Oh and ps. next week is our last week!!!

After that, one of the staff members had us clean out the organization's car. When we went inside we determined that it probably hadn't been cleaned out since a year last fall. There were leaves and cups and baseball gloves and hair pieces and lots of garabage. The cook hooked up the ShopVac for us outside so we could vacuum out the van and we also cleaned the windows (inside and out) and wiped down the dash and seats. By the time we were down it looked brand new!

That day at St. Anne's I learned that a drug dealer lives across the street and two houses down...

After that, the day was pretty much over. The cook had made dinner so I ate around 5 pm and then copied some puzzles for all the little kids. Dinner was amazing. I had southern chicken wraps, homemade cream of tomato basil soup, scalloped potatoes, salad, and swiss miss chocolate pudding for dessert. Most amazing cook ever.

Then I took the 45-minute bus ride home! WooHoo

I really like class on Thursday. It was awesome how the people who normally do not speak up were talking! For me it is really interesting to hear other people's opinions on the subjects that we talk about. After hearing the same people talking over and over again it is nice to hear another person's perspective on something, you know? To be continued...I sometimes run out of things to say...

Ok...so...we finished watching the documentary today of when the children all were 21 years old. Personally, the most interesting part of growing older is to see how people change physically. But on the other hand it was also interesting to see how the people perceived the things that they said back when they were seven years old.

Four thirty was approaching and it was almost time for me to leave. The chef thought it was a bummer that I was leaving before dinner was done so he made me a plate to take home with me. It was the most delicious thing I have eaten since spring break. He made roast duck, cajun chicken, and homemade (from scratch) Irish chili. For desert he gave me Cheetos and a Sprite. I thought it was so nice of him to make that plate for me.

That is about all that happened at volunteering this weeek...

PS. There were also some of the residents who were moving out into ther own apartments this weekend. I personally was really excited for them because now they were completely on their own. And for some people this is really exciting and it might make others really nervous.

I thought it was pretty interesting. It brought up a lot of topics that obviously were not talked about in the Middleton reading or whatever it was called. The topics that it discussed seemed to some up what they were trying to cover. Most of the information in the article was pretty standard and most people probably knew it. But, some of the stuff was interesting to read about because it either directly or indirectly affected you. Or you knew about it from previous experience or from the types of cities you live in.

Granted seven years is a big jump, I thought it was interesting how some of their opinions stayed the same. I know that when I was seven, I kind of lived in like a fantasy world. When I was fourteen, I was just about to go into high school, when grades started to matter and college was in the near future.

I ended up still going down to St. Anne’s at 2 o’clock. Until the time we left, I watched one of the residents check-out. This means that when a resident finds a permanent place to stay, they are able to use all the points that they’ve accumulated from doing chores to “buy� clothes, hygiene products, toys, etc.

We left with 5 kids at around 2:45 because check-in was supposed to be at 3:30pm. When we got there, everything was pretty disorganized because off cancellations. We were still allowed to watch the exhibition game and get our free hot dog and soda. We stayed until around 5:30 because the kids were starting to get restless and noisy.

It was really just our job to make sure that all the kids were buckled in the car, crossing the street at the right time, and basically having a fun time. The only people who staffed the trip were me and this other volunteer girl. It was a different feeling being almost completely in charge. The kids knew that if they didn’t listen to me they would get in trouble later. Overall, the trip went well but it was obvious that some of the children weren’t familiar with a baseball setting because they were shouting and being somewhat obnoxious to the other fans. Everyone learns something new everyday.

We talked about the confidentiality forms and what could be and could not be talked about outside of St. Anne's. What I thought was interesting is that we, as volunteers, are permitted from releasing an personal information about ourselves. In my personal opinion, I find it hard to connect with people if you can not share anything personal about yourself. The shelter also does a background check for any of their incoming volunteers.

End of class...To Be Continuted...

Next they gave us a tour of the home. They showed where the playroom, rooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and stuff like that were. We learned about how many people live there at a time, how many people live in each room and other key stuff. Next I figured out what times I will be volunterring which turns out to be three hours a week starting the 24th.

The things that I might be helping out with are sorting out the linen closet (where the bedsheets and donated clothes are kept), helping with dinner preparation and cleanup (I will be volunteering Fridays from 3pm-6pm), and other general chores. I thought I would be helping out with the children more but they actually attend an afterschool program so the tutoring is done there instead.

Today in class we went over some of the pieces from the homework. I thought it was interesting to see how all the jobs were so different yet so similar. Most people would try to never compare themselves to a hooker but a lot of the things she said do apply to most working people. When people are really dedicated to their work, the throw themselves into it and they become part of what they are doing. What I found different though is that, at least the people I know, try to separate their life at home from their business work. For the hooker it eventually all became one in the same.

One thing that I think is different now than when the interviews were done is that our society is more and more becoming a place where happiness is based on the size of your wallet. Although just a valet worker and a housing cop, they were happy with what they were doing and that was all that mattered. The pride they got out of doing their job was more important than how much they were getting paid. I feel like it is becoming harder and harder to find people like that.

I personally enjoyed the movie that we just finished watching. I do not think that it was focusing in on certain stereotypes. It is just unfortunate that what people might think are stereotypes are things that actually happen in the real world. In this certain neighborhood it might be more common for teenagers to become pregnant. The reason for this could come from many different sources like a lack of parental supervision, no instruction on safe sex, or other places. The movie was not portrayed, at least in my opinion, like it was trying to focus in on what “we white people� think of the “poor black person.� Like most people said in class, it had the feeling of a documentary, and that is more or less what it was. It was showing the life of three best friends and how they spent the last weeks of their summer together. What they did, or did not encounter, was based solely on where they live.

Yesterday, Friday, my referral request to work at St. Anne's was accepted. I was really happy that I am now able to work with my first choice. I emailed the volunteer head coordinator to see what she would like my next step to be. I haven't heard back from her yet but hopefully we will be able to figure out hours soon and I will be able to begin my work. The "job description" for St. Anne's is a shelter aide. I am really looking forward to playing with the little children and helping them with their school work. I'm not really sure what I would be doing to help the adults. I hope to begin volunterring this week or next week.

I have not really done service. In my case it has been more of the volunterring type. I have helped at soup kitchens, activities at different churchs, I helped build a house and a church in Juarez Mexico, etc.

In my opinion, service is something that you do to help out someone else or something else (ie. helping a family, giving up your time to help build something, delivering cookies to shutins...)