At the time, it was one of the most impoverished districts of the quickly expanding capital, with poverty in all its forms, psychological and spiritual. The houses were dilapidated and damp, the streets narrow and squalid, with refuse-filled streams running across them. She made her "apprenticeship" accompanying sisters visiting the sick and the poor. Between times, she taught catechism and reading to little girls accepted at the free school. In 1807, Rendu, surrounded by the Sisters of her Community, made vows for the first time to serve God and the poor.