We got up at 4am to head to the airport with all our luggage. After a bit of confusion and frustration with the buses, we finally made it to the SFO Airport, and through security JUST IN TIME.

I’m pretty certain we all fell asleep on the plane, although it turns out some of us spilled drinks on other people, or our seats were wet right when we got on the plane hahaha. We made it to Atlanta safely, and started to feel the South’s climate and ways of thinking set in. Even more so, especially once we landed, and were back home in Raleigh.

It’s certainly difficult, as we all noticed, to go from a place where all sexualities, gender identities and gender expressions, are open and encouraged, back to our small city of Raleigh in the Bible belt. Regardless of any sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, we could all feel the difference in mindset, and/or acknowledge it for our counterparts.

However, one of the main points of ASB Trips is not to have students return feeling like they are fortunate for all that they have, and that they had a great vacation. Instead, it is our hope through the ASB program, that something sparks their interest and pushes them to bring about positive change, whether in their hometown, their personal lives, or for the greater good of humanity. The uncomfortableness we felt being back in Raleigh is a good sign, it reminds us that we have been changed by this trip, and that we all know there is work to be done in the GLBTQ and homeless community.

We are already in the process of planning a reunion, one of many team reunions I am sure!

Thank you to all the ASB San Francisco 2012 team members, and thank you to all of those who supported us through the last few months!

Go out and do good things for the world!

We began our morning splitting in  to three groups in order to recreate our Raleigh retreat, which is where we walked in groups around Raleigh trying to find various services for the homeless and GLBTQ population. In Raleigh, we had noticed that there were limited services to both groups, and that the services were quite spread out if a person needed to have both GBLTQ and homeless services. In San Francisco, we decided to see what services were offered in three different districts of the big city: The Tenderloin area (where we were staying and serving with organizations), the Castro district which is known for it’s GLBTQ friendliness, and the Haight, which still has the 1960s Hippies feel to it.

Ultimately, we determined after a few hours of walking around in our respective areas, that it’d be more convenient to find services in San Francisco, but a person has to be the one to ask for those services. Also, we feel like there always needs to be more outreach programs to find people on the streets and serve them somehow whether with food, housing, clothing, education, job training, etc. There were plenty of resources for GLBTQ individuals, homeless families, youth, individuals, but yet, still so many people were out on the streets. Much work has to be done, but work CAN be done, and perhaps that is one of the most valuable lessons we learned.

In the afternoon, we spent a little bit more time in the sunshine and around the city. We hopped upon one of the infamous San Francisco Trolley’s and rode up to Lombard Street, the infamous curvy street.

After seeing Lombard Street, we headed over to the AIDS Memorial Park, which is a park dedicated to those who in the beginning of the AIDS epidemic were ignored, treated badly, etc, their families, and all those since who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Here, in this beautifully serene place, we had a reflection of the recreation of the retreat, of the people we met, programs we learned of, and GLBTQ homelessness issues still not addressed by the city.

We then headed to Sparky’s, one of our favorite places to eat, for our last dinner where we reflected on what are individual favorite parts of the trip were, what we could change for next year, what worked/didn’t work, and so much more.

From there, we shopped a bit more for some memorable goodies and then headed back to the Hostel to pack up, get a few hours and sleep, and head back home in the morning.

Our first day there, half our team sorted through chicken, while the other half created trail mix and oatmeal. It was wonderful to see how fresh the food is that the people who come to Project Open Hand are receiving, and also to know that what we were making for them was literally going to be taken within a day or so at the grocery store! On day two we sorted through celery, bagging an endless amount of oranges, cutting egg cartons in half, splitting pasta, creating almond butter, and bagging frozen meals for delivery. As you can see, our tasks most certainly increased the second day after they saw how efficient and eagerly we work! It was interesting to see though that, as with any nonprofit, there has to be some waste. Our team advisor Chester, and team member Lee, were asked to sort through bags of salad. Ultimately, they were told to throw away the entire bag if there was any brown lettuce in it, which is unfortunate considering so many bags with mostly fresh salad parts were thrown away. However, no one could deny that their ingredients in their food were the freshest imaginable. We also had Patrick, Brandon, and John from our team make almond butter! Project Open Hand makes its own types of almond and peanut butter with literally just the nuts, and a few other ingredients that we’ve all heard of. There’s nothing in the butters that people can’t identify, so it has such a wonderful, natural, chunky taste to it! They even sell it in local stores, and increase their money for their services.

