Day 7:

Hello for one last time!

This is really it - the end of our week on the streets. In about six hours time we will be home for the first time in a week. I think it's fair to say that both of us are looking forward to that very much. Morale is at its highest ebb despite slight sunburn for both of us from this afternoon and a pretty disturbed night's sleep (both the sun and the rain conspire against us).

The big news since the last post is that we managed to find ourselves a shower! St Giles Church (on St Giles) has a shower room in its adjacent church hall that they have recently been opening up on a Saturday morning for people who need to use it (like us). Turning up, still slightly damp from the rain, we were handed a basket of shower equipment and ushered through. Both of us are agreed that it was the shortest fifteen minutes of our lives, but were in no mood to complain. It was amazing to notice just how much more human we felt being clean and fresh. To add to this, we were handed a bag of goodies on the way out including a bacon roll, a chocolate bar and a banana. Wow.

Something we have noticed is that we seem to need less food in general - the light lunch provided with the showers proved more than enough for us, even though we are both usually big eaters. After eating this, we spent the afternoon in town, chatting with people we bumped into and keeping on the lookout for anyone who might be kipping in town that night. We gradually were realising that all of the friendly, personable chaps we chatted with had other places to be at night than the centre. It seems that people who can be somewhere else make every effort to do so - basically, the centre of town isn't a good place to sleep, which we slowly came to accept.

After an afternoon entertaining ourselves in town and another wonder-buy of reduced bakery items from the Co-Op in Summertown, we bedded down once again in our usual spot, slightly worried as it had been raining and the wind seemed to be blowing in the one unprotected side of our porch. As hinted at earlier, it was not the best night's sleep as it rained torrentially in the early morning, getting James a bit damp (Chris, on the other side, managed to stay dry); yet it was much less bad than it could have been as the wind changed before the rain began.

In the morning we went to the nine thirty service at our church (the first time James had made it to that service in several years) to report back on the week after eating our breakfast on the
wall outside the front. Then another brief rest in the sunshine of the parks before meeting Micky to take him out for lunch. The two of us, along with Micky, his brother Steph and Tanya the dog, went for a pub lunch at the Bear, which was probably the highlight of the week. Sitting in the sun with a pint and sharing stories over steak and ale pies was a true joy. Sadly, we're not really built for withstanding the sun, and the two of us have come away with red skin and spinning heads, but maybe you have to take the rough with the smooth in some of these things.

Which brings us to here, the last blog post of the week. All we have left is to record another video diary, chill out (somewhere shady) for the afternoon and report back to church this evening. As we've said already, we've found it to be easier than we thought to survive on the streets, though making something meaningful of it is another thing entirely. A word about mittigating circumstances though:

- We know Oxford: having grown up here, we're really familiar with the geography of the place as well as the shops, services and amenities around - to live in a place that is totally alien would be much harder
- We had each other: being with another who you can trust completely is truly an invaluable thing for this kind of living, and we couldn't imagine what it would be like to go it alone or with someone in whom you had less than a hundred per cent confidence
- We have no habits to feed (other than Chris's humous addiction): our money wasn't constantly being drained by cigarettes, alcohol or any other kind of drug
- We are psychologically healthy: a massive factor in the lives of many homeless people is mental health - all sorts of disorders play a major part in putting and keeping people on the streets
- We did this in the summer: hot days and dusty cars made it much easier for us to make money, and the emotional boost of being in the sunshine makes a huge difference; we have noticed so much the days it has rained and we've had to try and find ways to get dry and warm up
- We only did one week: for many people, there is no end in sight to life on the streets, whereas for us we have had today's bath and warm bed to keep us going

So this is just to say that we don't think it's easy to be without a home; it wasn't easy for us despite all these advantages. The circumstances of homeless people are very often far from simple, and there is no quick solution to it all. I know this is really obvious, but it is really impressed upon us right now that each person is an individual and must be treated individually, with different needs requiring different solutions. Most often people don't need food, or money, but people who will really care for them and believe in them and be there with them through the process of working towards a different kind of life. It's wonderful that so many people do give their time and money to help those less fortunate; perhaps this whole thing has just made me think what a difference a little individual commitment might make in so many cases.

Anyway, must go. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported us. Much love,

Chris and James.