Week 9 - Austin TX
After two weeks of visiting Texas towns in relatively short stints we rolled into Austin looking forward to being less nomadic and settle down in one spot for a full week. I was even hopeful that it would be restful to slow down our pace and be in Austin for the week. How naive of me. We didn’t experience notable increases in our work schedule, but our social schedule went through the moon. We arrived to Austin Sunday afternoon and by mid day Monday we had just about every night of the week booked with some sort of social activity - cookout, Christmas party, and roller skating birthday party to name a few. Most every night this week we were climbing into bed after midnight which might not seem that impressive but thus far on the bus this has been a foreign hour on the clock to read.
All of this to say, I may still be in social shell shock and haven’t had much time to reflect on our time in Austin, but I will try my best starting with the amazing organizations we got to work with.
On Monday and Tuesday we had the honor of working with Hungry Souls - a local non-profit that partners with schools to provide weekend and school break meals for students and their families. The way they go about providing these meals is admirable. The food supplies provided are thoughtfully selected - being healthy seasonal options, suggested recipes are included for well rounded meals that are intentionally simple so the kids can follow them if their parents are not able to be home during meals, and Hungry Souls prides themselves on the quality of the meals provided and are conscientious about growing at a sustainable rate so that quality isn’t lost. Right now Hungry Souls provides meals for just over 300 students and their families that otherwise would enter each weekend not knowing when or where their next meal would come from.
The program director at Hungry Souls is Ethan who we got into contact with through his girlfriend who we met last week in Kerrville. As it turns out Ethan and Josh knew each other from working at the same Young Life camp back in the summer of 2015, so since they were age old friends we didn’t skip a beat. Ethan was a joy to learn from and work with, a terrific lunch break companion, and we were stoked to see him show up to the cookout we hosted for our friends in the Austin area.
By Wednesday Hungry souls short term needs were met so we pivoted and spent the day volunteering at a Habitat for Humanity site. John Deere was sponsoring the build for the day and representing them was Matt and Nicky. Both are midwesterners, married with kids, and both of their spouses also work for corporate John Deere. They kept throwing around words and phrases that I did not understand. I don’t know if it was corporate lingo, John Deere lingo, or midwest lingo, but sometimes I was a foreigner in a new land around them. Despite it all, they were a blast to talk with and work alongside and they have Josh very excited to go to the midwest.
Speaking of Josh later that day he got a text from a random number asking if, “this is Josh”. The number turned out to be Blake Dudley, an old LOST Bus crew member who was in town for work for a few days and managed to track us down. We jumped on the opportunity to meet up with him and enjoyed sharing a meal and hearing his crazy stories of old.
On Thursday and Friday we mixed it up again working with Austin Pets Alive and a local church preparing for a toy drive respectively, what sticks out about those days and more about the people we got to volunteer with.
On Thursday it was Gregory. Gregory is a sophomore at the university of Texas and through a series of connections we found ourselves sleeping outside his college house a few nights this week. He was chilling on the bus with us Thursday morning and had just finished his exams for the semester so when we asked if he wanted to come volunteer with us for the day he jumped all over it. Gregorys eagerness to serve when he could be out celebrating the end of a hard semester is not all that makes him remarkable though. He was also born with a few more obstacles than your typical peer, notably being fully blind in one eye and legally blind in the other. Because of his eyesight he can’t drive and has to rely on others to get to class, extracurriculars, and social outings. You would think this would be a major speed bump in having a full college experience, but Gregory seemed to have a line of people eager to carpool with him wherever his schedule might lead. Why are people so eager to spend time with Gregory? Well that was easy enough to figure out. Within the first few minutes of meeting him a few things were clear; he is a great question asker (some of our favorites include: What makes you feel alive? When did you last feel nervous? What is your biggest fear? What is the most you have pooped in one day?), he is full of genuine and bursting excitement about you and what you have going on in your life, he has a quick wit and is down to be silly, he is radiating joy, and is unapologetically himself. Whatever Gregory lacks in eyesight he more than makes up for in personality and while he relies on others for rides I think others rely on him for a lot more.
On Friday the person we were volunteering alongside that made an impact on us was Robert, who had been released from a four year prison sentence on Monday - just four days earlier. Robert was humble, hardworking, and candidly honest when we asked him blunt questions like what it was like being incarcerated? How did you end up in prison? What are you gonna do now that you are out? What was your first meal when you got out? How is life gonna look different for you now? Etc. Most of all though Robert was grateful. Grateful to be breathing free air, to have the opportunity to feel sore from activity instead of sitting in a cell all day, and extremely grateful to eat at a food truck with us for lunch and not have to eat beans.
On Monday we will be working with Texas Reach Out Ministries, an organization that has eight halfway homes for incarcerated men and woman recently released from prison. Robert is currently living in one of these homes and we hope to see him again. Tuesday we are heading to Dallas and looking forward to working with Cornerstone Ranch.