April 19, 2022
The theme for this week is the Rebirth. We drove all over and around Detroit tonight. Over the past 16 months, I have immersed myself into the horrors that humans must endure to survive. A lot of it I have shared with you here. Some of it was too inappropriate to confess on Facebook. Even though all those things are still true and ongoing, I have been blessed to also see the strength, the pride, the longevity, and the positive examples, too.
Every Tuesday, we stop someplace in Detroit to pick up dinner before we hit the streets. We have found so many delicious homemade meals this way. This week we ate from a tiny place named Sheeba. The food was so delicious and fresh. I ate a falafel sandwich. There was a Greek Coney Island next door to that named King Grill. Marley ordered from there. They have spectacular round layer cakes available by the slice. It’s another family-owned business that hires from the neighborhood. Those are places that I am grateful to spend money and tip well.
Stanley now operates his own Medical Street Outreach team. The space that he uses is part of another Detroit nonprofit. There are different nonprofit outreach groups that go out with the other teams more often. Sometimes they are medical professionals, or students. Sometimes the people focus on harm-reduction and addressing the opioid epidemic. Sometimes they are advocates for the women who are in the sex worker industry. I’m starting to learn the different programs there are to try and help people with various situations.
I have seen volunteers from every walk of life that all have the same drive to improve the world in some way. We need to be there even though we don’t have to be. We know we need to be.
I drove by the Faygo factory. I drove by several urban gardens and neighborhood hoop houses. We drove through the Wayne State campus. We saw an infinite number of boarded windows, but the lawns were always mowed and kept. There are a lot of newer updated houses in areas where there aren’t usually very many nice houses. It’s a start.
People often come up to our outreach caravan to ask what we are doing. After we tell them, they either tell us about the community improvements they are working on themselves, or they ask how they can help us.
We helped several people in a couple of different places before heading to our favorite spot on the East Side. There was a swarm of friends who hadn’t seen us in a couple of weeks. There was a couple of new people, too. There were also a couple of people who were missing. We can only hope for the best.
At one point a police car pulled up and asked Traci what we were all doing. She began to answer him, but then pointed him to Andy who had just walked up to help. He explained what we were all there for. The officer asked about one the clients. They wanted to be sure he received medical treatment for a wound they noticed he had. They weren’t there to be a hassle. They weren’t there to intimidate anyone. They were there to make sure everyone was as safe as they could be.
I talked to my preacher friend for a while. He has some hard things to deal with right now. Someone close to him has begun a rapid decent towards dementia. They cry together. They pray together. I know it must feel like a lonely battle for him most days. I’ll keep bringing brownies for her.
We took our time with the people we saw tonight. We talked to everyone. We made sure they were okay. Sometimes people just like talking to us. We don’t want anything, and we don’t judge. I love watching the other people take care of one another.
I love seeing the rebirth of Detroit first-hand. Detroit has survived a lot. It is a historical beast of phenomena and forensics. It is also someplace where people are willing to do the work. Detroit knows it’s had some shady exes in the past. But it’s had enough time to get its priorities straight. Detroit is ready for a healthy relationship with itself now. Perfect is an unrealistic goal. Just so long as you can see a marked improvement over time, then you’re always getting better.
Because that’s how we do it in Detroit. Amen.
#peacelove&hygiene #magdalenesmission
