In the interest of full-disclosure, we Nashville YAVs get a monthly stipend of $400. Our housing, utilities, all that is provided. So the only things we really have to buy are gas and groceries. So $400 is really a lot, and more, I think, than any other national YAV site gets. True, if we were hanging out with people who made a lot more, $400 would not seem like much, and it's not like we can go out on shopping trips and go for nice weekend getaways, but since we're all on the same budget, and we do have some play money, our YAV lives are pretty cushy.
In some ways, then, the Nashville site has made it more difficult to hold on to some of those simpler living habits I adopted in Guatemala and really wanted to hold on to when I returned to the US. Sadly, it has been much easier than I thought to get sucked back into the materialism and consumerism that is all around. I have to admit that I have a thing for clothes and shoes. My tastes aren't fancy, but I'm not really a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl, either, and I find myself wanting a new pair of shoes or a new dress that I don't need. The thing about the $400 stipend is that I can afford these things every once in a while, and that's ok, but the danger is when I begin to start thinking I need or deserve that new pair of shoes or that new dress.
I also spend a lot of money on food. We don't go out to fancy restaurants, but $8-12 meals a few times a month does add up. I also just like good food. I love sweets and desserts, but I also really like healthy foods, and produce is way more expensive than processed food, although I don't really feel guilty about buying healthy food that I cook at home (as long as it's relatively local and in season). However, as I was looking at my pantry recently, I realized I stockpile food. I have a half of a bag of black beans that I've had since September and a bag of lentils I've had for about a month, as well as rice, peanut butter, some almonds and pecans, oats, cheese etc. I have plenty of food.
So this month I am challenging myself to not buy any groceries. I can eat free meals (like at church or other activities where meals are provided), and we buy groceries for our community night dinners once a week as well as a few communal groceries (milk, eggs, butter, spices, etc.) that I will continue to eat. But I'm trying to use things that I already have here and make meals using ingredients I already have. I haven't decided yet whether or not I am allowed to buy some produce (I haven't so far, but it's only day 6 and I did have some left from the end of last month). The goal, though, is to make do with what I've got and not start with one ingredient that I have and then run to the grocery store to buy five more things I need to actually make something with it.
So I won't eat black bean enchiladas since I don't have tortillas. Instead, I'll eat black beans and brown rice. I made a lentil casserole last Sunday that lasted me the whole week, eating it for one meal a day. I also have some frozen peas I've been eating for a week, and I'm planning on eating some other frozen veggies I have, maybe roasted with some spices we already have. I also have ingredients to make bread, and a curry rice dish with raisins and almonts and coconut milk.
I'm trying to live on half of my stipend, at least for this month (although before I start patting myself on the back too much, I did pick the shortest month to start this challenge :). But by doing this, I'm not only saving money to hopefully go toward a trip back to Guatemala in September, but I'm also challenging myself to remember that what I have is enough. More than enough, actually, and more than what a lot of people have.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
We All Need a Cheerleader
I think I've mentioned this before, but our work schedules as Nashville YAVs are set up so that we work 32 hours a week Monday thru Thursday. We all have Fridays off so that we can have time together. We meet every Friday morning with our coordinator, Susan, and sometimes with Janet as well, who is an associate minister at Trinity Presbyterian where I attend and is also a spiritual director who works with us a lot on vocational discernment.
Yesterday, for our Friday morning meeting we met at the Room in the Inn's Campus for Human development downtown, where my roommate Sally works. To prepare for this week, we read Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, which is a look at how many people in America live day-to-day, struggling to find affordable housing, working (often multiple) low-paying jobs, and some of the challenges that our neighbors face, from not being able to save enough to afford the security deposit on an apartment (and therefore having to live in a hotel, even though it is much more expensive in the long-run) to availability of healthy food, to the treatment of low-wage-earning workers by the shopper/client/consumer, to blatant but accepted (or at least tolerated) sexism on many fronts.
At Room in the Inn, we met with a group of three formerly homeless men who are now living in apartments that are owned and operated by Room in the Inn. These apartments are available for men who have completed one of several programs that the Campus for Human Development offers, from a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, a recovery program specifically for veterans, a respite program for people leaving the hospital in need of bedrest (but with no bed to go to), or the Odyssey program which is a holistic program for the chronically homeless (includes drug and alcohol recovery, job training, etc.).
