Experiencing Other Worlds // Part Two

I always thought that I was a pretty clued up person. I had a good education and worked hard, I try and keep up with what is going on in the world and enjoy watching debate shows (yep, this 19 year-old really has been living the high life, ahem). Not only has this year challenged me and shaped me and forced me into maturity, but it has shocked me, awakened me and stirred me to do more in my community, in London, and in the world. Being a Webber Street for three days at the end of February was a defining moment for me and a real highlight of my first six months of my gap year simply because it threw me into a world I thought I knew enough about and I came out wondering how on earth I had been so ignorant.

Webber Street (http://webberstreet.org/) is London City Mission's homeless day centre based in Waterloo. Every morning at 9am, around 75-80 homeless men and women (who they lovingly call 'guests') walk through their doors and receive free breakfast and the opportunity to sign up for a shower. The staff are seen busying around until the doors shut at 12pm getting the guests appointments at jobcentres around London, helping sort out travel loans or accommodation and feeding the extra hungry with Pret-A-Manger sandwiches (which are donated every day). Not only that, Webber Street offers genuine care and friendship for those who need it most, and of course, they offer up the opportunity for them to hear the gospel before they tuck into breakfast. Webber Street also has an attached work called Hope Community Homes which can house up to six former rough sleepers, where the staff will support them through getting benefits, jobs, and even helping them on the road to recovery from addiction until they are ready to live life independently. This is a brief overview of all the amazing work it does, but even that is enough to inspire me.

Working there was an absolute pleasure (besides the pungent smell) because the staff so obviously cared about the needs of even the most tricky guest. Many of the guests speak broken English yet there were great attempts to have understanding. Some guests were demanding and forgetful, with staff members making appointments for them which they never turned up to, or complained about the location of, yet my observation was that the staff were forgiving and accommodating and well as being disciplined and firm. On my first day I was shadowing someone, which involved helping to serve breakfast and going through an incredibly long-winded and complicated process to get them an appointment with the exact jobcentre of their choice which was demanded through someone else due to their lack of English. It was a Tuesday, where in the afternoon they show a film for as many guests as want a ticket, which also guarantees them a Pret provided lunch. It was amazing to see the simple power of entertainment and film to brighten so many days. After the day is done, the staff get to work cleaning the centre and kitchen before heading upstairs to the staff room to do admin work, eat lunch and any other jobs such as washing up. I decided to use this time to investigate the clothing store and help sort out bags of new clothes.

Walking into the room I thought I had entered some kind of trendy thrift store - I saw Nike Sweaters ("they'll fight wars for that sweater"), Ted Baker jumpers, Barbour jackets, and more. I also saw some less-than-pleasant sweaty shorts that someone had donated and it was quite literally the worst smell that I have encountered in my entire life and I couldn't stop smelling it all day, even when I went to sleep! Quite amazingly, the place was full to the brim and had a whole section full of bags of donations. I was told that this time last year, they were struggling to get donations. Just a few Saturdays ago, someone felt so moved by the work that Webber Street were doing that they drove to London from Wales to give clothes that their church wanted to donate. Incredible.

On my third day I spent the morning among the clothes as I and another staff member were put in charge of showers. Guests can shower once a week and Webber Street provide 15 showers for men and 5 showers for women per day and when they come for a shower, they can get new clothes to wear as needed. Many just take socks and boxers but others who are in dire need will pretty much get a whole new outfit. Old clothes that are worn or that have been in constant wear and smell bad as a result are put in a rubbish bag and thrown away. It was harder to get to know guests this way as you only see them through a little hatch and spend a lot of time running around trying to find the correct sizes of clothes in the right thickness, colour or style for them (some are surprisingly picky!), but it is rewarding when so many shout a "thank you" through the door as they leave to rejoin the rest of the guests and you know that you are doing them a practical service. My third day also involved a walkabout the area in a very fashionable high-vis jacket (which did make me feel extremely official) just to make sure that the neighbours in the area felt safe and none of our guests were in the kids park.

