Friday, July 15, 2005
Always Volunteer
At breakfast, they've got me sitting down and chatting to people while most of the other volunteers serve up the food. It's a bit nerve-racking, and hungry tired people aren't really up for conversation, but it's nice to sit down and share a coffee anyway. Plus there's the odd chatterbox, like the guy this morning who used to go to the shelter and now volunteers there.
He told me about his experience with drugs, like mushrooms ("acid without the flashbacks") and speed ("50 times stronger than coffee"). For someone who smoked about two spliffs in her entire life (bringing on a fit of paranoia that taught me never to do it again), it was quite an education.
I also learnt a bit more from him about why Hamilton is such a vortex of deprivation. Homeless people seem to be either kicked out of Toronto or find it too intimidating, so they come to a smaller city like Hamilton. This has to be the least well-heeled place in Ontario (because it's industrial) so benefits are easier to get and poor people stick out less. There's been such an influx of them that countless shelters and other charities have sprung up to meet the demand, drawing more homeless people here, and so on.
Later, I went out litter picking with three or four of the homeless people as part of their work program. Actually, it's often quite hard to distinguish between volunteers and homeless people at the shelter (they're often the same age and aren't in their Sunday best). Especially when their reasons for being there are sometimes the same. I asked one of the litter-pickers why she did the work program. "It's something constructive to do with my day," she replied. Snap.
[Pictured: Litterpickers from the shelter. Not us though - we didn't have rakes]
Another guy asked me if I was going to litter-pick in my sandals. I said I was.
"You might want to look out for needles, that's all," he said, looking at my toes with concern. In the end there weren't any, but it did scare me for about five minutes.
Needles and odd looks from the locals aside, though, litter-picking was surprisingly satisfactory. Walking past the same park later that day, I looked at all the kids running around and playing in bare feet. It was nice to know they were safe partly because of me.
Anyway, I did say I was going to make my daily entries brief, so I'll shut up now. Tomorrow's will be shorter, I promise!
