Learning All About the Area

Hey guys. So I’ve been here a week tomorrow now. It’s crazy how time flies. Yesterday we went about and toured around. Got lost, found our way back, used about every transit system in the city and loved it. We each have passes, $45 bucks a pop that let us use every public transit system inside the city limits of San Fran. It’s really useful. We went all over! Little Italy, China Town, Haight, Broadway, the Castro it was really great. We’ve been to fishermans worf and seen and bay bridge. Next week I can start going out on my own and I think I’m going to walk the Golden Gate.

Man, let me tell you though, it’s a whole other world where we live. We live in the heart of the tenderloin above a drop in center for the homeless. I live with three other girls in a dorm room size apartment. We’re working out the details and quirks of all living together in such a small place. I’m getting used to it though.

My heart has been breaking for this city already. Outside our building at any given time there’s thirty homeless men and women. Our area is one of the worst areas of the city. Which puts us in such an opportune spot but is also somewhat intimidating at first. I’ve seen men shooting heroine on the sidewalks, you can smell the crack from the crack pipes simple walking to the corner store. Walking down the street you’ll witness at least four or five drug deals and people loading there crack pipes. People are constantly searching the ground, at first I didn’t know why. Later I found out it’s for fallen crack rocks. Some of the pigeons here find the left over crack as well and become deformed, addicted and violent.

The city is split up into different sections defined by ethnicity or drugs or other things. Some of these block sections consist of Haight, the Tenderloin, the Castro, China Town… the list goes on.

The Haight is the hippie area, the streets are lined with old men who have been here since the 60s and the hippie revival movement or rebellious teenagers living life with a “free spirit”. Haight is lined with such things as smoke shops and fair trade coffee shops. The area reminds me far to much of Portland. Golden Gate Park is in the middle of all this, commonly referred to as Hippie Hill. This is where everyone smokes and dances to the beat of drums, lays and basks in the sun and just hangs out. There most common drugs in this area are that of the hippies of coarse; weed, LCD and mushrooms.


The Castro has a lot of heroine, this is where most of the male prostitutes would hang out. Since the rise of the internet though, they have doing there business over the web more and more. Still there are a lot of gays in this area. (the word homosexual is really very offensive to them)

Little Italy and China town I don’t know much about except there rich with culture and great food! Haha

The Tenderloin or the TL as we call it, is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods. There’s a lot of anger and hopelessness here on the streets. We live in a predominantly African American neighborhood. Most people here are addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol, the effects are heart breaking. Drugs and alcohol are much more accessible here then most other places. It’s 75 cents for a hit of crack, a buck fifty for a hit of heroine and three bucks for a fifth of vodka. Not only that but there’s really no such thing as liquor stores here. Hard alcohol it just on every corner in the rite aids and small markets open all hours of the night. Everyone around here is generally really nice. It’s sad though because you can be talking to one guy one mintute having a great conversation and see him on the street only a few hours later and he’s a whole other person, just plain angry. That’s happens a lot here because of the come down from the drugs. There aren’t really gangs in the area but the streets are really tight knit. Everyone knows everyone.

I’ve seen a lot and I’ve only been here a week. I’ve made friends with guys on the streets, I’ve prayed for people and seen God just break them. It’s been an amazing experience. And I’ve only been here for a week. I can’t wait to see God work in this community. It’s defiantly in need of love and kindness.

Like I said I live above a homeless drop in center. YWAM owns it. It’s open from 9 to 4 Monday through Friday. It’s such a great place to get to know the people on the streets. It’s funny coming down for breakfast and walking through to get to the kitchen for breakfast. It’s a whole other way of life. I love it.

We’ve started class but we haven’t had any guest speakers here yet. They’ll come next week.

I love it here, I love to see God working here, and I can’t wait to see more. It’s fastly becoming home.

I will put up pictures soon. I swear. :)