San Francisco, CA

A single trip across the country can open your eyes to a whole new world- both geographically and culturally. Before the trip, as I was anxiously awaiting the time to come, I pondered what service might be like in San Fransisco. I generally thought it would be the same just as Cleveland, just in a state on the west coast. Little did I know the large differences between the two. After four full days of service, I learned that San Fransisco is highly rich, yet strikingly poor. Every agency we worked with explained this to us, and how important it was to help those that could not get out of the situation they were stuck in due to the high expenses of the city. They also have a large amount of the population that are not very poor and can even be working a low income job and still be homeless. At the the Alameda County Community Food Bank, the volunteer manager so greatly stressed, “We need to do better. We have to do better.” After that Monday, during each service event (from St. Mary’s Center, to the Bay Area Rescue Mission, to The Salvation Army) this never left my mind. Endless inspiring experiences occurred throughout the week including speaking with many men and women who had previously been homeless and started to get their life back on track by giving back to the fellow community in need. These little experiences that each and every one of us got to encounter are something we will not forget. From the bellies we fed, sorting of toys, food preparation, checking expiration dates, and the engaging conversations, each experience allowed a new insight on making this world a better place. We may not have been able to change the world within our week service, but we were able to change someone’s world.

--Kara Kovach

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I’ve never experienced a culture shock within the United States the way I did when travelling with Viking Expeditions to Bay Area in San Francisco, CA. I had never been to the West Coast before and the differences between the two sides of the nation were glaring. The hills, the weather, the houses, the food. And yet there was still a comforting sameness between Oakland and Cleveland that we saw during our service. Both cities struggle with the same poverty, hunger, and housing problems we see every day in Downtown Cleveland. The faces of the poor and hungry seemed similar in both areas and even the landscapes were the same – graffiti, torn up concrete, and grey skies.

However, the Bay Area is different from Cleveland in that it’s right next to one of the richest areas in the country. This makes housing unaffordable to some and homelessness and poverty are all too common. To combat this, we spent day one of our trip at the Alameda County Food Bank, sorting and packaging food from the organization’s holiday food drive. Days two and three were spent at homeless shelters in the poorest areas of Oakland and San Francisco where drugs, crime, and poverty ran rampant. It was a blessing to be able to meet with the residents and staff of the shelters and appreciate exactly how they got there and what they were doing to get out. A particularly kind gentleman named Jeff showed us around the shelter’s warehouse where donations were processed. He later told me his life story, plagued with alcoholism and drugs, where he ended up homeless in California and the Midwest and eventually came to the shelter. He proudly told me he was set to graduate from the shelter’s rehabilitation program that Tuesday. I think about him a lot – I’m hopeful he gets closer to getting back on his feet every day. We spent our final day of service with the Salvation Army, an organization we know well in Downtown Cleveland, where we packaged up presents for families in the area who could not afford to purchase gifts on their own. It was a heartwarming way to end the week that succeeded in putting me in the Christmas spirit. I loved California and I believe it was important that my first time there was spent on a VE trip. Anyone can travel to one of the richest areas in the country and see the Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street and the sights San Francisco is famous for. But it’s important to look beneath the façade and see the poverty that plagues the area, especially around the holidays when some people have so much and others have so little. I feel truly blessed to have been able to help where I was needed. Merry Christmas, Oakland!

--Elissa Tennant