i never want to see another pot of chili again. or at least for a long time.
over the past couple of days i made about 6 gallons of chili. my house reeks of chili, there are stray beans migrating all across my kitchen floor. cumin has found its way into the most intimate recesses of my mind. oh chili, why?
it did taste good.
make a difference day was yesterday. it was, to say the least, chaotic. it was still successful, in spite of our frustration on the lack of organizational direction. i will say the green dream team kicked that garden's weedy butt. it looked dramatically different when i left, almost no weeds to be seen. they worked long and hard with little distraction, and i'd like to commend their efforts.
public allies took the guest house of milwaukee by storm. inside, some of us wrestled with equally unglamourous activities such as organizing food, clothes, stray pieces of furniture, and of course envelope stuffing. nothing says non-profit like donation solicitation.
a think a lot of the allies were upset about the lack of presence from our program managers. shana and kate did come, and james was out of town. things were falling apart at the seams after we all heard dave wasn't coming. people were more than pissed that rafael didn't stick around for our hard work.
even the fellows kicked in. tish and i tackled the toiletries pantry; wiping, labelling and organizing gargantuan bottles of liquid soap, scores of family-sized tropical-flavored shampoos, and toothbrushes as far as the eye could see. april and adebesi cleared out a room overburdened with dry good and moldy sandwiches. david wielded gardening tools for the better part of the day.
we all ate lunch together, though not much. i think people had a hard time eating while the guys were around. They were provided food even before we got settled, and we told them if they wanted to help out the volunteers, they were more than welcome to help themselves to what we had brought. almost all of them declined, and eventually finished off the majority of the chili. as long as it didn't have to come home with me.
the best part of the day for me was showing jenni, a former PA employed at the guest house, the progress we made. she was so excited that it made all the crappy stuff kind of unimportant. it's those little moments of victory that really remind you how good it feels to actually be doing something, not just sitting in some meeting all day.
all in all, the day was a success. i hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment