Primer Fin de Semana / Urban Plunge

One
of the most important activities in Loyola High School is the Urban Plunge.
This consists in spending time helping the homeless people that live,
especially, in the area of Skidrow. We began this awesome experience on Friday
going to the HomeBoy industry. This place is an institution that helps ex gang
members to    'restart' their life. To do
this, they get them a job, a house and remove their tattoos. This place is run by
an ex gang member named Vance who does an incredible job helping the people who
now is the situation he was some years before. Afterwards, we had a 'tour'
through Skidrow. This is an area where the biggest groups of poor people live.
Because of this is why lots of missions are located hire. At night, we shared a
meal with the people who were in the shelter and we talked for a while. Later
on, a recovered homeless, called Tyron gave us a very inspiration talk. In this
one, he told us his story and how he managed to get out from the street. On
Saturday, we went to help to St Francis Center where we helped the people who
work there to distribute food between all the 'members' of the shelter.  After this exhausting task, we bought some
food and went to Loyola to eat and   
have a sports afternoon. Some hours later, we went back to the shelter
where we shared some mates while listening to music. On Sunday, we woke up at 5
am !!!! That should be illegal!!! We were woken up so early    because we had to cook the breakfast for
the people who were sleeping in the shelter. Besides the fact that we could not
sleep almost anything, we had a great time cooking. Later on, we went to mass
and we helped another mission. This time, we had to go around the city while giving
lunches, waters and grooming kits for the people living in the street. This incredibly
weekend really touched us and I think we wont forget it  for a long time.


By Juan Ignacio Dighero