Magdalene's Mission Uncategorized

Peace, Love & Hygiene vol. 117     

4/17/2024

Let’s talk adventures in Detroit!

We had the ultimate mother-load of food to take out this week. It was beautiful!

Our first stop of the night, we pulled over and sat for about an hour. Little swarms of mostly women and a few men approached the van eager for food. I love it when the weather breaks into the warm season. We can stand outside and talk to people more.

One couple who was treated had the necrosis terrible in them. The young man had a hole in his arm that looked like it had been scaped out with a burning ice cream scooper. It was kind of heart shaped. I spoke with his girlfriend for a bit while he was receiving medical attention.

You could not have met a gentler soul than this girl. She couldn’t have weighed more than 80 pounds. My dog weighs heavier than her. She has the softest, sweetest little voice. She talked to us about her addiction and how hard she was trying to be free. She was working with the medical team to put herself in a position to succeed. The housing resource specialist found her an apartment. She can’t wait to be somewhere safe. She want to be in a home where the bad things aren’t always coming after her.

I saw the open flesh wound on her hand. The skin rotted off all the way up her arms, but she couldn’t move her sleeves. The necrosis has spread into her hands, and her fingers are permanently bent. The knuckles are swollen, and her fingers don’t move anymore. Traci remembered struggling to put gloves on her hands last winter. They had to find her some mittens. She said she’s been like that since last April. It’s very painful all the time.

Xylazine. It’s what drug dealers mix with fentanyl to make to make the high more intense. It’s also an animal tranquilizer that over time causes necrosis, aka, the flesh rot.

We had a small crowd of people by the two vehicles. Some of the women were known sex-workers. A couple of cars parked around the corner from us. They were staring at our girls like they were waiting for something.

Tuesday nights are special for our people. It’s the one time of the entire week that they can get their survival needs met safely. It is a coveted, sacred time.

Nick was out with us again. I love this dude. He noticed the other guys staring at our girls. Nick got out of the van and just walked around and stood between the girls and the other men. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. Traci and I took care of our ladies, and the other guys drove away. We laughed!

Two ladies parked their vehicles in front of ours. Then they got out of their cars and started walking around the perimeter of the empty lot we were all parked in front of. They were praying. They walked around and around the edge of the lot praying for a while.

Next thing I know, Traci is best friends with these two ladies, and she invites me over to meet them. They are from a local church. They set up tables and offer meals to people in that little lot every week. I think it would be fantastic to work with their little group sometime. Don’t you?

We drove to a few more places on the southwest side. A couple of them were places where we knew people lived. A few people we just met randomly walking.

We saw Show-Time, but he looked really confused. He was standing in an empty parking lot with some of his belongings scattered around him in a circle. By the time I gave him food, hygiene and a hug, the medic team said that we were being video recorded. Time to go. Now.

A saw a kitty walking alone outside, but the caravan wouldn’t turn around so that I could feed him. Sigh.

The old man who camped behind the ice cream shop remembered me. Everyone was elated with the amazing, generous food donations. Marley (Felix) and Lilli worker hard preparing chicken salad and putting it on croissants and yummy bread. We had plenty of cookies and muffins to keep people munching on something until next week.

Fed a kitty!

“Can I get some of those hot dogs?”

Apparently, there is a group that drives around serving people hot dogs. Sometimes we get mixed up with them. They haven’t been around in a while though.

I saw Darla! Our favorite homeless 3-legged pit bull! I had food for her, and she had a bunch of licky- lovey kisses for me. She still uses the leash I gave her last year. Her person loves that she gets loved on by us.

He is a nice man.

Last stop of the night, I saw my Widow Who Sits! She came dancing across the mud parking lot to give me a hug. The van was towed away. Now she lives in an abandoned pick-up truck with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend who, by the way, is still free and clean after a week of living out there! He still has his job and finds a way to get to work every day. He looks healthy. He really appreciated the clean socks. After a long day of breaking up concrete, clean feet are a good feeling.  

Because, you know, he can’t take shower.

But he can eat real food for breakfast this morning. And he can see what he’s doing because we gave them a flashlight, and a glow stick. He has a clean jacket and socks for work today. He has baby wipes, and toothpaste to clean up. He has the essentials to continue being a grown man. That he can do. We do what we can, and that’s all we can do.

Because that’s how we do it in Detroit.

Amen.

