Day 21

Yesterday I had my first guest welfare meeting for a guest whom I will refer to as "R." Each guest at Annunciation House has what is called their "contact volunteer" who serves more-or-less as their social worker during their stay at the house.


Every week we conduct a guest welfare meeting with each guest individually. "R" is a new guest who is from the state of Durango. He wants to get a visa laser for his wife and two daughters who are back in Juarez staying with a niece (he crossed mojado under the bridge.)

During our meeting I found out that he has been sending nearly all his money back to his family, and I unfortunately had to discourage him from doing that. Although I'd like for him to be able to just bring his family up (it takes a lot of money to get a visa laser) we can't just operate like a hotel gratis. It's not fair to other people who need to stay here. He's really nice and helpful around the house, and I'm glad to be his contact volunteer. It's strange being in such a position of power in terms of advising "R" and giving direction to his plans and aspirations during his time here.

Today we (all the volunteers) had our weekly Monday morning meeting. I was in charge of making breakfast for all the volunteers so I made pancakes from scratch last night and then made eggs, cut up watermelon and put out bread. I don't think I made quite enough food, but no one complained. Quality, not quantity...right...?

We talked about our permanent rotations(jobs in the house), plans for our volunteer community day coming up this Friday, our Father's Day cook out, and then what we each found out during our guest welfare meetings. Some pretty serious topics came up during the meeting, and we still feel kind of conflicted about it.

We suspect one of our guests who has been here for a while stole a valuable item from a former guest. Another guest who has been here for a while has been causing minor problems in the house for a while now, but it's becoming more clear that he is really disrupting other guests with his lack of respect and he seems to relish taking advantage of volunteers.

When working here it's really easy to think on the macro-level... "the work I'm doing here is so wonderful! Unicorns and rainbows!"
On the micro-level, however, it doesn't always feel as great.

We have to say no.

We have to turn needy people away.

We have to kick people out.

We struggle to be fair and honest, hopeful and truthful.

If we never said no though, our yes we be meaningless and ineffective. Part of working here means knowing that somethings are beyond our control...