‘It’s not just a lineup handing you food,’ says new volunteer at Catholic Charities drop-in centre
The B.C. Catholic
Two new faces in the Downtown Eastside are working hard to bring dignity to the disadvantaged.
Carmelite Sister Baybeth Andaya bows her head and prays as hundreds of poor and homeless people wait in line to receive a hot meal at The Door is Open.
“We go where we are needed,” she said right before serving the daily 11 a.m. meal at the drop-in centre.
“There is a need to be here. I am responding to that.”
The Door is Open serves 300-500 hot lunches every day. It also runs a food bank, arts and crafts for women, and other programs.
Sister Andaya landed in Vancouver Aug. 12. For the last 15 years the nun has been teaching classes, running retreats, and giving spiritual direction to seminarians and other religious communities in her home country, the Philippines.
Every sister in her congregation has a master’s degree or a doctorate and is qualified to teach; Sister Andaya’s training is in counselling.
Now she has taken on a completely new role, cleaning, serving hot lunches, and sorting donated food and clothing for the homeless in a foreign country.
“It’s not really a big change. The difference is just physical,” she said.
“I got the clean people going to the seminary. Here, it’s a different kind of people, but it’s still the human person. Even if you are somebody wanting to be a nun or a sister or a priest, the sense of self is still very important. They have their own brokenness too, their own pain, just like these people.”
She and two other sisters from her congregation serve at The Door is Open, with the help of about 800 volunteers a year.
Among those volunteers is Paul Jarjabka, a man who lives at Catholic Charities Men’s Hostel and decided to give back to the people who have helped him find food and shelter.
“I volunteer for the sisters because I love them. I truly enjoy being here and being around the sisters who are just so wonderful. The people involved here have become like my family,” Jarjabka said.
For the last two months he has been greeting hundreds of people who come to The Door is Open for lunch. “The more people you meet, the more people you treat with respect and show them some dignity.”
He wears a rosary around his neck as he welcomes his hungry neighbours at the door, sometimes with a fist bump or handshake. “It’s not just a lineup handing you food. It’s about people interacting with each other. It lifts my spirit as well.”
The manager, Scott Small, said, “Paul has a lot of respect among the people in the group because he’s a peer. He’s able to speak the local dialect, the local language, and he comes across in a loving, kind, and gentle way.”
Arguments are left outside the door as Jarjabka warmly invites them in. “Alcohol is not the solution,” he agreed as a woman struck up a conversation with him by the door.
“When you’re in a situation that starts to drag you down, you have to move on in life,” he said in an interview. “Say goodbye to the things in life that were holding you back, and go forward in a positive way.”
