Caregivers

Today I went to the Edmonton Street News Vendor Christmas party, ate too much of the obligatory overcooked turkey and way too heavy donated cheesecake. Feel totally bloated and yech. Serves me right for being a pig.

I don't really have too much to do with the day to day activities of Edmonton Street News. I just do the layout because I believe if everyone would do something, even a small something, the world would be a better place for everyone. I sold papers on a street corner for four years and worked in the office doing distribution for another street newspaper so I'm no stranger to the environment. But sometimes I just get really irritated at some of the bullshit that goes down on the street.

For instance, two hours after our little event, while we were cleaning up and getting ready to go home, about ten people, not vendors or in any way connected to the paper, walked into the Mission. We told them, “we're sorry, lunch is over, foods all gone, closing up now.” Linda told them, there are a few sandwiches they could take with them. Instead they sat down at the tables and settled in. Half an hour later we are still asking for them to let us close the mission up, when this woman started yelling at me.

“I sleep in a dumpster, it's cold out there, we need a place to get warm, you don't know what it's like! You don't give a damn.” etc etc.

Just about lost it with her, the other volunteer ladies were beginning to look nervous. It's not that I expect people to grovel because I'm willing to donate a few days work every month to the cause, but I do feel that I can ask for commonplace good manners from everyone, everywhere. We didn't advertise we were running a drop in and warm up centre for the afternoon, we invited people for lunch. I think that's the hardest thing about doing any kind of volunteer work in the inner city. The lack of simple politeness. I really admire the people who stay out there on the front lines for year after year. Takes a special kind of forbearance to put up with abuse like that every day. I made sure I brought enough scarves for the volunteers too as well as the lady vendors. Sometimes the care givers need a little care too.