Mother Teresa Mission

Today I started volunteering at the Mother Teresa Mission doing laundry at 7 am-9am. What an experience!! We start in the basement which is dimly lit, and the rooms surrounding it are full of beds for the homeless, mental and physically disabled. Above where we work is open all the way up to the roof so natural light gets down there, the floor is large flat rock paving. Men sitting all around, the floor is wet with water. A large square hole in the corner of the room is the drain for all the water as well as it is the toilet, which is really a chair with a hole in it just over the hole in the ground. We fill a huge metal pot with water and soap, then roll up my pant legs and jump in and start to stomp on the clothes like your making wine. Then wringe them out, rinse, wringe out, put in buckets and carry to roof to be hung on the lines.

What really effected me was the young paraplegic and mental disabled boy who crapped his pants. He was brought over beside me, his shirt removed, then he was layed down on his belly on the stone floor and his soiled pants removed. A man proceeded to pour water on his dirty backside and hand wash his bottom while he lay there. Some one else washed the crap down the hole in the floor and cleaned his shorts. Once completed he was dried off and redressed. It was a scene I will never forget, it broke my heart and warmed it all in one stroke. I find so many moments to be so complex emotionally, so many levels are touched. I see compassion, neccessity, nature, tolerance, harshness, beauty. I'm getted my brain screwed constantly. I will never be the same person again after this trip. I love all that the creator is teaching me and that I'm learning about myself and life. I want to laugh hysterically and cry at the same time, while being thankful for it all.