On the road to town me and Ger were talking about how we felt about begging or busking. It turns out that we were both apprehensive about it. Begging is humiliating, we are trying to persuade strangers to give us money when we give them nothing in return. One major factor we discussed was appearance: we have dirt and grass all over us, we smelt of sweat and bonfire, exhaustion was making us walk slowly (with a slight limp), but despite all of this we don't look homeless. Instead we just look like grubby stubbly students. Gerald pointed out that long hair, beards, old torn clothes, tattoos and piercings are a good way of identifying a person as homeless. If we were living on the streets on a longer basis, or wanted to better fit into the community, it would probably be best to change our appearance. It may be that many people who look like they do, do not want to appear that way, but do so almost like a uniform to identify there homelessness? Because we didn't look homeless, people were probably more willing to speak to us, but also far more surprised when we asked for money.
We tried to get a busking licence in Ramsey House, but they wanted two passport sized photos and a form of ID. We may busk at a later date, but were unable to do so during these three days. It leaves me questioning how a homeless person could busk without ID where passport photos are expensive and carrying an instrument is a burden. After failing at busking we decided to beg independently for thirty minutes. Gerald, being more confident than myself, asked four people very quickly (all no), then the fifth person questioned him for a long time making him feel like a fake; this guilt really got to him so he stopped and made his way to the meeting point. I was still very shy, before homelessless I figured that if you ask one person a minute you could make a lot more than minimum wage and begging would be easy to eat. Instead I walked slowly and asked at a rate of one person every five minutes. Most refused, but we left without being on bad terms, but one was quite moody with me saying that he was busy and then ignoring me. In the end I found a lady at the bus stop and told her: 'Excuse me,... I've been sleeping rough for the last two nights and would really like some money for food, can you help at all?' She very generously gave me £2.46 but didn't want a link to my blog because it had god in the title and she was Jewish. I wish she had taken one, I want her to know what that money meant to us, and what we did with it.
People asked: 21
People who gave: 1
Money Raised: £2.46
Total begging time: approx 2 hours
With the money we bought a pack of bourbons biscuits (40p), a french loaf (70p), jam (40p) and 4 pork pies (98p). We ate half of our lunch on the martyrs memorial (using Ger's penknife to spread the jam) and listened to a walking tour guide talk about those brave men who gave their lives for their faith. By now it was 2pm and we were board. Living on the streets must firstly get very lonely without someone else, and secondly we needed more to keep us busy on that day. From 2-5 we visited museums (like the Ashmolean and Oxford Modern Art) and read in Waterstones book shop. Me and Gerald both found books to keep us interested (on counselling and philosophy respectively) then learnt some new card games from a different book for the evening.
By 5 we were aware how soon it was until dark and decided to find a place to rest (which proved more difficult than expected because we did not want to sleep in the same place - though this became tempting as we got desperate). We walked along Jericho, back to town, around churches, under bridges, near bins, by a school and near the university. When we were looking we found half an eaten tub of popcorn on the floor (which was quite nice). We don't know what had happened to it, but it left us wondering why both businesses and individuals waste so much good food? One spot we almost slept in was by some bins. Two youths cycled by us and shouted our direction threatening to 'glass' us. There is a real risk in sleeping somewhere. Risk of attack, theft and disturbances and so we moved on. In the end we found the entrance to a cemetery that acted like a shelter. We laid down some card that we'd found in a school recycling bin and set up our sleeping bags.
On this site we played some new card games we had learnt and ate the other half of our lunch we had been carrying round. This was probably the nicest place we have slept because it had three walls and a roof (although we might have just been less fussy due to tiredness?). Throughout the night and morning we were disturbed by several dog walkers passing through. Because of these disturbances I slept with my bag strap around my neck. Its strange, we had nothing but were convinced that we were going to get robbed. I remember guarding my cardboard even whilst looking for a spot in the first place (which no one is going to take off of me). All of the do walkers spoke to us and were very friendly with a positive attitude towards the homeless. Apparently several people had slept rough in this cemetery before, and so they were not shocked at us. We were told one story about girl who had overdosed here in the past.
Update:
Since starting this blog I became a Counsellor. You can read more on blog on subjects like Therapy at:
www.simonslistening.co.uk
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