One last night part of Project Open Hand was that they served us and all those who volunteer, lunch each day we were there! Fresh lunch too, with salads, soups, hearty breads, and good drinks. It was a good break from the fastfood/ eating out we had been doing for five days straight at this point.

In comparison to Project Open Hand, which works towards systemic change with their services to the greater San Francisco and surrounding area populations, GLIDE Memorial Church serves three meals daily to feed the hungry every day. We served here both Wednesday and Thursday afternoons after Project Open Hand. At GLIDE, we learned that they have a medical clinic, some housing, a program for youth, amongst other services, and their meal feeding program. Unlike Project Open Hand, GLIDE will make meals with whatever they basically can, so they are not necessarily nutritious, although there are some variations of food groups within a meal. For example, the first night’s meal including hotdogs, pears, carrots, potatoe chips and as much water as they would like. Day two’s meals included rice with some sort of meat melody, carrots/corn, a slice of bread, two tangerines, and again as much water as they would like. There were also vegetarian options. One of our co-leaders Nicole, made an important point that the homeless don’t have too many choices a day, including what they get to eat, so as a team we were encouraged to eat the meals at GLIDE too to understand that this could possibly be our only meal option until the morning.

The actual meal serving program was set up in two rooms; a big room which individuals needed to have received a ticket at the entrance of the church to come in, and the other room which serves the disabled since it is an accessible room, and also services families. Our team was split up to go to both rooms, so for the smaller room they were passing out meals and coming back to the big room (which had the kitchen), to get more meals. Those in the big room either were at the door to receive the tickets, be in the lunch line with a job to either put their specific food on the tray, or hand it to the person who just handed in the ticket, or work the floor in terms of taking finished trays away or refilling water. While the time period only last an hour or so, at least 300 people or more were served, so we were constantly working. This was the most physically service site for us, and we really never slowed down during the time in which the meal serving program was open.

From our experiences with GLIDE though, we did learn a few things about homelessness. One was that there is no one face to homelessness; people of all ages, races, appearances, etc, were coming in to receive food. Some were dressed in suits, some had clothes with dirt and holes on them, some were clean shaven, some looked as though they hadn’t received haircuts in quite some time. We also saw some of the same people both days receiving meals, or even more than once a day. Caitlin, on the first day was the person who received the tickets, and saw a man come in repeatedly for a total of 5 times just for the dinner meal. GLIDE says that people can get a ticket, eat, get another ticket, and eat again, for as many times as they want, as long as there are enough tickets, and it’s during the time in which meals are served.

Most of the people were polite and said hello or thanked us for the meals, while some didn’t speak, some spoke to themselves, some seemed to be strung out on drugs, even one woman openly consumed vodka while with dinner, and others asked us to join heir fight with aliens, Jesus, etc. We did notice that the fulltime staff actually knew a lot of the people coming in, which was comforting to think that the staff does interact with the people they serve. For the most part, it was a peaceful, but busy experience, although on the second day a fight did seem to break out in the big room. We certainly learned a lot from GLIDE, as well as Project Open Hand, these past two days, both about GLBTQ issues and homelessness, and about ourselves!

Also, Thursday night we joined another alternative service break group from Xavier University, to hear a transgender speaker at our Hostel. Zooey had an inspirational story to share with all of us, and truly enlightened many about transgender issues with a Trans* 101  presentation. Trans* issues are a very present, very real part of the GBLTQ community, and it was important for us as a team to learn more about the Trans* community. Thank you to Xavier University and Zooey for having us at the speaker presentation!

For Friday, our last full day in San Francisco, we’ll be recreating the retreat we went on in Raleigh, seeing a bit more of the city, having our last reflection in the AIDS Memorial Park, and one final meal out together!

“Through conversation & observation with the people of New Orleans, I have gained the realization that no matter the hardship, there is always cause to celebrate. Through life, death, and tradition the celebrations should always go on.”

“Meeting the owner of the house we were working on was incredible! She was working right beside us on her future home with such enthusiasm. It really put this trip into perspective, that what we were doing was meaningful and makes a difference.”

“Katrina destroyed a lot more than just houses. Seeing the spirit of this vibrant town dampered made me realize that everything can be damaged, but also that everything can be rebuilt.”

“Although New Orleans is still heavily damaged, residents are optimistic and working hard to make it beautiful once again.”

“Seeing New Orleans with my own eyes was an amazing experience. Actually seeing the Ninth Ward was incredible. Seeing that the people were still there was inspiring to say the least. They’re still here after the incredible amount of damage that was done and that shows hope and extermination. Seeing and meeting these people completely changed my life.”

