, he had asked me to keep a look-out for tarps or a tent that he could use.  So we both piled into the car and started driving around that neighborhood.  I had driven down Cloud Nine alley the previous week and noticed several large tarps laying around there.  My only concern was whether they would be too big and heavy, whether they would still be there and if there would be any (legal) problem in taking one.  Well, when we got there, they were gone.  I did see Ray there (I hadn't seen him in quite a while) and he said someone had taken them all away a few days ago.  He was glad to see me.  His words were, "You don't know how happy I am to see you."  We didn't talk too much, but he, apparently, hadn't had anything to eat in days. 

On the way over to Cloud Nine alley, Gary showed me a couple of places he knew where people needed help.  One of them had a group of men there, but only one of them took the help.  The others were wary of me (being Caucasian).  We'll see what happens next time.  I did see Becky whom I haven't seen in a couple of years.  She gave me a hug.  The last time I saw her, she had four dogs and a couple of cats with her.  Yesterday, she was down to two dogs.  One was a white shepherd/husky looking dog (named Alaska) and the other was a rottweiler/shepherd mix.  Both dogs looked old and tired (and in need of grooming).  Anyway, Becky explained that she had moved over to that side of town because it was easier to recycle there.  I'll have to keep looking for her over there.  I'm sure it must have surprised Gary to see me calling people by name on that side of town.  When Gary and I first left his alley, we saw Oscar and Jose, whom I've been seeing around there for the last month or so.  It's good to consider them 'regulars' now.

We drove back to Gary's spot at this point because you don't want to leave your stuff unattended for very long or it won't be there when you get back.  We continued to talk for quite a while.  You may recall the last time I wrote about seeing Gary, he had had questions about the battle between the flesh and the spirit.  I told him yesterday the analogy of the two dogs, one representing the flesh and the other representing the spirit.  Whichever dog you feed the most is the one that dominates.  He said he liked that analogy because it was something he could visualize.  It probably made it easier too, because we had just seen those dogs of Becky's.  One other thing that came up was I told him that it is always gratifying to me when I see someone immediately eating the food that I give them.  That tells me that I came "just in time" and when they really needed help.  He then told me that the first time he saw me was in one of the alleys a couple of years ago.  He was with Willie, Chris and Tara when I pulled up.  After I had given out some sandwiches we had all gone to the back of the car so I could give out some clothes from the trunk.  He told me he had stopped while the others had walked back with me and he had started eating the sandwich.  He said he also turned around with his back towards us so they couldn't see him eating right away, but he was starving at the time and too embarrassed for anyone to see him eating!  While we talked I noticed a pained look across Gary's face.  When I asked him about it he told me he had some back pain and pointed to where it was.  It was exactly where my back pain had been from my kidney stones earlier in the month, just the other side though.  As we talked more about it he said he had been prescribed some Flowmax pills when he had difficulty urinating and even had some blood in his urine before too.  Well, that was all I needed to know to confirm what was happening.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any of my leftover meds with me or I would have given him some.  He told me that to get medical help, the process involves waiting 5-8 hours at a medical clinic (just going through the process) and then you have to wait a couple of more hours to get a prescription filled.  He told me he had waited 3 hours once just to get some 800 mg Tylenol (and there had only been five other people waiting).  That's why you didn't always seek medical attention because it meant spending a day trying to get help.  Well, I prayed for Gary a second time, this time specifically for his back pain.  One other thing of note happened with him.  He had asked if I had a dress type shirt, because he was going to see him mother.  She lives in Compton and is in her 80's.  He wanted to look nice for her.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any dress shirts, but he did see a Lakers t-shirt and a Lakers windbreaker type jacket.  He told me his mother was a huge Laker fan and had Laker paraphernalia all over the house.  He knew if he walked into the house wearing the Laker t-shirt she would ask him if she could have it.  I told him to take them both, so now he could give his mother a Christmas present.  Is that cool or what?  Well, I had two burgers left.  Since Gary had eaten the first two I had given him right away, I gave him the final two and called it a day.  Not only did we help people who were really in need, I found some new places to go with Gary's help.  It was a good trip. --Until next time.  John

PS.  Next time turned out to be the next morning!!!