Christmas 2017

Kwalin, Sister Fanya, Sister Akanke, Wanda (middle rear)

"I'd like earrings for Christmas," she said. I missed the clue, so she then said. "I remember you."

Dressed in all pink, she looked really pretty. I remembered my excitement a couple years ago when I went shopping for earrings for her and my delight when she put on a pair. Later, when the encampment was moved for street cleaning, she lost most of them. We were both sad.

I went home and and while looking for other items to take back to Peggy and Janie, I found, guess what? a bag with jewelry, earrings and a necklace. However, when I went back by first one, then the other, encampment that same morning, Dolores's tent was up and I am not sure if she was inside. Dolores didn't answer when I called.

I saw people drinking from large liquor bottles on the block. The place was dirty, broken glass and debris in the street and on the sidewalk. Before it was spotless. Robert would keep bleach and pine-sol and a broom in a tent. He would also keep a big garbage bin to put the debris inside. I made sure we always gave him plenty garbage bags and cleaner.

There was so much debris everywhere, especially in the area around 35th and Peralta, Linden street, just around the corner there were piles of trash.

Wood and 26th Street

We started with a prayer circle before the meal. Mavin and Pete joined us. Soon others came over for breakfast. Everyone seemed to like the slides, peroxide, rat traps, flashlights, jackets, and of course long underwear and socks. The women really appreciated the feminine hygiene products, shampoo and lotion. The Wo'se team had bagged the items to make it easier to distribute. Tracy went to several stores to purchase all these items.

Besides the bought items, Tracy's team also included inspirational sayings in the bags and information on Winter Shelters.

After the breakfast on Wood ended, some us took the extra meals to the folks at 35th and Peralta and then Tracy, Sister Akanke and Sister Fanya went to East Oakland and Alameda dropping packaged items to others Tracy knew.

At the encampment at 35th and Peralta which had grown at least 4X since the Spring when the City of Oakland's experimental Compassionate Community ended, not many people were hungry, so Tracy and her crew headed off and Kwalin and I left bagged meals on a table.

I went home and went through items in my garage to find shoes and clothes for Peggy and her daughter back on Wood Street. Peggy explained earlier at breakfast that she'd been robbed. When I returned Peggy also needed aspirin. She'd just gotten out of the hospital. The wrist band was still on her. There she learned that she had cancer. I have met so many women with illnesses on the street.

Tracy, David, Michael

Traci Bartlow baked a chicken with vegetables. It smelled so delicious as Kwalin cut the meat from the bones to put on the plate. It looked really appetizing. We had a system going, Kwalin, Irv and I.  I was the beans and rice person in the assembly line, Irv the egg and bread man. His sister handled the coffee and candy, water and toilet tissue.

I kept getting mixed up. I wasn't used to serving or cooking the main course either: beans and rice. I hadn't boiled eggs in so long, I ended up steaming the four dozen I prepared. (I read that steamed eggs peel easier.)

Irv's sister was visiting from the East Coast, but she joined her brother that morning for a few hours to share a bit of cheer with the lesser fortunate among us before spending the rest of the day with family.

The same was true for Michael James, saxophone, who played Christmas tunes and David Goodlett who played guitar. It was Michael's third Christmas with us. It was probably true for almost everyone there.

Irv's Sister, Wanda, Tracy, Irv

The $1000 donation the The Brotherhood of Elders Network gave really helped. It was great to see Elder Network member, Arnold Perkins with his wife and younger son out that morning too.

Serving the People