Obviously, I'm not going to put any pictures up of the main room as I feel like it would breach quite a few privacy laws of the guests and spoil their sense of safety within that place, but it is the place where I spent most of the time. On my second day I was overseeing tea and coffee, making sure it was always full and that guests didn't spill tea and coffee everywhere. It also meant that I could chat to guests as they came up for tea and some are surprisingly open about their past (one told me about their spell in prison with me barely saying a word to them first). But what amazes me is that although you are standing in a room full of people that perhaps have addiction problems, a history of crime or mental health issues, there is no judgement. The fact that guests feel like they can speak of their past doesn't mean that they are proud of it or boasting about it, but they are recognising their need to face up to it. When I watch the staff deal with a guest, they deal with them as every other human, as a friend. Sometimes the homeless are just lumped together in a ball of stereotypes, pre-judged as people walk by, marginalised and made fun of by the middle class comedians. At the heart of things, they are human, with human needs of friendship and love. When one particularly smelly guest sat down, the rest of his table moved away. I continued to watch and it wasn't long before two others came and sat with him, putting up with the smell. Guests sit in tables, mainly according to nationality, but even then you see a human spirit of friendship and care for one another that surpasses labels and past. 

Before breakfast one day, I shared the story of how Jesus freed me from sin, which included a history of anger and violence. I was warned that there would be hecklers, but instead got a few claps and a few guests thanked me for what I said as I served breakfast and tea. The fact that I was perhaps able to give hope of a truly freeing experience through Jesus for one of those 80 people was a thrilling and honouring thing. I was able, later that day, to sit in the afternoon Bible study. It was less popular than the film afternoon by a long shot but there was a great desire within that group and I saw many people enlightened by the story of Jesus casting a legion of demons out of a man. I couldn't help but smile at the thought of all the demons that some of the guests might face being cast out of their lives, transforming their behaviour and leading them to a knowledge of Christ. No guest was a lost cause, and as Christians we should believe that more than anyone because we have a hope in something greater and more powerful than human effort and social action.

Exploring the other worlds or branches of London City Mission was exciting and eye-opening. From theatre stage doors to the hearts of the homeless, from Bible studies with Arabic teachers to a tenancy project with a difference, I saw London in a fuller and brighter way, with a fresh revelation of hope. Yes, my time at Webber Street was eye-opening and I heard facts about homelessness from staff that were shocking, and it has most definitely caused me to do my research, but facts don't ring true until you see the faces and the scars (and smells) of those they speak of. The challenge now is to take a love which sees through the stats and into the hearts of Londoners out with me into my daily work and, in faith, watch it transform that community.

-Antonia

Experiencing Other Worlds // Part One

One of the things that I have always had in my life is constancy. Since the age of five, I have always had school to go back to each term and a house to go back to every day. Since moving to London, completely changing my life and my orientation, I have become more restless. I want to vary my boring routines, do different things in the evenings, work in different places, and meet different people. I have seen other people’s hobbies and thought “I want to do that” countless times; I suddenly have interests in more things than I can count. While school stuck me in a bubble of comfort and security, London and my gap year experience has blown everything apart and forced me to rectify things through experience, learning and a lot of faith. I have chosen things for myself for the first time, learnt brand new skills and discovered skills I was unaware of previously. All this excitement has been contrasted with a job which, although extremely varied, is constant, has a definite routine and once again, I go away to the same home.

Sometimes you just need a change of scene, and during this month I have had the great privilege of stepping out of my usual work in a community cafe and into the other lands that London City Mission, the Christian charity I am working for this year, have expanded their branches to. I have been shadowing church-based placement, a chaplain and been involved for three days in the homeless day centre with my housemate. Since these experiences were such a poignant part of my February, I thought it best to separate them from the usual monthly updates and highlights and chat about each of them individually.

