This shelter where I go has volunteers come down and teach crafts, mostly to the kids. So I’m thinking, what if the shelter people, especially the moms, already know how to do crafts and just need supplies?
The NGO has $$ but I wanted to try it out first before I asked them for anything. Brought down some wool for knitting and a friendship bracelet kit, with some extra beads and stuff (I don’t like “kits,” but you gotta start somewhere), and turned it over to the moms. Not sure if the knitting is going anywhere but the bracelets were a hit.
So I got to thinking, there’s only one “loom” in that bracelet kit, isn’t that like a bottleneck? don’t we need more looms? I don’t know from friendship bracelets, just that the kids like them. I spent HOURS online looking this stuff up and trying to make it work with my two left thumbs. Come to find out all you really need is a piece of hard cardboard and a butterfly clip. or a piece of tape. or a safety pin. LOL the 8-year-old boys are better at this than I am.
When you google something, you don't necessarily get the simplest answers first.
As for the moms it’s hard to know how best to back them up because they are SO polite and retiring. Almost none of the volunteers speak Spanish, including the top dogs. I don’t think the residents are used to us talking to them at all. It’s awkward. (Also, my Spanish still kind of svcks. Turns out real humans talk different from people on TV shows.
) They’ll do ~anything you ask them to whether they want to or not. And they don't seem very inclined to ask for anything.
The last crafts volunteer I saw down there got a migraine halfway through because she found it so stressful that the little kids kept trying to talk to her even though she already told them she doesn’t speak Spanish. The NGO bosses just sort of dumped her in the main hall and didn’t help her at all (I translated a little). And they wonder why people quit.
My “inventory” task (aka the Augean Stables project) is going slow as molasses b/c I am getting 0 cooperation and the volunteers with more seniority have to piss on the fire hydrant and show me who’s not boss. The bosses keep trying to drag me into admin tasks and I keep saying oh hell no. The relationships are like walking on eggshells. Hey, if I wanted this kind of gnarly touchy stuff I would have joined the fvcking Foreign Service.
The Mexican managers are super nice but also super busy. I am trying not to be the kind of volunteer who’s all “hey look at me I brought cookies did you like my cookies hello I’m still here are you sure you don't want another cookie,” but at some point I’m gonna have to get their attention to help me figure out what I can do down there that’s actually useful.
Not today though. Today we get visiting dignitaries, so the NGO bosses want me working even though it’s not my usual day (“we would never want to STAGE anything [but please come down and be the performing monkey]”) (honestly, how dumb do I look).
I HAVE to get through this stage without losing my temper. This NGO seems to practically own that shelter. And I’m pretty sure the NGO bosses are also involved in everything else in this tiny town.
Bribing myself with the promise of ice cream. Lots of ice cream.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!
