Now that I've worked at Friendship Park for about a week and a half, there have been many more stories. At the park, you can't let things carry over from day to day because every day is a new day and you never know what good (or bad) things may have happened to change our friends' lives. It's nice to know that every day is a brand new beginning.
As I said in my last post, I have to be at work by 6:45am every Monday-Friday. I'm not a morning person, but I'm adjusting. Most mornings, the staff gets together and prays before beginning the day. We pray for many things, but we always pray for our guests. Then we go to our positions and open the gates (7am) to allow the guests to come in. They rush in, sign up for showers, grab some coffee, get a lunch ticket, gobble down breakfast, and then relax while waiting for lunch. The mornings are always extremely busy. After lunch, the park calms down a lot. The park closes at 2:45pm (M-F), and we have a short staff meeting then leave around 3pm. The 3 of us that work at the park as JVs walk home together and run into many of the guests. This may be the hardest part of the day. It's when we say "hello" and "Have a good night." to the guests we see on our walk home that I remember that I get to return to a large house with food/showers/etc. every afternoon when the park closes, but the guests don't have all of that. Some may have homes, but not enough money for food. Then there's also feeling guilty because I'm no longer at work, so I'm fine with saying hi on the walk, but I no longer want to just sit down and talk to them for hours. I often find the walk home to be the hardest part of the day.
The job is very rewarding though. I've never heard so many "God bless you"s as I hear at the park. Guests don't even know me and see that I'm wearing a green hat so they will say "God bless you" just because I'm trying my hardest to help them. Sure, I also hear more screaming and cursing than I've probably ever heard before, but that's how a lot of the guests know how to show affection, so I try not to let it get to me. Another part of the job that is rewarding is every time I can remember one of the guest's names. We feed around 800 people every day right now. Today we actually fed around 850 people. That's a lot of names to type into the computer and try to remember for the next day. Every time I can catch myself remembering names, I feel rewarded. I remembered one of the guest's names this week, and when I said "Good morning Greg" I saw his face light up. I don't know if other staff members don't remember his name, or if he just didn't expect me to remember it so quickly, but his smile was a grand reward for such a small gesture. I never realized how important and personal names were until these past two weeks.
Well, I should get going. My boxes came in yesterday, so I need to finish unpacking. I'm also reading Paper Moon by Linda Windsor, and I'd like to get some more of that read this afternoon. I'll post some pictures of the house once I'm unpacked. It's a beautiful house. I've been extremely blessed, and I appreciate all of your support (even just the support of reading my updates).
God bless,
Krystal
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