Krystal Goes West

It's been a while since I last updated. In that time, a lot has happened.

First, the gracious folks of St. John's and St. Joseph's Catholic Churches in Southeast Kansas helped me greatly surpass my goal for fundraising for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. I will never be able to express how much I appreciate their generosity. I could not ask for a better place to have been raised, y'all have made me who I am, and I love it!

Then, I had to quickly pack for my year because I was leaving on August 2. I flew into Reno where I met up with my friend Lisa. On the plane ride, I met a saxophonist and a girl that flew first class back from London to LA like 1 seat away from Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley)! I had almost a week with Lisa in which we climbed C hill in Carson City, went to Lake Tahoe, visited our friend Alex in Grass Valley, CA, and saw a free Gin Blossoms concert on the Santa Cruz boardwalk. It was a great end to my summer. Lisa and her family were extremely hospitable and I cannot thank them enough (as was Alex's family the day we were there).

Next was JVC Orientation in Aptos, CA. There are 85 JVs in the Southwest Region. There are 15 males and 70 females. Orientation was a great time. We got to make friends throughout the region (California and Arizona) and were forced to have deep conversations within our houses.

I'm living with 6 other girls in a beautiful Victorian house in downtown Sacramento. We moved here on Thursday, and had our first day of work today. Over the weekend, we set up a house bank account, visited our work placements, played ultimate frisbee, went to Second Saturdays (an art thing in downtown Sac), attended mass at the cathedral, and went grocery shopping. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it took up the entire weekend. We barely rested.

The first day of work today seemed like it was going to be very overwhelming. I've never really worked with the homeless before and after the first hour or so I just wanted to break down and cry. Then we had a work meeting with all of the new JVs working in the park and our bosses. It was a nice break. Then I got a tour around all of the different facilities of Loaves and Fishes before returning to the park. Upon my return, I chatted with an older man that is leaving on a bus for Florida on Wednesday to move down by his son. He was extremely kind, and I listened to him talk for a couple hours. After chatting with him, I knew I could handle the job. Then I went to lunch with Anne and Nicole (the other JVs). We got back and I worked at the service counter for the rest of the afternoon (until it closed). When it closed 15 minutes before the park closed, I went out and saw a fairly young guy sitting on a bench alone. He looked very lonely, so I decided to go talk to him. This is when I realized how difficult the job really will be. Not only is it difficult because I'm seeing the less fortunate every day, but I'm also meeting people that haven't had others be kind to them in a very long time. It must have been this young man's first time (or one of his first times) at the park because he kept asking why I wanted to talk to him. All I could think to say was that it'd looked like he could use a friend, so I wanted to be there for him as a friend. Sadly, we only had 15 minutes to talk, but when the park closed, he said he often wishes he had a friend to talk to. I assume I'll be seeing him around more often.

This year is going to be challenging, but has already been rewarding. I may even start looking forward to 6:45am (when we have to be at work) very soon.

Cheers!

Krystal