Intrigued, I eventually looked them up (http://poorclares.wordpress.com/). I know very little about Christianity, but apparently it's a monastery of nuns. Something on the website really caught my eye: "They live within the cloister observing strict papal enclosure. They are totally dependent on God’s Providence through benefactors He sends them." Basically, everything they get must be donated by others.
That reminded me of the practice of Buddhist monks, who rely entirely on the generosity of others for their food, clothing, etc (depending on the type of Buddhism they follow). I decided I'd go pay them a visit, after seeing that there's a place you can drop stuff off to donate.
I'd been putting it off for a while, but finally decided to go when our intern wanted to go on a bike ride. I loaded my bike shirt with tangerines and oranges, and we headed up the hill.
There's a little room where you go (see the website) to drop stuff off. We followed the instructions and buzzed the buzzer, and went in. To my surprise, the person who appeared behind the screen was a Chinese-American lady who was very smiley. We had a good chat, and she laughed and smiled a lot. She thought we had been there before, but she probably confused us with others. Her happiness and joy were effusive and genuine. It was very nice to chat with her. Then we left the oranges in the transfer box (since the nuns are cloistered) and went back to our bikes.
It was a very interesting feeling. I have no association with Christianity, but it was touching to see someone so happy and so genuinely devoted to a spiritual pursuit. It also felt nice to give something that was so sincerely appreciated.
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