[Day 76] Volunteering

Oh how I love freezing temperatures! Today was freezing cold, no surprise. Last night Sammie and I made dinner together, we made ravioli in her flat. After that I hung out in their flat for a while and ended up going to bed kind of late, which was no good because I volunteered all day today. 

I woke up at 8 to proofread my Lit paper that was due today and then around 9 I left to go to Willesden Junction to this secondary school called Capital City Academy. Willesden Junction is basically in zone three on the tube map and totally the opposite side of the city from Mile End, so it took me an hour and 10 minutes to get there. When I got off the tube I walked the wrong way down the street at first and had to ask for directions. 20 minutes later I finally found the school. Capital City is a public school but it's funded by businesses instead of the government, so it has a lot more money than normal public schools do. (This business funding schools project was supposedly started by Tony Blair.) Anyway when I got there I felt like I was at Sewickley Academy or something, it was a really nice school. Nadine told me that it has a very small white British population, it's mostly black British kids and refugees from Afghanistan and Somalia. The school had a big gate and like four soccer fields and the building was really new looking. The security guard was really nice and let me in. I went to the reception desk to look for Nadine, the woman I was supposed to help and they told me that she didn't come to work today and couldn't get a hold of me to tell me. 

So I left and got back on the tube to go to Queen's Park (Salusbury World) where I normally volunteer. Nadine was there and we talked for a while. She lives in south London and had to take the overground to get to Capital City, which wasn't working because there's so much snow in south London. I stayed from 10:30 til 5 doing different things. I helped Nadine for a while with stuff she needed done for Capital City, like making a poster for a mentoring program for asylum seekers and refugees. At 3 the after school club started and I helped kids with their art projects.

There are some things that I don't like about this service-learning class and volunteering, including how unorganized the program is and the fact that they don't know what to do with all of the volunteers, but now that I'm consistently going I'm really enjoying it. The employees of the refugee center really benefit from our help, at least the chores and things that we do to help them. It's really fun playing with the kids, but I like when I help Nadine organize her stuff or decorate the bulletin board for Irena. It feels like I'm actually accomplishing something.

It took me a while to get home on the tube, but I'm here and cozy in my bed. I'm going to watch Gossip Girl and do homework. I'm going to PARIS tomorrow!

M