What an amazing journey this has been and we aren’t even half way through the tour! The people we worked with in Seattle and Portland were incredible. Everyone was so gracious and helpful.
My Father's House
We arrived in Portland on Sept. 24 and parked at friend’s place in nearby Hillsboro to “camp out.” Actually, Nash is our gracious host in the Portland area. The next day, we went to our first family shelter, My Father’s House. Several families with children of all ages painted and played to their heart’s content. We took some great video and interviewed just about everyone there. The children were really amazing and so cute!
Later on that day, we headed to Operation Nightwatch, an evening drop-in center, known has the “poor man’s Starbucks.” Amidst the chaos of lots of people coming and going in a very small space, we managed to get several people involved in creating art work and talked with others as well. The place is a rare example of community and cooperation in a non-shelter facility.
Operation Nightwatch
Operation Nightwatch is open evenings from 7-11PM and serves coffee, lemonade, sandwiches and cookies or cupcakes. All the food is donated. We were exhausted after doing a “double.”
The next day, we visited Sisters Of The Road Cafe, a wonderful little restaurant that feeds lunch to hundreds of poor and hungrey people each day. Rich and the people we met their were wonderful. They even saved us a parking space on street next to building and ran an electric line out there for us. I so appreciated the help with the parking because it is really a chore driving and parking our RV on congested city streets like Portland.
Sisters Of The Road Cafe
All the participants in the art workshop were great and we had a wonderful discussion at the end which we captured on video. We had lunch there today and it was really tasty and the price was right – $1.25.
After lunch, we headed to Dignity Village, one of the first intentional communities created by homeless people in the world. In addition, we were blessed to have a guided tour of the place from its founder, Ibrahim Mubarak. He is an amazing and courageous man that challenged the status quo and defended the rights of homeless people, risking jail and persecution in the process.
Ibrahim At Dignity Village
Despite repeated eviction and persecution, a Ibrahim and a small but brave group of core supporters succeeded in creating a community from nothing. When it began 10 years ago, they pulled together and built a wind mill to generate power, community gardens and small shacks from recycled materials. Today, Dignity Village is a non-profit organization with a self-governing council and its own 24 hour security force. Although located on city land next to the compost dump, a state prison and a major airport, the people there are closely connected and ready to help anyone at any time. Truly an inspiring place that others who seek sustainable communities should look at. They are advising other tent cities how to create and organize communities and people from around the world have visited the village to learn.
Dignity Village Gate