Hey guys,
Volunteering update here. I volunteered for Red Cross at Hyde Park today just to serve some tea and coffee for Anzac veterans. To be honest, I always dread volunteering the morning of every volunteering session because I get anxious as to what role I'm supposed to do, or how do I smalltalk etc. It was even worse because my friend was too late to sign up for this so I'd be alone and I'd have to talk to new people. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Most of the people there were in uni- probably because there are some Red Cross uni clubs or something. I actually met a lot of people that did computer science/IT- one of the guys was doing a master's in IT.
When we replaced the previous serving team, I wasn't even able to put on my gloves and one of the veterans asked for white tea. I hate tea and two of the other girls had no clue what type of tea this was. Luckily, the girl next to us told us the types of tea. Funny enough, she mentioned that her family is British- trust the British on their tea lol. Serving was actually fun and I was able to naturally communicate with other people, say if they had the milk or the kettle of black coffee. We were able to have a 15-20 minute break but I got so caught up with serving I had no clue what to do.
I kinda wished I went around to talk to the veterans (considering I'm a big Modern fan) but then it would end up turning into oral history from me spamming them with questions. And then my next thought would be, what if my constant questioning would trigger memories? When I'm bored, I watch Elders React and I was watching them react to Battlefield 1 (most of the female elders said it was too violent and glorified war but isn't war filled with violence??) and there are a lot of people in the comments being like "Hmm they must be trigged from dem 'nam memories" which made me wonder how triggered would war veterans get from my questioning?
Anyway, I had no clue how to smalltalk with veterans so I just stood around and went back to serving. Even when one of the veterans who was wheeled in by (I'm assuming) his grandkids was telling us about his usual sugar, milk, tea ratio and his voice was so soft that I had to lean over and I still couldn't hear him! I had to smile and nod and when he laughed, I had to laugh along even though I had no clue what he said. There was another person who showed up and wanted to tell us her family story and how her great-aunt served as a nurse under the Red Cross and wore a bright red hat for that. Luckily, the girl next to me knew how to small talk while I was like "Oh wow..." I feel like when I typed it here, it sounds sarcastic but I was trying to be show interest by responding but I had no clue what to say. My other smalltalk situation happened during a break when I was standing around with a few girls and there was a veteran in a wheelchair (his family was probably getting a drink or something) and he was like "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" or something along those lines. I mean, I agreed with him that it was a nice day and then he went on about the weather or something (again, I couldn't hear him!) and then his family came to wheel him away. I'm kinda glad we ended our smalltalk with a 'have a good day' but I had no clue how to continue a conversation.
Even though I was anxious about socialising, it was really fun. Volunteering for old people is so validating because they show a lot more appreciation to these kind of services. There were so many people who said "Thank you so much for your time" or "Your tea is amazing" or "You're doing a wonderful job ladies" (most of us were girls lol) and it felt great that they were appreciative over this. Even the large horde of Indians (I'm assuming Sikh because of their turban), they were the ones who caused a lot more stress amongst the serving team because there were like 20 of them in one go (and a girl knocked over coffee on my hands so I had to run it under cold water for a while)- they were really appreciative of our services. After the drank their coffee or tea, they came back to us and thanked us. Even though it was stressful and I had hot water spilt on my fingers, it was funny seeing them ask for really strong tea. We would give them tea with one tea bag and when we gave them their cup, they would take another tea bag- I've never seen someone take two tea bags.
But no- my day didn't end there. I also attended a focus group hosted by Red Cross because they're trying to encourage more young people to volunteer. I didn't eat lunch until 4pm because they promised free pizza. I swear the Red Cross office is so pretty- the ground floor had marble along the floor and walls, and the kitchen/living room was so pretty. They had a green colour scheme- green walls, green carpet, muted green furniture and green/white bar stools. Even the kitchen is pretty! They had four fridges and a vending machine. And omg their toilets are amazing! There weren't light switches because it's motion detected and there's a shower- a SHOWER. It's like they want the Red Cross staff to stay in the office. I wouldn't blame them because the facilities are really nice. And those lights I mentioned in the bathroom, supposedly it's the same with the living room/kitchen!
I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day. I was out from 9am to 5pm and didn't get home until 5.45pm. I wanted to do a bit of my SAC PIP but I'm too tired to do anything so I think I'll be doing some light reading for History Extension.
See you soon!
- Olivia
Home
Help
Search
Login
Topic: HSC Journey- From Prelims to HSC (Read 51924 times)