Yesterday ended and today began not in the way I had imagined it would.
Beware of scrolling down twitter because you may just come across a tweet that catches your imagination - I was lying in bed when I saw one from the outgoing Lord Mayor of a Belfast saying that 100 young people would be sleeping rough in the grounds of City Hall.
Homelessness is an issue I've been pondering for a while and the plight of those who find themselves on our cities streets one that I have kept returning too so I simply tweeted and asked could I join - yes came the reply and so off I headed not really sure what I was letting my self in for and nothing could have prepared me for the experience, the conversations and the emotional roller coaster.
At 6 pm when I joined my fellow band of young people there was very much a carnival atmosphere in the air - frisbee playing, hot food van and musicians a nice way to bring a summer day to a close BUT it was when the sun started to set that the reality of what lay ahead hit me cause in my enthusiasm I hadn't even brought a sleeping bag with me though one did arrive from the lovely people at the welcome centre.
So the gates were locked and in the darkness a city that is so familiar in daylight became an uncertain and unknown place in the dark and while we had safety in numbers thoughts turned to the isolation of others settling down for the night on their own.
Though the conversation flowed - there were stories exchanged of each others backgrounds and lives - there was first hand accounts of the reality of losing your home and having absolutely no where to go - the different points you need to amass to get a house in different parts of the city - the difficulty of accessing services and of course the stigma and comments that are directed to you on the street on a daily basis.
The weather that had been so beautiful during the day gave way to showers in the wee small hours of the morning - plastic bin bags were found to place over sleeping bags to try and stop water getting in and for many of us the first thoughts were what I've the water gets into our phones but the rain finally stopped.
The noise was another factor to contend with as nightclubs emptied and the revelry spilled onto the streets suddenly there was an ominous feeling in the air and whilst we were behind the gates of city hall you couldn't help but think how threatening it must feel if your actually on the street and you really don't know what is coming towards you.
This morning as I'm writing this still on those city hall steps I can't help but remember and paraphrase the words of Atticus Fitch in To Kill A Mocking Bird 'you don't know someone's life until you walk a mile in their shoes' and while I may have only walked part of the way I defiantly got my eyes opened and challenged by how we as a society can help those for whom the streets are a daily and nightly reality.
