Shared Passions

Running for the bus

Today I arrived late and I missed the introduction meeting. I make apologetic excuses about traffic and not knowing that I was required to be there 30 minutes before each session starts.

I am not sure if I did know this or not ..Hmmm… and I haven’t had any formal acknowledgement that I have been accepted for the volunteer training. I don’t know why and I begin to feel unsettled.

I mumble about this to one of other volunteers who I met yesterday – she replied ‘if you’re not feeling with it don’t come at all … I hastily replied back, no, that there wasn’t a problem with me and I wave my hand as to dismiss her words and said oh u know bureaucracy — politics, she laughed and a looked at me funnily. She is right though; it is not good to bring your worries into any profession and especially in a volunteering place where a ‘make it happen attitude’ is pretty important. You’re there to offer something good not to moan or come across as anxious. This is all very well in theory,  but I  guess I am also one of those irritatingly well-intentioned people and if others don’t see that it bothers me. Nauseating I know…

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Flying ants well in this case perhaps it's a kneeling ant

I haven’t volunteered for a while ( that means a very long time) and I thought that if I was going to start opening new opportunities for volunteers I had better re-evaluate my volunteering skills first. I am volunteering at a small organisation in Kings cross, for confidentiality reasons I will not be disclosing the name of the organisation or of the people I meet.

Day 1: I am in a basement and there is a hall that has been sectioned into two rooms and a kitchen. I am placed in the main room where there are a couple of activities set out for the service users. Today is Friday and the focus of the service users, are for people who are refugees or homeless.

I look around phew, there is an art table. By that I mean a stack of magazines/paper/pots paint and a box of crayons. This is something that I know  and like doing–the activity is called art “therapy” …well I’ll give it ago. I think the  idea is that you use art as a medium of communication and it enables you to indirectly communicate and build trust between you and the other. Lets hope my art doesn’t do the opposite. Read the rest of this entry »