Firstly, I was able to shadow a missionary at the church that I have been attending in East London. There were huge differences to my normal day both in the way the days ran and the people who I encountered. I started later and the day kicked off with us waiting in a cold room in the downstairs of the church for three men from his English class to come for further reading, which involved reading the Bible (Mark) as an aid. Only two turned up, but it was a really interesting experience and we did that for the rest of the morning, correcting their English as they read aloud, answering questions about words they didn’t understand, and most excitingly talking to them about who Jesus was in the small passage we had been reading. What struck me most was how, at the end of the session when we just turned to chit chat, we learned that neither had any English friends. It saddens me that so many people who come into London only stick within their ethnic groups and that other Londoners don’t attempt to cross boundaries other than to order an Indian or Chinese. For all our talk about multiculturalism, it doesn’t actually seem to involve crossing cultural boundaries in a way which leads to understanding and deep friendships with those around us who were not brought up in Britain. The two men seemed surprised when we offered our friendship. I was able to invite them into the cafe for a chat with any of our staff as it is within their area and is accessible to them (and conveniently is where they have their usual English class).

After lunch we walked in the rain to do some door-to-door work, which again was completely different to what I do for the cafe. At the cafe it is about bringing people into the space to engage in the community we offer there, more than it is having spiritual conversations. When you are working for a church and inviting people to church, these conversations happen a lot more frequently and naturally and I relish in such interesting discussion (although at points it was far more intense than I was used to!). We then ran over to a bakery who gives the church their leftover bread to give to the homeless in the evening. After some admin jobs, we started to set up for the GrowTH project which runs in the area of Tower Hamlets where homeless people are referred and they then spend a night in a different church for 28 days. Each week, my church runs one of those nights and there are volunteers who cook dinner/breakfast and chat to the guests. The evening also involves a short Bible talk and an opportunity to discuss faith. While some of the 15-20 guests eat and then run to their beds to read, listen to music, or nap, others are really willing to chat and it was amazing to find out that many of the men had become friends over their time on the scheme and spent their day together, helping and protecting one another. One of the best things about the scheme is that over half of those who come on it between November and February last year were rehoused within the 28 days. It is such a simple idea and seems to be incredibly effective both in terms of social action and in terms of getting people to consider their beliefs. I am sad that the scheme is over as I only got to help on two occasions and enjoyed both very much. To find out more about GrowTH and their vision visit http://www.thisisgrowth.org/

My second day of shadowing was with the arts chaplain, although he dares to call himself that as it is a role that the guy pretty much created himself and is still developing, especially as it involves a lot of travelling about to different theatres and galleries etc and runs off a very flexible schedule compared to other chaplains such as those on the underground, rail, taxi ranks or post office who have solid places to visit each day. The day started off by visiting one of the ‘rival’ cafes within LCM, Cafe Eterno, on Neal Street in Covent Garden. It is a lot smaller and sees a lot of heavy traffic coming through, but still showcases art on the walls from independent artists (the current showing was of a Turkish guy who another missionary had met and put him in touch with the cafe to get his work up – and it was amazing work!) and has a very strong, friendly and lively team running it. The prices are notably higher than ours because of the location, however, and there is far less of a community feel to the place as with such a busy area people don’t hang about long, although they still have regular custom from people who work around the area and enjoy engaging in healthy discussion! I was especially please with my hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows – the most you get at my place is some chocolate sprinkles. We then spent the majority of our day visiting the stage door of different theatres including the Cambridge Harold Pinter, Noel Coward and Queens where we spoke to different stage doorman. Most of it was general chitchat but as a bit of a theatre geek and one who formerly wanted to go into theatre, this was most exciting for me, especially as one of the doorman had obsessively obtained the image and signature of every person who had performed at the theatre which included Helena Bonham Carter, David Tennant, Celia Imrie, Simon Callow and Rupert Grint, to name a few. Oh, and he had a picture of Marilyn Monroe with then-husband Arthur Williams signed and dated too, and the image had some amazing nugget of theatre history behind it. How I WISH I had dared to take a quick picture: his walls were completely full and he was now using the ceiling (Rupert Grint, for instance, was on a pipe). It was quite a sight and surely something I will never see again. Luckily for me, the chaplain had more experience in art than theatre, so when it came to chatting about musicals and plays I was really in my element!

