Kitchen and Other Duties

This week all 15 beds at the church are filled. The fall-off in demand for temporary shelter one year ago proved to be a short-lived phenomenon. We can speculate why requests fell and why they bounced back but, just like the recent volatile behavior of the stock market, it's above my pay grade.

A few days ago the sign-up list for Home & Hope was looking sparse, but some long-time volunteers stepped into the breach.

After dinner a couple of kids took basketballs and soccer balls outside. I followed after them. Under the rules an adult must supervise children at all times.

Those who stayed in the kitchen.

Soon they were joined by three others, and I spent the rest of the evening corraling five under-10's in the parking lot, escalating my warnings into threats so that they stayed within sight (it was dark after seven). When the two-year-old fell down, I picked him up, which was a mistake because his crying nearly burst my right eardrum. Just by looking at me the kids knew that playtime was over and went inside. The two-year-old was fine, as everyone knew he was.

I won't complain about kitchen duty again.