The apartments are very nice efficiency apartments (see photos on the link above), but more than that, the men who live in them are part of an intentional community that offers support and activities. All three of the men who shared their stories with us spoke about the need for community, especially for people recovering from addictions. They spoke about what an important part of their experiences the community has been, and it showed. We listened to one man, Earl, talk for a long time about his upbringing, his children, his career as a musician. And at the end, Don, the quieter of the three, said, "If you've never heard Earl play, you gotta come back one day. He's real good."
One problem the men spoke about (and that Nickel and Dimed demonstrates) is how necessary but difficult it is to save money. We also learned that for many people struggling to live without drugs or alcohol, it is very difficult because if they are able to afford and get into affordable housing, many of those apartments are located in areas of Nashville with high drug activity where it is easy for a recovering addict to relapse.
What's more, because these apartments at Room in the Inn are only for men over 18, it provides a place for many whose criminal record prohibits them from being able to find housing (people with sex offenses on their criminal records have very limited housing possibilities because of laws that say you can't be within a certain distance of a school, childcare facilities, etc.).
It struck me as we were listening to these three very different men tell their very different stories of how they ended up living in the apartments at the Room in the Inn's Campus for Human Development and how the community was such an important part of each of their experiences how much we all need cheerleaders in our lives, people who encourage us and believe in us. It's more than unconditional love, because unconditional love means someone will love you even when you mess up big time. That is freeing in its own way, but I also think we need some people who really believe in us, believe that we can succeed and do well. The second man who spoke to us is a recovering drug addict who had moved into the apartments just the Friday before. He has family still in the Nashville area, and he said that one of the best moments in his recovery process was when his sister told him she was proud of him. "It had been a long time since I heard that," he said.
Yesterday, for our Friday morning meeting we met at the Room in the Inn's Campus for Human development downtown, where my roommate Sally works. To prepare for this week, we read Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, which is a look at how many people in America live day-to-day, struggling to find affordable housing, working (often multiple) low-paying jobs, and some of the challenges that our neighbors face, from not being able to save enough to afford the security deposit on an apartment (and therefore having to live in a hotel, even though it is much more expensive in the long-run) to availability of healthy food, to the treatment of low-wage-earning workers by the shopper/client/consumer, to blatant but accepted (or at least tolerated) sexism on many fronts.
At Room in the Inn, we met with a group of three formerly homeless men who are now living in apartments that are owned and operated by Room in the Inn. These apartments are available for men who have completed one of several programs that the Campus for Human Development offers, from a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, a recovery program specifically for veterans, a respite program for people leaving the hospital in need of bedrest (but with no bed to go to), or the Odyssey program which is a holistic program for the chronically homeless (includes drug and alcohol recovery, job training, etc.).
The apartments are very nice efficiency apartments (see photos on the link above), but more than that, the men who live in them are part of an intentional community that offers support and activities. All three of the men who shared their stories with us spoke about the need for community, especially for people recovering from addictions. They spoke about what an important part of their experiences the community has been, and it showed. We listened to one man, Earl, talk for a long time about his upbringing, his children, his career as a musician. And at the end, Don, the quieter of the three, said, "If you've never heard Earl play, you gotta come back one day. He's real good."
One problem the men spoke about (and that Nickel and Dimed demonstrates) is how necessary but difficult it is to save money. We also learned that for many people struggling to live without drugs or alcohol, it is very difficult because if they are able to afford and get into affordable housing, many of those apartments are located in areas of Nashville with high drug activity where it is easy for a recovering addict to relapse.
What's more, because these apartments at Room in the Inn are only for men over 18, it provides a place for many whose criminal record prohibits them from being able to find housing (people with sex offenses on their criminal records have very limited housing possibilities because of laws that say you can't be within a certain distance of a school, childcare facilities, etc.).
It struck me as we were listening to these three very different men tell their very different stories of how they ended up living in the apartments at the Room in the Inn's Campus for Human Development and how the community was such an important part of each of their experiences how much we all need cheerleaders in our lives, people who encourage us and believe in us. It's more than unconditional love, because unconditional love means someone will love you even when you mess up big time. That is freeing in its own way, but I also think we need some people who really believe in us, believe that we can succeed and do well. The second man who spoke to us is a recovering drug addict who had moved into the apartments just the Friday before. He has family still in the Nashville area, and he said that one of the best moments in his recovery process was when his sister told him she was proud of him. "It had been a long time since I heard that," he said.
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