Have you been in an experience where the title of this post was befitting? I say it so much to myself, because it so true. These stories are about some of my volunteering experiences. I am in no way saying not to voluntary, because after all it is good for the soul.
Some friends of mine decided to volunteer to help a recently older amputee women with a new bathroom and to create a new bedroom on the first floor. The women was admitted to the hospital due to some complications, so she was not in the home during our project, however her 3 grown children were home. There were a lot of us, and each team was assigned different task. A co-worker and I were assigned to "cleaning" the upstairs bathroom. Ok with all my bathroom phobia's I wasn't happy, but I thought Kim, you are here to help you can do this, well my friend and I walked into the bathroom and I thought OMG, Im not going to make it. It was a very large bathroom and lets just say, I understood why two people were assigned to clean. So, we started and we had many laughs along the way, the home owners daughter kept coming in and out of the bathroom and saying are you going to clean that, are you going to clean this, in the back of my mind I am thinking ummm you and I are the same age, grab a mop. Of course, I then said, Kim this women is under stress, and obviously emotional not in the right frame of mind. So, I said, yes, we will clean every inch. Ok, my co-worker was washing the wall paper, and she scrubbed so hard, I said, hey wait you are rubbing off the pattern. She said, how can you tell, we laughed, and I started to clean the tub, and I couldn't get the water to drain. I had to call the daughter, she looked at me like I was nuts, and here she is walking around the house in a tan trench coat, in 80 degree weather. Anyways, she went over and lift the leaver, She said do you know how to clean? I said, yes, but I've never cleaned a tub from 1920's.
During our lunch break, we had pizza, and trying to relax before we went back to cleaning. When all of a sudden a few people showed up, who were friends of the son, who had been overseeing the project by sitting on a reclining chair, and drinking beer all day.
So the friends came to drink, eat pizza and watch us work. The daughter, yelling because she thought the pizza was her's,and all day long the daughter was complaining that we were not doing enough in her bedroom,which was spooky as hell. I actually can compare her to being like a little chihuahua barking at your feet. Before my friend and I went back to work in the bathroom, I was asked to take a load of clothes into a room where the door had been shut all day. I opened the door and slowly walked into the dark room, as my eyes were adjusting, I noticed that someone was laying in a bed, and just looking at me, I screamed, and then ran out literally with my hands in the air, screaming. Come to find out, the home owner had a son who was mentally handicap. It took us 8 hours, to clean one bathroom and when I left, I kept thinking to myself that poor guy was in that room all day long, by himself, in darkness so maybe having the ability to clean a bathroom, for 8 hours wasn't that bad.
The following year we volunteered, helping a lower income health single mom help with house repair, painting, etc. As soon as we walked in, I knew this day was going to be long. The Mother was pushy, she was younger than me, and I'm thinking wow, this girl just expects that everyone needs to drop to their knees and thank her for helping her out. So, right off the bat, I'm not in the mood for the attitude. The kids came in and out of the house from playing basketball ( age@ 10-12). The house was not well kept, and the mother was actually bossing people around, who were cleaning HER house. I was assigned to painting the mother's bedroom. I went right to work, in the middle of painting the mother came into the room, and said, excuse me, excuse me but you are missing pieces right here and right there i said, I'm sorry where? She said can't you see, right here, I walked over to the wall, and started to squint my eyes, and I said, can you show me where?Handing her the brush. She takes the brush and started to paint the wall, I said, Wow, looks like you know how to paint, I tell ya what, instead of walking around up being up everyones ass, why don't you finish your own bedroom. With that, I walked out, got into my car and took off.
So, third time is a charm right? Well, this time it was decided not to do anyones house (after our last experiences). This time, we were going to clean up school yard, repaint, and clean. This school, was in a bad area. I was on swing sand duty. Clean the sand, which was filled needles, it was really sad to see how the kids couldn't even play in this area, because of the needles and crack vials. There were people in the neighbor who were sitting on their porches, hanging out the windows just watching us all work. There was one house where the man were laughing and saying stuff, but we politely ignored and went on with our business. When all of a sudden, this kid comes running across the playground, he was so excited we were there, he worked right along aside of us, painting and cleaning. It made all of years of volunteering seem worth it, just to see the pride and happiness in this young man face.
I would have loved to have ended this story on a high note, but that ain't life. While we were busy working, we hear a car alarm horn. We realized that one of the guys that was on the porch mocking us, broke into a co-workers car, and stole his stereo. So, as the saying goes:
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