There are some folks I'd like to introduce you to.

"We know the world, by knowing people."

I've recently started working with a volunteer organization here in New York, and so far I've worked on three different projects.  I spent an afternoon playing Bingo and socializing at a nursing home in Greenwich Village, a day working at a food kitchen for the homeless in Chelsea (we served 1,008 meals in 3 hours!), and an evening at a Jewish Home for the Elderly on the Upper West Side transporting the patients to and from a Brazilian Jazz Concert that was held in the facility.  

As much as all of the volunteers' presence affects the people that we are meeting and helping at each project, I have to be honest: I might be getting as much out it as they are.

I told you about Thelma, the Alzheimer's patient who I met the first Saturday in Greenwich Village.  That day, I also met Miss Geri, who is a Dementia patient, and she was quite the sassy lady when we arrived.  By the end of the afternoon, she had totally lightened up from her originally harsh persona, and even was complimenting her helper on her outfit (the same helper that originally had yelled at to "quit staring" at her).  We came to learn that Geri had made a career in her prime as a fit model for top notch designers.

On Sunday, I met Boogie and Country.  Country told us that he and Boogie are from Jamaica.  A girl I had befriended, who was helping me clear tables, told him she knew Jamaica quite well and asked him what town they were from.  Country told her they were from the part of Jamaica called Aruba.  My friend told him that Aruba isn't in Jamaica, and Country insisted that that's what America thinks. 

Boogie flirted his way up and down with the both of us girls every time we walked by, and he had such a funny disposition that we couldn't help but stop to laugh and joke with him and Country.  We eventually got into quite the conversation with Boogie, who revealed to us that he is the oldest of four sons in his family, and in his eyes, he is the one who has failed.  It made me question exactly how we weigh success and made me sad for Boogie that he thought of himself as lesser of a person than the siblings that he grew up with.  He ended up asking for a hug at the end of it all, and my friend being closer to him than I was hesitantly agreed.  Surprise, surprise: Boogie tried to neck her.  Needless to say that when it was my turn to get necked give a hug, I happened to see two trays that needed to be cleared at the other end of the room.

After I met Boogie and Country, I met Clayton.  A well put-together man, about 6'2'', wearing a Texas Longhorns t-shirt, carefully tucked into khaki shorts.  I walked by and said hello, and he stopped me to say how appreciative he was of us all being there to make sure that he and others could have a proper Holiday meal.  Getting on in conversation, he told me that he hadn't been homeless long, just had a few shortcomings all happen at once with the economy, and he was working very hard to get back on his feet.  I wished him all the luck in world, and my heart hurt for him not having a bed to go home to at the end of the evening.

Before I left that day, a man named Sam started chatting me up.  He asked me if I knew much about Pop Culture, and of course, I do.  He asked me who my favorite model is, so I told him David Beckham was pretty smokin' (I know he's technically a soccer player, but have you seen his Armani ads?), but that I didn't know if that's the sort of model he was referring to.  He gave me a confused look and told me to steer more toward the Giselle and Heidi Klum types.  We spent a good 15 minutes talking about which of the models were, in his opinion, the best ones, and how his favorite discarded magazine to find in the city was a Sports Illustrated so that he could catch up on 'his ladies'.  When I asked him his story, it turns out that Sam is originally from Palestine and moved from there to El Segundo, California where he lived very nicely for 8 years as an IT.  He decided that he wanted to head East and see what everyone raved about New York for, so he got a job in Manhattan as an IT, and moved here a few years ago.  Then he got laid off.  He has no family in the States, and didn't have enough money to get back to Los Angeles, so he ended up living on the streets.  He said he no longer understands why people rave about New York.

At the Jewish Home last night, while I was waiting for our project instructions, I looked around at the group of us assembled to help.  A middle-aged Carribean woman, a Korean collegiate, a Puerto Rican girl about my age, an Indian-British woman in her early 30's, a 60something Hungarian woman, and me, a Caucasian Catholic girl in her early 20s - all volunteering at a Brazilian Jazz Concert in a Jewish Nursing Home.  It was a blatant display of what a melting pot New York really is.

I helped a woman that night named Marina, who was practically deaf and originally from Beirut, Lebanon.  She was a beautiful woman, and she kept whispering hollering to me throughout the concert to tell me stories about her life.  She pulled a United Nation Identification Card from her purse (which she had received due to her husband being a Lebanese diplomat) to show me what she looked like at age 41 - in 1956.  I couldn't believe that the woman that I was speaking to, who was telling me stories of the days she spent as a professional ballerina traveling from Beirut to Athens to Paris to Sao Paolo before she was injured and broke her pelvis and right ankle, was 95 years old.  She didn't look a day over 75, which is still a few times my current age, but 95 years old!  Unbelievable, the life has lived.  It left me hoping during my bus ride home that I am able to have as intriguing of stories to tell one day as Marina has.

It's so interesting, the tales I've been exposed to lately meeting such an array of people.  Getting to see first-hand that New York is not just about the Fifth Avenue Fashionista or the Williamsburg Hipster Crew has really been an eye-opening experience thus far.  I have a project later this week working with the Dementia and Alzheimer's patients in Greenwich Village again - this time doing music and pet therapy with them!  I think that it will be such a cool time, don't you?

In the meantime, I'd love to hear what you think about Geri and Boogie and Marina and the rest...