“The Ninth Ward was the opportunity to be a beautiful area again with the efforts from the neighborhood community and volunteers. it was comforting to have people wave and thank us for our efforts. The bike tour helped show what the area looked like and that my /view of the area was not correct.”

“Before this trip I always wondered why people would choose to remain in a city prone to natural disaster & flooding. From the bike tour & visiting The House of Dance & Feathers”, I’ve realized how rich the culture is in a New Orleans and why people who grew up here would choose to stay despite the city’s problems.”

“My biggest realization was though it is awesome all these volunteers are coming to help out, they aren’t all necessarily asking the community what they need. New Orleans is a very cultured city, very different from others in the US. When projects like the Brad Pitt Make It Right Houses come in and do what they want, they are changing the atmosphere. Its an awesome they already housed 70 families back in the lower ninth BUT the design of the houses are so different from the rest of the communities. This takes away from the original culture of the neighborhood and also going to create this barrier of a “gated community.”

“The cleanup made me realize how much New Orleans is still under poverty and the amount of damage that is still present from Hurricane Katrina.”

“I’ve heard that New Orleans is dirty, but until yesterday I never truly knew what that meant because I know that every city can have trash but where I’m from it is certainly not as big as a problem as it is here. When I saw all the trash on the ground, I was just shocked that people would do that to their city and it makes me wonder how they came to think it was okay. Before we started picking up the trash, I honestly didn’t want to but when we only worked a few blocks, I realized it was a necessity. This city is full of culture and it should be protected by all people to give it the looks that represent its plentiful activity. All of what I saw made me appreciate how we take care of cities in North Carolina and I hope that one day, New Orleans will not have that trash on their great city.”

“Before going on this trip, I always thought of New Orleans as the place where Hurricane Katrina struck. After touring the area and meeting the people who lived here, I learned that New Orleans is much more. It is full of music, good people and that Hurricane Katrina never changed that. That atmosphere kept people going through everything and it brought people together and that to me is amazing. It also made me realize that you make the situation and even if you go through something like Katrina, you can still be happy with the support of the community.”

“New Orleans still has a long way to go as far as clean up. I was surprised that 6 1/2 years after Katrina, more work hasn’t been done. After seeing the empty lots on the bike tour, I realized a lot of people have not been back home.”

“While working with other students this week, I realized how different each of us are. People from Boston who have never seen wild animals or have backyards were trying to clean and build a house. People from Virginia & Louisiana coming together to work with no experience. For the NC State students, some of us had experience but many had none. We all learned valuable skills this week whether it was patience, kindness, the ability to hammer, dig holes or caulk! Hopefully none of us are put to the test of building our own house but we all learned how much work goes into rebuilding a life after a disaster.”

Upon returning from our bear sighting, we joined the Elders for Tlingit class. We were able to learn a great deal of vocabulary words as well as listen to some of their stories with some homemade smoked salmon as a snack. We were also able to look at their Regalia, which are handcrafted clothing and items that represent their culture, clan, and moiety. These items are very sacred to them and the amount of work that goes into creating them is astonishing. Each one is different but can include intricate bead work, fur, and complex designs. They also gave out some dried seaweed to us so that we can cook it ourselves. We felt so honored that they would share such a special part of their culture with us.

After Tlingit some of the high school students invited us to go to a bonfire with them! Although it was raining a little and the drive was a bit icier and a bit longer than we expected but it was definitely worth it. We traveled down a one lane road for about 20 minutes until we were outside of Hoonah City Limits. We warmed up next to a cozy fire they had built. We also had the opportunity to walk the coast line at night with the students. The scenery was beautiful and getting to know the students outside of school was a lot of fun! This is amazing place and it was really touching that they shared a special local spot with us.

~ Chencheng Yang and Katherine Buck

We learned how to make halibut rolls!

Bonfire with some of the high school students

After school, we went on a crabbing excursion with Keith and his son, Torsten. We all piled into two boats and set off toward the crab traps. On our way there, we stumbled upon a sea lion and started chasing it to catch it. Torsten was able to shoot the sea lion a couple of times but we were unable to catch it. At this point, we were cold, wet, very hungry, but excited to be in the Alaskan water and to have this unique experience. At the crab traps, we were hoping to catch a great multitude of Alaskan King crab for dinner. Our stomachs breathed a sigh of relief as Sarah pulled up the first catch of four large crabs. Molly was able to pull in another five at the second trap. We tossed the crabs into the boat, reset the traps, and set off back to the dock.

