Community Service is the Way of Life

“Is community service really a way to give back to my community or is it a requirement that my program has imposed on me?” – this was a question that I debated upon when I first came to Chicago and had to answer when I first looked into doing a community service project. I still remember my very first American community service experience; going to Temple Sholom on a crisp Monday afternoon before school had even begun and needless to say, feeling a bit apprehensive about what was going to happen. For you see, my anxiousness did not stem from the fact that I was going to a place where I hardly knew anyone and neither was it caused by the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about working in a soup kitchen (which I would later find out was a really remarkably easy and satisfying thing to do), but it actually came from the fact that I was going to a Jewish synagogue for the first time. Coming from a country that is 97% predominantly Muslim and where you never really hear anything positive about Jews (well technically you don’t hear about them at all), it was hard for me to really relate to the place I was going to. Then again, the thought of hearing all my Pakistani friends comments about my time in a synagogue wasn’t the most appealing option either. But at that time, I realized how my exchange year was going to help me go to places I would never normally go to, meet people from backgrounds that I had no prior knowledge of or wouldn’t get the chance to meet otherwise and discovering things about myself that I never could’ve done back in Pakistan.

The three hours I spent at the Temple were filled with a lot of activity: rinsing crisp lettuce for salad, shedding a few tears due to chopping onions for a Noodle Soup, getting praise for my chopping skills (I have chopping stuff for five years now) and finally being ushered into the hall where there was going to be a restaurant-style, banquet-ized soup kitchen. Standing with my Temple Sholom cap and apron in that hall and watching people file into the room silently, groggily and in most cases eagerly made me realize how important Monday Meal was for the 65 ‘guests’ that were being served the Meal today. These people were there for their own reasons: homelessness, low income, mental challenges or simply for a chance to eat a whole hearty meal since many of them couldn’t even afford to eat one three times a day. The feeling of being able to connect with people that were so very different from my own background and of being able to help my community at my own level was a feeling that I would cherish for the months to come.

The same feeling came back to me the first time I went time to the Chicago Lights Urban Farm as well. I still the remember the chill of the morning when I went down to the Urban Farm and my host mom gave me a ride down there. So many feelings were going through my mind during that time – excitement of meeting new people and trying something new, my passion for gardening, and just being surrounded by a lot people with a similar passion as well. I got out the car, said goodbye to my host mom and walked through the entrance to the Farm and…no one was there. 

For a second I thought that I might’ve come to the wrong place or something, but then the Volunteer Coordinator came out of a door (that I didn’t even notice before), welcomed me and gave me a short orientation and I realized that a group of 10 people that was supposed to be there hadn’t come and there was a probability that I was going to be the only person there that day. Anyway, as it turned out I was given the job to plant new Red Lettuce saplings, Swiss chard and picking out ripe tomatoes (one of them was called Rose Plum and it tasted so good!). Apart from the botanic aspect of it, Urban Farm also opened me to another facet of community service: doing community service for correction hours due to minor offenses. Over the next few times that I volunteered at the Farm, I got to meet a lot of people who were there due to this reason and it was really an experience to learn about their experiences. Also I remember the carpenter that was working on repairing a shed who gave me a Ghost Pepper (the hottest chili pepper in the world) and shared his passion for growing chilies with me.

 In March when the Urban Farm closed for winter, I went to the Iron St. Farm in the South side and that in itself was like going to a different city.

As I set off for the Iron St. Farm that day, I was expecting to be in a place really similar to the Farm in the city. Having disregarded my host mom’s warnings about the South side (‘People get shot there!’), I went aboard the Red Line and noticed how the scenery around me changed the further South I went. The buildings became worn out, the parking meters turned rusty; the general atmosphere seemed to have an air of neglect and the color tones around me turned darker and darker. At that time I realized that Iron St. Farm was going to a much different experience than what I was expecting.
But as it turned out the experience was an enriching, satisfying and certainly physically engaging as the Urban Farm. I met new people, was given a really informative orientation about ‘green’ farming, making compost with worms (which I participated in), making fertilizer with coconut husks and Aquaponics – a self-sustaining symbiotic relationship of fish and plants that greatly increased my knowledge. 

I would say that if there is one thing that community service gives you is knowledge: knowledge about practical ways to help your community, knowledge about things that seem really out-of-place and finally knowledge about yourself. During the time that I volunteered at events like the Chicago Marathon and the Shamrock Shuffle Expos as well as the MLK Day Event at a church in Lake Zurich, I realized that I was becoming more friendly towards people, more tolerant to diverse views and was developing a balance between speaking and listening and when to do both of them and when to do neither. I was developing an innate desire to smile whenever I met new people, to ask how they were doing and if I could help them out in any way. 

These skills were put to the test when in November just weeks before the elections; I decided to volunteer with the Obama Campaign. I had never worked at a call center before (strangely enough this is something that I always wanted to do) and the experience of calling random people from all over Chicago and mostly getting shouted at was something that I definitely could’ve lived without. Most of the numbers that I dialed were not even answered and the people that did answer mostly replied in venomous tones and I had to stifle my laughter half the time.
Again the experience of going to Janesville, WI to canvass for the Obama Campaign was also one that I immensely enjoyed even though I got really frustrated while doing it since more than often I got lost and couldn’t find an address. The person that I was working with was a middle-aged lady that I connected with so well in just a matter of hours that she took me to a Burger King and paid for me to get a burger there. Even though it doesn’t seem such a great deal, at the time I was really touched by that. I mean it’s not everyday that you meet a person for the first time and in just a matter of a few hours, they like you enough to buy you lunch!
That day too I went to different people’s houses, knocked on their doors and urged them to vote and answered any questions that they might have about the process of voting. Again some people weren’t the most cooperative but that too was a good skill to learn: negotiating with people who might not really be interested in what you have to say.

And I just realized that I had a lot to say about my community service experience during the year and for good measure too. The values I gained, the people I met, the skills I learned, the many times that a strong sense of compassion took hold of me and the fact that this compassion kept me urging to participate in more community service activities until I have completed more than a 180 hours of service is definitely the highlight of my exchange year. I know for a fact that I’m going to use all the experience that I gained here back in Pakistan so that I give back to the community and put all the opportunities that I have been blessed with to use. Community service is a wonderful thing and as a Pakistani philosopher once said: “To live for others is the real art of living”.