We arrived at the shelter at 7:30 am and attended the staff meeting. Jenna and Holly headed out with one of our supervisors, David (who we have yet to see laugh), and were given our assignment to clean cots so that we could put them into storage for next time. I was about to join them when I was caught by Dan, the cleaning man, who spends all day every day walking around the entire shelter with Clorox wipes disinfecting EVERYTHING. He asked me if I could clean all of the girls bathrooms and so I did. It only took about 40 minutes because I am getting faster at it. I met one of the ladies in the shelter and her two daughters who are incredibly cute. They were in the bathroom on the lower floor getting ready for the day. The younger daughter who is only 2 was really quiet but so cute with her dark hair that was completely braided with beads on each end. We all talked and laughed for a few minutes which was a great way to start my morning.
After disinfecting the bathrooms I went outside to help Holly and Jenna with the cots. They were just getting started with the help of two older ladies, Vickie and Bobbie. We were supposed to use a Lysol/water mix in a large spraying container and spray the top and bottom of every cot and then use a sponge to wash off the metal legs and ends. The whole process started off fairly slow, but by the end I the day we not only experts, but we also never wanted to see another cot again in our lives. Unfortunately we are doing the same things tomorrow.
A few guys were assignment to being the pallets of dirty cots over to where we were cleaning them. There are about 10 pallets, each of them containing 50 cots. Yes. That is 500 cots total.
Like I said, things were kind of slow going at first because we were a trying to find the most efficient way to do it. It took most of the morning to set up, clean, dry, and take down the first 50 cots. By our last batch we were able to set up and clean 60 cots in lease than 2 hours.
Although we did have help from Vickie and Babbie, a majority of the work was done by Jenna, Holly and I. We worked so hard for so long and laughed most of the time. We made a lot of dumb jokes that if I even attempted to retell would probably sound like the more ridiculous things in the world, so I won't. But it was fun.
Finally at about 12:30 we headed inside for lunch with frozen fingers and aching backs. We sat with little more than a few words and lots of eating for about 40 minutes. None of us were looking forward to cleaning cots for the rest of the afternoon.
By the way. Jenna is from Wisconsin and Holly is from Michigan. If you know anything about either of these places you know that nearly everyone there has a slight accent. Instead of saying bag, they say beg. Instead of tag they say teg. Think of the Mom on Bobby's World, the super old cartoon, and the oh so famous phrase "don'chya know". Yep. Just like that. So instead of sayings "cots" it's more like "cawts". I think its funny.
I should also clarify how to say the name of the county that I am in. It is spelled Nassau but is pronounced "nah" (Nah like the first park of napkin) and then "saw". Nah-saw. Go ahead. Say it out loud. "Nassau County". Now realize that you did just sound like a hick and laugh out loud. Very good.
I don't think I have heard anybody here say it without sounding like a redneck, but if you figure out a way I would love to hear it.
Back to the cots. We were outside from 8:45 this morning until 5:30 pm in freezing cold weather cleaning about 200 cots. Needless to say we feel fairly accomplished but incredibly exhausted and sore. The picture below shows Holly walking with a major limp. She was not alone in that! The three of us were so excited to go to bed tonight.
Most of the Red Cross volunteers in the shelter are a little bit older, like 40's to 70's. Those of us who are young tend to naturally band together and talk. One of those younger people is Damarcus. He is in his 20's and is from North Carolina. He is a black guy who is really nice and way polite. He also has a brother here with him who is 19 and...I can't remember his name. But he is nice too, and incredibly quite compared to Damarcus. He does a lot to help around the shelter but also enjoys eating meals and helping all of us girls as well. He spent about an hour doing cots with us today which was a tremendous help.
After we finally got back to the staff shelter Jenna and I and then Jenna, Dani and I talked for at least an hour. It was a lot of fun to get to know them better and to just chat about life instead of the shelter-as much as we love it. :)
Lights out was at 10:45 and we were all so ready for it! Thank heavens for sleep!
Another day of cots tomorrow! Enjoy the photos!
Always,
Kat
No comments:
Post a Comment