Monday, July 14, 2008
Dinner time
Years ago, Cindy and I used to serve a monthly breakfast to homeless people in Seattle. When Kenzie was little I would put her in a backpack and we would work the meal. As she got older we faded a bit, and when Mason came, we were done. We wanted to give the kids the experience of serving the under-served, but in practice we were unable to make it work.
So, tonight we had the chance to serve dinner at Tent City in Bellevue. Tent City accommodates about 100 people. Each resident goes through a background check to ensure no sex offenders. It's self-governing with a very low tolerance for any missteps. One guy I talked to had just gotten evicted and has to leave for 14 days because he missed church on Sunday. The place is clean, including well-maintained Honey Buckets, soap, and a maintenance crew.
Since Cheyenne and Lane are still here, we decided to leave Mason at home, but were hoping Kenzie would go. That was the plan, until tonight. She decided she didn't want to go because Lane wasn't going. I told her that it was her decision, but asked her to listen to why I was going. We talked for a few minutes about what it would be like to live in a tent, to not have a stove to make meals, and to be unsure as to whether or not you would have dinner. I told her that I was going to go because otherwise these people wouldn't have dinner. She processed it, perked up, and said, "I'm going, Mom, I want to go."
We packed up some spaghetti, barbequed brisket, and our powdered strawberry lemonade. Kenzie was good with it, just not the lemonade. She didn't quite understand why they NEEDED the lemonade...but still was a sport, even mixing it up when we got there.
Off we went. Kenzie was in charge of handing each person a fork and a plate, then just sitting and socializing. I was really proud of her. She was engaging and participative. She made a friend with one guy who traded jokes with her. She got a big laugh from him when she recited the one and only joke she knows (courtesy of Grammy): "How do you spell mousetrap in 3 letters?" Answer: C-A-T. She was able to hustle up a few other jokes and enjoyed being the highlight of the night for a couple of people. But she still couldn't be convinced to leave the rest of our powdered strawberry lemonade behind!
So, tonight we had the chance to serve dinner at Tent City in Bellevue. Tent City accommodates about 100 people. Each resident goes through a background check to ensure no sex offenders. It's self-governing with a very low tolerance for any missteps. One guy I talked to had just gotten evicted and has to leave for 14 days because he missed church on Sunday. The place is clean, including well-maintained Honey Buckets, soap, and a maintenance crew.
Since Cheyenne and Lane are still here, we decided to leave Mason at home, but were hoping Kenzie would go. That was the plan, until tonight. She decided she didn't want to go because Lane wasn't going. I told her that it was her decision, but asked her to listen to why I was going. We talked for a few minutes about what it would be like to live in a tent, to not have a stove to make meals, and to be unsure as to whether or not you would have dinner. I told her that I was going to go because otherwise these people wouldn't have dinner. She processed it, perked up, and said, "I'm going, Mom, I want to go."
We packed up some spaghetti, barbequed brisket, and our powdered strawberry lemonade. Kenzie was good with it, just not the lemonade. She didn't quite understand why they NEEDED the lemonade...but still was a sport, even mixing it up when we got there.
Off we went. Kenzie was in charge of handing each person a fork and a plate, then just sitting and socializing. I was really proud of her. She was engaging and participative. She made a friend with one guy who traded jokes with her. She got a big laugh from him when she recited the one and only joke she knows (courtesy of Grammy): "How do you spell mousetrap in 3 letters?" Answer: C-A-T. She was able to hustle up a few other jokes and enjoyed being the highlight of the night for a couple of people. But she still couldn't be convinced to leave the rest of our powdered strawberry lemonade behind!
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