We also went round the National Gallery in the section where all the religious paintings from alters were. This is a section I normally miss out because I have previously found it to be boring and reminds me of a part of church history which makes me feel uncomfortable, where money was spent on making a church opulent and a display of art rather than a contributing towards a community of people reaching out to those around them. I now see these pictures in a new way, looking to the stories behind them and the themes that they convey rather than the time in history where they come from and the excessive amount of gold leaf used to produce them. It was a most informative time and this guy really knows his stuff and has such a history of working in the arts field as a professor and curator, so I felt quite honoured to sit under such knowledge for a few hours.

And so ends part one of this record of my explorations, into two very different worlds which both capture my full interest and have very different levels of glamour! Sorry that there are no photos on this post as I didn’t take any on either days because I was enjoying myself rather a lot and was too busy taking everything in. Photos will be included in my next post, be assured!

Are you feeling a little restless, like me, or do you take comfort in constancy? Let me know in the comments

-Antonia

Five Month Review // January - February

Two blog posts in one weekend? Don't mind if I do! I have started to really enjoy writing, even if it is only of the ponderous sort. Plus, this weekend I had access to better WiFi, which means that it isn't such a chore to actually post things!

I cannot believe that I have past the five month mark already! This means that I only have five months (and a few weeks) left of living in London and having one of the most valuable life experiences that I have ever had. I can already see how these months of mingling with so many different people, living away from home, seeing so much distress and sorrow and learning so much more about what the Bible calls me to be and calls me to do in this world is shaping my life and my thoughts. It has given me better perspective and helped me to strip away prejudices I didn't even knew I had until I was forced to face them front on. Living in London isn't so bad, either, and this month I definitely intend to make the most of it with my free evenings!

So, on with the questions!

1) Weirdest thing you have seen in London this month?
Probably the Saatchi Gallery. Where else would you catch people just staring in awe at a room full of oil? I have pretty much been a little hermit since I returned from my Christmas holidays (for reasons that will be poured out in woe below) and so this was my first day trip, as it were. Regardless, just because the room full of oil was weird, doesn't mean that it wasn't quite wonderful as well, and some of the stuff in the Saatchi gallery really was incredible, or at least thought provoking even if it completely baffled me.

2) Particular highlights of this month?
Again, my little day trip last weekend with a friend. I went out to the West (I did feel a little twang of betrayal for the East London that I have grown to love) and took her round the V&A because she has never been before, and we had quite a jolly time marvelling at art history and in the gift shops. The Saatchi gallery gift shop really is superb. If you're not an arty person, at least pop into the gift shop! We also went to the photography exhibition at the Southbank Centre because I knew it was closing this weekend and my housemates had said that it was amazing. Never before have I so badly wanted to hike a mountain. Other highlights include rapping in my kitchen, drinking Hot Spiced Apple in Costa with my parents before it gets ripped off the menu, watching the sun set behind the Shard before church last Sunday.

I could have spent my whole time at the V&A simply marvelling t the building itself - from the outside of the store to the ceilings. The sculptures that hang in the reception/foyer area are also a particular highlight! 

3) Favourite part of your work this month?
To be honest, work has been hectic this month!  However, I have enjoyed doing a bit of admin for our next Market and having more time to get out into the community and chatting to people. Gone are the days where I would be washing up and chopping for a large chunk of my day. Now, I can make latte art (and not just even on lattes!) and have more time to really engage with people, which is the whole reason the centre exists. It exists to connect people who are isolated or who stick within familiar cultural groups to others who they might otherwise never associate with, and to become a place where people can feel comfortable and safe in an area that can seem quite gloomy and segregated. Even if this involves going out in the rain to knock on people's doors, the look of surprise on someone's face when you tell them that they and the community are being invited to come in and chat, essentially telling them that they have some value, is quite amazing, even if it is rare. I have also had the joy of telling more people about my faith and clearing up some dodgy theology that people associate with Christianity, which really brings me the greatest joy of all. And on Fridays, I often get to watch a film, sitting in a deckchair in the Cafe gallery space, which this month have included a silent German film and a quirky 80s movie called "Distant Voices, Still Lives", films I wouldn't have otherwise picked up. 