Magdalene's Mission Uncategorized

Vol. 47

January 25, 2022

Traci and the other outreach teams make a visit.

The theme for this week is Grit. I’m still pretty shook up as I type this to you. I’ll try to take you through our night.

Traci and I hit the streets tonight in a great mood. We arrived in plenty of time to chat it up with the other volunteers. We agreed that we were going to try and help our friends who were shelter challenged first. The weather app on my phone said it would get down to 0 degrees tonight. The weather can kill. It hurts me after a few minutes. The air was aggressive cold tonight.

The violence has gotten heavy lately. A lot more shootings in the neighborhoods and at the gas stations where we stop every week. We can hear the gunfire in the background. Last week, a girl was attacked with a box cutter. She had 2 large gashes on her face. He would have killed her but for the PEPPER SPRAY she had with her that allowed her to escape. Someone talked of another girl who was killed with a box cutter on Michigan Avenue and bled out right there on the sidewalk. I don’t worry about me. I worry about them when I’m not there.

We stayed on the southwest side. The first stop we went to was a familiar one. A few other volunteers went behind the buildings and to the back of the lot. Traci and I watched them knock on the doors of abandoned vans and cars. Sometimes people would live under tarps covering piles of wood and pallets. After a few minutes, our friends emerge. The first woman we saw was wearing a windbreaker and a yellow knit blanket wrapped around her waist. She didn’t own any pants. No pants. The woman was so thin it looked like she might blow away and it was barely even windy. Traci redressed her. The poor thing just stood there while Traci layered her with warm shirts and a real winter coat, hat and gloves. She saw a price tag still on the pants we gave her. (Thank you Katie N!) Traci said she could have cried.

We found a man who needed a tent. We had a tent! He didn’t want to take anything else he felt he didn’t need. He kept reminding Traci that he had a driver’s license still. Everyone was super hungry. The Mags Bags are still a hit. It’s all the payment in the world when I see how relieved someone is when I explain what is in there- hat, gloves, socks, hand and toe warmers, hard candy, a hygiene kit including baby wipes, tissues, feminine hygiene products, and sometimes manicure sets and hair ties or a random special.

We drove around for a while and found a couple people here and there. We visited our friends who live under bridges and some in tents in abandoned lots. We passed out a lot of flashlights and pepper spray to anyone we could.

At one point, the medical team was off doing medical stuff so Traci and I followed the other teams over to another spot to wait. They had their own clients as well. We waited for several minutes before someone came and told us what was going on. Things got pretty dramatic and I can’t go into it here. But we saw some really dark stuff tonight. Stuff I’m not going to shake off. That’s all I am willing to put on the internet.

The weather is life or death. First-aid can be life or death. Walking, sitting, sleeping, talking, not talking, food, everything, anything. All of it all the time. This is not a lifestyle someone chooses because its so effortless.

Since I started coming to Detroit I met people who were intentionally shot, crippled by drive-by shooters, run over, thrown out of cars, robbed, raped, stabbed, had all their belonging set on fire, all their hair chopped off, branded, or worse. We try to offer a moment of reprieve. A glimmer of hope. And that is all they need to keep going a little longer.

Grit…

Other teams wanted to keep going on to some other houses where they knew they were needed. Traci and I gave them our last 8 meals, some bags, blankets and sweatshirts, then called it a night in Detroit.

Now I am in my warm house. I’m drinking a Sam Adams beer then I’m going to go lay down in my warm bed with lots of blankets and my foam pillows. First, I’ll look around for a snack to eat while I fall asleep safely watching cartoons. My sweet and sober husband is snoring softly for the next few hours until he goes to work. I’ll be able to get up with my kids, take a shower, and then drive them to school.

My friends on the streets can not do any of those things. Not a single one. Yet, I will most likely not be shot, run over, robbed, raped, stabbed, had all my belongings set on fire, branded, or worse. Not that I haven’t experienced any of that at some point. It’s just that if it happened now, it would be out of the ordinary. For those girls, it’s just a potential threat of every moment their life. They gotta have grit to survive.

I’m praying for them. They so tiny. Their friends are just awful. I’m so glad Andy and the other volunteers were there at the exact moment they were. I am grateful for everything everyone has ever donated to Magdalene’s Mission so we can be there to do whatever is we can for people.

Because that’s how we do it in Detroit. Amen.

#magdalenesmission #peaceloveandhygiene