Midnight Run

It was sixty-two degrees yesterday and got as low as forty-three degrees at night, but you wouldn’t know it from Alice, who resides in Verdi Square in Manhattan. I use “reside” generously, as Alice is homeless and has been for the past three months. Her demeanor was anything but that which I would expect from a homeless woman; she was friendly, comical, even gregarious, and utterly willing to discuss her current state.

“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t gamble, I don’t have sex, I don’t do any of that stuff,” she told my partner and me during our Midnight Run. “I want to live a wholesome life with good people. I may be homeless, but I still have my dignity.”

Not exactly what you’d expect to hear from a woman on a bench with a cart beside her.

GO-ing

I learned this weekend that I got accepted onto Fordham's GO Adirondacks trip!! Before I continue, I guess I should explain that GO stands for Global Outreach, a student-started student-run cultural immersion and service program. GO sends groups of approximately ten students to over thirty international and domestic locations each year, for anywhere from one to three weeks.

Having said that, I know very little about the Adirondacks trip, except that we're working with Native Americans and that we'll be in the Adirondacks. The website says that we will "learn about the culture and history of the Native American tribes, namely the Mohawk and Abenaki tribes, and...focus on issues of the environment and sustainability through their work with various grass-roots organizations." Sounds good to me.