Reflections on Walk #17, Hoover High School through neighborhoods south of Fashion Fair Mall.
Please check out the photos from the walk as they best tell the story. The FMWalkers talked about the hospitality of people this morning. Many front porches and front yards have seating and living spaces. Benches, swings, chairs, tables, play equiment out in the front yard. There’s a sense of hospitality and safety with people out front.
The families out for early morning soccer games conveyed such optimism and hope for their kids. Their cars were not new or expensive. Mostly brown, hispanic families carrying chairs and blankets to watch soccer. We encountered high school students setting up for a fundraiser. Walked by 3 or 4 yard sales on brown lawns and busy street sidewalks.
This walk was a combination of neighborhoods and retail. We walk down alleys and through gates, even hopping a short block fence at one point. These walks aim for the nooks and crannies of Fresno. Behind one strip mall, we witnessed a desperate-looking man crowched down in a dirty corner, his belongings strowed around him, and he was injecting himself. Another man with a bicycle seemed to stand watch about 10 yards away. We exchanged glances and commented that this was an unpredictable situation. We decided not to approach them and walked around another way in silence.
Through the treelined streets of an older Fresno neighborhood, we smelled food cooking. A tiny lady was rinsing a pan in the front yard. I greeted her, and she greeted back. There in the breezeway between their garage and house, a full kitchen was set up. She was cooking in large pots, and she told us she was cooking for a funeral at the temple. She was from Laos. See her photo in the album.
This walk gave us more opportunities to look into the faces of people in Fresno. The totally cool boys at the skateboard park, the couple with 3 year old triplets up for an 8 am soccer game, the little lady from Laos cooking for a large crowd.
At the end of the walk, we chatted about the people we had seen, the feeling of hospitality, and the sense of hope as people are working to make life better, even in the midst of great obstacles.
