A Hard Day's Night

A question I often get when I explain that I'm working as a volunteer at Oudezijds 100 is "So what exactly do you DO there?" I can generally tell from their wry expressions that my response - "Everything!" - fails to satisfy.

But it's true! By way of example, here's what I did yesterday:

• Woke up, showered, got dress.


• Went down to breakfast. Helped clean up afterward.


• Studied Dutch in my room.


• Went to chapel.


• Was supposed to work on website, but found that only one person had showed up to clean the kitchen. So instead I scoured the house for additional help, then pitched in myself.


• Finally got a chance to work on website.


• Ate lunch. Helped clean up afterward.


• More website work. Finished early, so...


• Went over to the front office and fixed someone's email as requested.


• Met up with Hans, who needed a hand moving furniture to his new flat.


• Spent an hour and a half hauling furniture across the RLD and up two very narrow flights of stairs.


• Somewhat exhausted, took a brief nap before dinner.


• Ate dinner with the community.


• Left a little early to work in reception at the KruisPost.


• Spent two hours filling out forms, filing things, and trying to communicate with uninsured foreigners in my broken Dutch.


• Finally free at 9:30, I snuck out for a brief snack before calling it a night.

A full day's work! Fortunately, not every day is so busy. But I've singled out this one in particular because I think it gives an idea of the variety of activities I might participate in on any given day.

It seems like a good many of the things I wind up doing aren't on a schedule anywhere. They simply involve helping out where I am needed. For me this is a good thing because that's something I came here hoping to develop in myself: a greater willingness to serve other people. And most of the time I enjoy it!

In 2009 I've definitely feel as though I've started to gain some familiarity with the community, which enables me to be more useful to them. I think that this is part of the reason why I now feel so much more at home in the community as well. Community living depends on the members helping each other out.

When people first come into our community (and this certainly includes me, circa October 2008!) they need a lot of help and guidance. Even when they are doing helpful tasks they must be helped, because they don't know how to do them! It's sort of like childhood.

But hopefully we progress out of childhood and into an 'adulthood' (or at least an 'adolescence'!) where we are able to stand on our own and even give back. For me at least, this is a very satisfying state.