Feeling pretty good about ourselves, we stepped off the boat and examined our catch. At Keith’s prompting, we took turns biting one of the crabs and holding it in our mouths. We were fortunate to continue this experience by learning how to steam the crabs and clean them. Several team members took the clams we caught on Monday and made clam chowder. Dinner was amazing as we had many seafood selections including fried halibut for people to choose from. Immediately after, Owen came over to share with us some of his carvings and other cultural artifacts. He brought everything from a bear skull, to whale teeth to traditional drums. Later, he showed us rope tricks and we played some rope games. With all the hubbub about the solar storm in the news, we are really hoping to see a better view of the Northern Lights tomorrow night. All in all, today was another pretty awesome day in Hoonah, Alaska. The whole team is looking forward to making the most of our last few days here.

~ by Eric Whitmire and Wesley Lo

Keith made Sarah hold the crab in her mouth

This is the beautiful view of the island (Hoonah) from the boat

Con Amor,
Phoebe Cruz, Nishika Patel, Justine Hollingshead, Emily Bennett, Emily Bissett, Stuart Bumgarmer, Brittany Gabriel, Chris Gabriel, Lauren Hatchett, Dr. F. Hatchett, Christina Saju, Austin Smith, Jay Thakkar, Taylor Thornton, Paulina Tran, and Shayna Wrublik

In the morning, I was helping my team members complete the porch. The porch was a lot harder to complete than I originally imagined. Especially, caulking which I did a bit yesterday and it didn’t take long to find out that it is not my forte. Then, I worked on fencing the house. This started my digging 18 inch holes in the ground, which completely took energy out of me. But, once the hole was dug it was lunch time. A highlight of my lunch was hearing the ice cream truck and getting some ice cream like the good old days.

The rest of the day involved helping my team members fill in the holes with cement. We made the cement by first carrying 80 lbs bags full of cement and mixing with water using a shovel. We poured concrete into a couple of holes with a pole and aligned it with the other holes to make sure we have a straight line of fencing in the end.

As the end of the trip nears, I  definitely feel accomplished on the amount of things we have completed around the house. I’m also looking forward to ending this trip with a proper po-boy as well.

Written by Sid Gandra

Our new friends from Boston, commented on our southern accents, asked us about the famous BBQ and wondered about our weather differences.  They don’t usually experience heat like the Louisiana sun offered today.  The locals reminded us about  August with 100 degree weather and 100% humidity, obviously this sun was nothing compared to what they experience. It reminded me of the time during when Hurricane Katrina actually hit and why we were building a house.  The people suffered for many days with no water, sewage, food, electricity or communication for help. We were building this house for a lady and her family to restart their lives in this place that they love and call home. We can see as we go through town and meet locals how really grateful these people are for our help.  Every time someone asks about why we are here or what we are doing, their response is always “Thank you for coming, we really appreciate everything you do”. We hope to inspire others to contribute their time and effort for people in need.

We celebrated our success of the day with a trip to the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen and another round of Beignets from Cafe Du Monde. We decided we needed to bring as much of the amazing funnel cake-like donuts home with us as we could.

Written by Heather Meiggs

Roofing was my speciality on Saturday and I was eager to do it again today.  However, being surrounded by people who were picking up a hammer for the first time was slightly nerve racking, especially in the roof and especially when one girl said she was afraid of heights.  After picking up the speed though, we thought we were ready to lift the boards, which were 4 by 8 feet, up to the roof by ourselves.  Let’s just say that first time was slightly life threatening on my end exactly at the moment where my patience ran out, but we finally got the board up.   By the end of the day, we had all of the front left side of the roof done, which was a great accomplishment.  The back roof was moving slowly, but every piece had to be cut to fit an angle and the people working the saw were new to the job as well, but I am sure we will get it done tomorrow.

The siding is almost done as well and most of the group is tired of caulking.  Towards the end of the day, the ASB group and the larger college group were working together rather well, though honestly we were ready to leave them at the end of the day.  We got to finish our day with a delicious pasta bar and good Wal-mart pecan pie.

Tomorrow will bring a new and better day, hopefully filled with more patience and greater progress on the house.  I have to say that I am interested in seeing how this week will pan out with 50 people trying to work at the same time on this house, but I can say without a doubt that our group is getting closer as we learn to work together.

Written by Megan Alvord