When I met with my friend N. on Sunday, we talked about ODS, and I shared that I am unsure about how to continue, when everybody is new and we do not have a volunteer coordinator. I told her that I was going to go there on March 5 for the first time after a long break and that I hoped that something positive would come out of it. I scheduled my volunteering for that day although Boris as going to be in town, but he said he completely understood it, and as long as something positive can come out of it, it will be all good.
It ended up being a really great and meaningful event. I came in, and approached a group of residents asking who would’ve like to make pizza with me, and two young women immediately volunteered (I later learned that they were close friends and roommates). We immediately clicked and started chatting, and later, one young man joined us, and then one of the staff, and when I already turned the oven off, yet another young man. I stayed there until past 8 PM (and I had to take Uber home). These first two young women told me they are going to start a community college to become nurses, and how they are going to do it together and support each other. One of the residents asked me why did I come to the US, and since it was the next day after the Elpha post went up, I just showed it to her. This opened yet another conversation. It is not always easy to let the residents know that I feel for them, because there were times when I had very little money, and that for the longest time, I didn’t have a home of my own.
It all went so well, that I examined my upcoming schedule one more time and found one more day when I would be able to come. Next day, we messaged back and forth with the new volunteer coordinator, and agreed that we could try other days od the week, and we could even try to go to the Art Institute in April. Fingers crossed 🙂
Hettie's Reflections 