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At the end of May I will be traveling to Ferrier, Haiti with Mission Waco. Before going on this trip it was recommended that I participate in a poverty simulation. This simulation would allow me to live the life of someone in poverty for the weekend. While studying at Baylor, I heard about the poverty simulation, but never participated in one. After registering, the email I received that I thought contained information about the weekend was actually only directions and one detail: arrive no later than 8pm. I wasn't told any other details about what to expect.
I packed a bag as if going camping for the weekend and headed south on 35 after work Friday afternoon. I stopped by my parent's house in Waxahachie long enough to have dinner and pick up my sleeping bag. On my way to Waco I tried to prep myself for the weekend. I'm a big talker and yes, I LOVE the poor, but I also like to know details so I was nervous about the weekend. As I pulled up to the Mission Waco mobilization building, there were already quite a few cars there. I grabbed my backpack and sleeping bag and went inside. Little did I know then, I wasn't going to use anything in my backpack.
Once inside the building, there were 50 other people waiting for instructions. I was one of two who was doing the simulation alone. The rest were groups. There was a group of students from Jimmy and Janet's classes at Baylor, a youth group from Oklahoma, a church group from Louisiana, another church group from Beaumont, two high school buds from The Colony and a church group from McKinney. Once we all settled on the floor, Janet, the simulation director, gave us our scenario for the weekend. We were all single parents with three children, no car, no job and only had $40 for the weekend. Each meal was $6 for our family and it was $20 to sleep inside each night. Every person was allowed four possessions from their backpack. FOUR! As in toothbrush, toothpaste, sleeping bag and a hair tie was all you could have, etc. We also weren't allowed to have our phones or watches. We couldn't ask what time it was because "that is a middle-class question."
But there was a catch!
Janet split us up into groups then said she was going to pick seven random people to live as a homeless person. These people weren't allowed any possessions or money. I was in the group of Baylor students and everyone gasped and started saying they hoped they weren't picked. This is where you can call me crazy because I was hoping she would pick me. Sure enough, I was second to be picked. In crazy person fashion, I started smiling and walked up to the front of the room as the rest of my homeless friends joined me. What happened next shocked me.
The two friends from The Colony, Matt and Tyler, approached me and said they wanted to give me two of their possessions and $10. Want to know why? They saw my tattoo and knew what it meant! 116 stands for Romans 1:16 but it is also a Christian movement and record label that includes Lecrae, Trip Lee, Andy Mineo, Tedashii and others. We quickly struck up a conversation about music and became friends.
These boys offered me a ride to our next destination: Goodwill. We weren't allowed to wear our own clothes. We had to find new shoes, pants and a shirt for the weekend. The only shoes I could find that were comfortable and fit were tennis shoes that had holes where my little toes poked out when I walked. My pants were navy sweatpants that I rolled up into capris and I picked a large t-shirt. This was one of two free things the homeless could have all weekend. When we were leaving Goodwill, we could purchase meal tickets. I was surprised at how quickly people were wanting to pay the $6 for me and my children to eat breakfast. Matt offered first so I took his money.
When we returned to the mobilization building, Janet told us goodnight and we were on our own for the night. All 53 of us shared two outhouses, one for girls and one for boys. It was literally a small closet with just a toilet. No sink. The only water we had was a water hose that we could use for drinking water or a shower if we were brave. Needless to say, I went all weekend without a shower....or brushing my teeth since I had no toothbrush.
The two things I decided to keep (thank you Matt and Tyler!) were my hoodie and sleeping bag. We all laid our sleeping bags on the grass and slept close to a friend or two. There were two Baylor girls, Leslie and Ton, I also made friends with and we stuck together the whole weekend. We all finally fell asleep and then were awoken by a very loud fight across the street. Many of us thought the fight was going to end in gunfire as cars started peeling out. Thankfully, it quieted down and was actually a beautiful night.
I was warm, but couldn't get comfortable. In the middle of the night it started to lightly mist. I thought it was just dew so I pulled my hoodie down further and my sleeping bag up higher. The mist turned into light rain and started getting heavier. I couldn't lay out there any longer. When I got up to wake Leslie, I noticed everyone else had already taken shelter and left about 10 of us in the rain. By the time Leslie and I got to a covered porch, there was no room for us to lay down. It was probably 4 am and she sat in a chair while I sat up against a pole and tried to go back to sleep. Sleep was not coming and I noticed there was a very small amount of space between poles that I thought my sleeping bag could fit. I was very thankful for my shortness at this moment and squeezed in the space and fell back to sleep. That hour or two of sleep on a concrete porch was better than the rest of the night in the grass. As a homeless person, you fall asleep when it gets dark and wake when the sun comes up, or when a rooster crows. Yes, a rooster in the middle of Waco! That thing woke me up before the sun!
Check back later for Day Two!! :)
