HYC Budapest: Katie Grimes

"Just a few days ago I was in Budapest, Hungary serving on HOPE Youth Corp where I volunteered at various shelters and schools for the homeless. Throughout my life I have been blessed to be a part of other trips and service projects, but I had never worked with the homeless more than giving them food or money on the streets of Boston. This trip deepened my perspective and extended my heart to a new group of people.

I vividly remember the first day working, we broke into groups to paint bedrooms about the size of a typical American bedroom but with 4 homeless people sharing it. It was easy to complain about having to move their belongings out and prepare the room, it took hours because the bedroom was in such poor shape, some rooms required scraping almost an entire wall!
The one I worked on had dead roaches pasted to the wall and live ones crawling through every cavity. My body intuitively cringed at the site, but quickly I was overwhelmed past the state of the room. It no longer was a hassle to clean and move the possessions, because it no longer was just a room.

The second I realized that people lived here changed everything for me. Cleaning bugs was not my favorite, but people had been living with them for who knows how long, and moving their possessions was just a single box...my suitcase carried a fraction of what I own and it still was more than everything these people had.
I love HOPE Youth Corp because it allows me to see a corner of the world I haven’t been exposed to. HYC takes the 7,330,932,472 people in the world and shrinks that to the power of the individual through names, stories, and friendships while growing my compassion and love. HYC may only be a few weeks, but it’s impact on those we serve and myself lasts a lifetime."