Somehow, this happened with my hand and some cleverly steamed milk.

4+5) Least favourite/ hardest part of your work this month?
I have crunched these two questions together this month because, really, this trial dominated my month. I have mentioned previously that my year includes some lectures and training, and so all of this so far had to be examined at the end of January. While I was excited about the prospect of studying the Bible, a book which I cherish and learn so much from, it also brought back past anxieties and deep-rooted fears of mine that made me quite unhappy on some evenings. I remember a particular day when I ended up volunteering myself for kitchen duty and ended up washing up, alone, for two hours. Any other month, and this would have been fine, but I was feeling particularly fragile and was fretting over my exam and thinking about all I had to learn and broke down in tears over the washing up bowl for a while. I then went and bought some swanky flavoured tea to make myself feel better! That week was especially hard because I felt very snowed under and reading my Bible became a necessary chore rather than a pleasure. I lost focus, perspective, and started to think forward to University and doubt whether I would be able to hack it. Not only was I worrying about an exam that affected me in no way whatsoever, but I was now becoming anxious about something that wasn't happening for ten months! It was the harsh reality of realising that my anxiety issue that I had battled through in the weeks before my A-Level exams had not been overcome, just pushed to one side in a box that had now been reopened that put a downer on my January. I also felt quite trapped between the walls of my bedroom and the cafe and spent all my weekends revising, which wasn't exactly a healthy way to do things as it left me feeling a little isolated. Top that off with missing friends and lack of sleep and you have a perfect remedy for how not to avoid stress. Nevertheless, I passed and felt a real peace on the week of my exam that really did surpass all understanding, and all the examinees had a lunch together to celebrate. Twas cute.

6) Would you kindly sum up your working month in three alliterative words?
Sunsets, stress, social. (Seriously, these are hard! WHY did I set myself this question?)

Image of a beautiful sunset that I witnessed. Unfortunately taken on a pretty rubbish HTC One camera that doesn't do well in low light or when enlarged. But too pretty not to share. Just squint!

7) Weird habits developed this month?
I used a revision technique which involved putting post-it notes absolutely anywhere I could find: on the fridges, front door, microwave, fireplace, light switches, sink, toilet door... Yep. I went post-it crazy but it definitely felt like a cheat way to revise if I was feeling tired or felt like a quick quiz over breakfast (I know, I am a very sad human being). I also had a craving for baked beans one week. It was odd.

8) What are you missing the most about home this month?
My friends, and being around people my own age everyday. I suddenly realised that I would keep in touch with few people at work after I leave in July, and that there really weren't that many people my own age outside of my housemates who I could chat to on a regular basis. I started looking through my pictures of the last year at school and really missing my friends. I didn't really see that much of most of them over Christmas either because I was studying and didn't have the money to get on goodness knows how many buses everyday to see them. I also didn't feel like I could nag them constantly about Uni and in my hermit/studying stress, along with cutting out social media, I felt quite disconnected from them. There is nothing like old friends, I feel. I don't really like all this moving on business!

9) Best housemate moment?
I have discovered that one of my housemates really likes to rap. So we rapped about our washing up. I also have a very perplexing video of her doing some sort of dancing and rapping in a very bad Jamaican accent which has made me chuckle multiple times. We haven't really been together that much as a house this month because of everyone's varying schedules so that is definitely something to work towards in February, before another five months have gone past and it is too late!

10) Discoveries this month?
The Saatchi Gallery; Jake Bugg's album, Shangri La; vegetable cake; www.brokeinlondon.com; the view from the Limehouse Basin (below)

And there is the round up! Phew. Really do need to find a way to be more concise. 

Have a merry February (JUST BECAUSE IT RHYMES)
-Antonia