Volunteer adventures

I mentioned some time back that I was going to be doing some volunteer work. There was some discussion and disagreement about my motives, about karma, continuing discussion about the nature of selfless behaviour and in between it all I completely forgot to update about my first shift volunteering.

I previously described it as a soup kitchen, this is more for ease of communication here than it is necessarily accurate. To be completely accurate, the group I am involved with is not a soup kitchen -- we do not provide meals for the homeless, nor actually have anything to do with the homeless. Also, people don't come to us for the meals. How it works is the group make and deliver meals to housebound people, suffering from HIV and Aids.

I signed up originally with the intention of working in the kitchen, in fact without knowing much about the group at all. I learned on an induction day about what they did and how they needed volunteers was not in the kitchens (where there are waiting lists to join in) but out on the roads, delivering. So that's where I fit in.

My first shift was two weeks ago, I had to be at the kitchen in north London for 11am and although I wasn't worried about the delivering itself -- since I'd have a navigator with me -- I'd never driven to or in London before. I've driven further than London in the past, I've driven to Portsmouth several times and last month I drove to Brighton and Portsmouth on my own. But just the same...

Approaching London was a strange feeling. As the skyscrapers and familiar landmarks came into sight, I was filled with a mix of excitement and nervousness -- London is tricky enough to navigate on the tube, on the road is something else altogether. It felt very surreal to be driving by myself through places like Shoreditch and Islington and Camden that I know -- but are used to seeing on foot or out of the window of the bus.

Despite some wrong turns, I managed to get to the kitchen slightly early for my first shift. People were busy doing the cooking, so I just amused myself reading for a while, until my navigator for the day arrived. I'd had my fingers crossed on the navigator. And come on, who wouldn't? You're always going to be hoping that obviously on top of having a photographic memory of a homing pigeon and the patience of a saint they are going to be hot. And single. And possibly from somewhere exotic, where they are desperate to take you back to meet their rich family. Anyway, getting off track. My navigator was neither female nor hot, he was a Swedish man named Mats so at least he was from somewhere vaguely exotic.

Despite obviously lacking in the wish-fulfilment categories, he was a great person. His navigational skills were excellent -- or maybe just what normal people are like with things like maps and finding where they are going -- and he kept me amused. He also didn't complain about my choice of music, which is a good start.

I can't remember all the things we talked about, although he told me how boring Stockholm is compared to London -- or at least his boyfriend thinks Stockholm is boring. Boring might be unfair, but it seems safe to say it's a lot quieter. Could be a good thing. I liked our time driving together, I like to approach these things as an adventure -- Jay and Mats Take On North London -- and the sense of adventure would be added to when we'd approach roundabouts and he'd not be entirely sure which exit I'd be taking so I'd have to do some creative lane changes, or when he referred to my driving as being like a rollercoaster. I'm still not sure what to make of that, actually...

Today I wasn't even meant to be volunteering. Since the driving takes up my entire day -- with the journey to and from London along with the actual deliveries -- and I only get reimbursed for what I spend on the deliveries rather than my travelling into the city, I figured once a month would be enough. I don't feel like it's enough, but it's got to also be practical. Either way, we get emails every week that flag up any volunteer shortages at the kitchens. Most of the time, I either ignore them or if asked directly will apologise and say I have plans. But this week I got an email to say that they were three drivers short at this kitchen, and I figured it isn't like I do it every week -- here and there I can give up another day to do something good.

So again, I found myself on the road into London -- and found my way a little easier, too, although the novelty and nervousness is still there. And I thought maybe this time round my navigator would be a cute, poetry-loving snowboarder... When I arrived, I introduced myself to my navigator, a guy named Dominic with an unfortunate stutter. It's only really unfortunate if they are required to give you directions, though I could guess if he was stuttering over "l-l-l-l..." he was probably going to say "left" and not "right". Either way, speech impediment or not, he was again a really interesting person to know. Almost as soon as we got into the car, he immediately endeared himself to me.

I started the engine, the cd player came on and Suicide Bid started playing. He asked me if it was Rancid -- so he immediately scored points for liking ska punk. Although he didn't know Suicide Bid, he'd heard of them -- which was no surprise when I found he liked bands like Sonic Boom Six, King Blues and the Innerterrestrials -- all of whom are involved in Suicide Bid (since it's more of a "collective" or a "project" than a band). He also really liked what he'd heard of them, and told me about a gig he went to once, in Hackney. An anti-capitalist gig, held illegally in a squat, riot police had closed the road stormed the building before the end of the night. Certainly a story to tell your grandchildren, about the bad old days when listening to music could get you arrested.

Our route today was a lot closer to the kitchen than my first. Whereas before with Mats we'd had the shortest route, but the one farthest away, today we had quite a long route but it was a lot closer. It also took us an hour longer than anticipated, because of unforseen problems like closed roads, not being able to find an address at first, and taking wrong turns. It didn't worry me so much, I had good music and good company -- and I think it helped Dominic to have a calm driver to balance out the neurotic navigator.

I got home just after 5pm, having left just after 9am this morning. I don't have any work again this week, although I have an interview and a meeting in London tomorrow to get up for. Except I'll be taking the train tomorrow...