I began volunteering at BritVil in February, after being on the board for two years. I really did not know what to expect on my first day; I had never volunteered before and I was anxious and excited to meet all the volunteers and clients. One of the first things that struck me as wonderful was when all the volunteers gathered around in a circle before the pantry opened and we all held hands and conducted a prayer circle. It was full of such warmth, caring and life.
Then I got to go and start interviewing clients that came into the pantry for their monthly supply of food. I really had no idea what kind of people I was about to meet, I had never known anyone who had come to a food pantry for help and I had often heard that only lazy people or gang members visit them. But boy was that wrong, I have met all kinds of wonderful people who are struggling and need help but they are all just people, like you and me. Throughout this blog I will document some of the interesting people and stories that make up the BritVil food pantry.
One of the first interesting people I met was an older gentleman who when I called his name he got up slowly and painfully from his chair and limped into my interview with a radiant smile on his face. Besides the smile he had a kind, wrinkled face that looked like it has seen a lot, good and bad.
We made small talk while I pulled up his information in the computer and when I asked to see his id (something we do in every client interview) he passed me his passport. I was a bit taken aback, we usually only see driver’s licenses, he said he did not have an id but would his passport work. He then looked at me and smiled and said “I just got back from Puerto Rico”.
I could feel the passport in my hands was ragged and worn smooth from years of travel and use. I began to flip through it noticing page after page filled with stamps from all over the world. Curiosity got the better of me and I asked “how have you traveled to all these places”. He said that he has hitchhiked and worked his way around the world. He said he would hitchhike to port cities and then offer to work on the ships doing odd jobs in exchange for passage to whatever city they were going too. He would then get off the ship and do odd jobs working here and there throughout the new city until he was ready to move on. He said he was ready to come back home to Oklahoma City for awhile. He also went on to explain that he was a Vietnam Veteran. I knew that he probably had never quite recovered from what he had lived through and probably never really fit back in to society.
What struck me was that he was a very interesting man who had an amazing life story to tell and right then and there I knew that we were really helping people, of all kinds.
