Working in the garden #3

Its the third time working in the garden and yet no new experiences are being taught. Despite the fact that i had my chance to learn how to use the lawn cutter machine, i always wanted to try something new until i get real bored of it. Boredom is the key to putting an end to something. However that faith seems to never withdraw from me. This time, cutting the grass was a bit more of a pain! I started to think about quitting F.I.E.R.C.E. Not only is it a waste of time on a Friday Afternoon, but despite this Friday, May 6th, I didn't have much time to start on my 4th Volunteer based on a field trip taken place. Although i decided that i might be working on tutoring little kids on academics so i can learn something i could have possibly forgot and at the same time enjoying my time watching little kids smile, play and learning all day.

This week was a bit of a burden to my leisure time. I didn't enjoy much of my time spent there because of a different role given to me at the garden. I was asked to weed the grass with the weed puller/dispatcher. I had no idea how to use it and i was being scold for using it improperly. After realizing what type of coordinator would treat a rookie in the garden, i have decided I AM NOT supporting this F.I.E.R.C.E. gardening anymore and im putting an end to it. I have learned enough and i wish i can look forward to tutoring little kids in the Fremont MAIN Library some day.

OHS Work Time

**Correction from my last post: Poochie is half dove and half pigeon**
My second time at the OHS Center went really well. I did more stuff, and helped out with the animals. Angela was there since I went the first Saturday of spring break. One girl from last time, don't remember her name, was there and David too. We talked more, and he's pretty cool and funny. When I walked in, Angela asked me to clean Poochies cage, and since last time I was there, I saw how it is done. The girl from last time walked in before I could start and we worked together.

Poochie, the blind dove and pigeon was put in a box while we went outside from the other door to her cage. Its a pretty big cage. Before we could get to Poochies though, we had to go through a rooster or chickens. I'm not sure what it was, but it was huge, with claws. The girl I was with went through, and I washed it from the inside, while she washed from the outside. We washed out all her poop, mats and towels. After sanitizing her cage and refreshing her food and water, we put Poochie back in. She seemed happy, but i don't speak bird so I'm not sure.

There wasn't much we did that day. After Poochies cage was clean, Angela told us to read a board with a bunch of papers on it, and told us we have to take another test. I was thinking "nooooooo", it would probably be an easy test, but still, I would rather be helping the little animals or something. The girl and I were reading the board and David joined us. He was messing around with the white board and we started laughing. We asked him if there was really going to be another test, and he said no.

After another thirty minutes my dad came, and we left. It was fun that day. It was easy, except the part when we forgot how to set up Poochies cage, and also trying to get past the rooster. I signed up for Wednesday too before I left. I was really happy I had a chance to work with one of the animals, and was really looking to coming back to help.

Same Thing As Before.....Sorta

As usual, I went and volunteered at Furry Friends Rescue. However, this time it was different than before. First, I was 30 minutes late. Usually I would have been kind of worried, since it's all old women that run it other than one guy. However, they were actually glad for some reason. This was because they told me there was supposed to be 7 volunteers and only 3 people, including myself, showed up. Normally, I would have been like "oh, that's too bad." But, since they were expecting more people, they told more foster homes to bring their dogs. Which meant I had to sit with more than one. Ouch. Sure enough, there was an overload of them, and each of us got stuck with like 3 or 4. Luckily, I was the only one with 2. At this point, things were a little different. First of all, it was a slow day. No more than 20 people came by. Because of this, the people in charge were actually talking to us about random stuff. One of them happened to go Hawaii, and she brought back chocolates from there ans decided to share it with us. It was good. Not only that, but there were bums running around singing and people crashing into each others cars for some reason. As fun as it was eating Hawaiian chocolates and watching homeless people sing, I think i'll volunteer somewhere else for my next post, as I can only say so much about sitting in a cage with dogs.

Familiar Faces

Finally, after a long struggle to be able to come to the rehabilitation center again, Chris and I were able to make it to the location together. For me it wasn't that different then before. Same employees, same patients, same routine. Of course, we started off washing our hands and then sang after that. I noticed many families within many rooms as we passed by. I think this is because Mother's day was coming up and some people didn't have time to visit on the actual day. We didn't have to sing in as many rooms this time because some families wanted "alone" time. This we respected. I felt happy that so many people had a loving family that would come to them. I began to pity those that weren't as fortunate. It felt good helping the "forgotten" people feel remembered. My mom would tell me stories about how some of the patients didn't have families. I was happy knowing that what we did could substitute for that, even though we weren't really family. Later, after we finished singing in the rooms, we walked down the hall to the cafeteria. There, many families were helping their elderly loved ones to eat. Our group quickly went in and plugged in the CD player. Soon, many people were dancing. It was fun watching the people interact with each other. No one was forgotten and I felt this sense of friendship between all the people.

All By Myself

So amazing 4.0 Ryan went to Mexico to go build houses. And something came up in Brit's schedule. So I got to be all by my self. Sad Face. Anyway, every year my mom has done a poster contest run by CCCR. The contest is called "Habitat Means Home," and every public elementary school in Fremont is allowed to participate. The requirement is that you draw a picture based off of habitat and spieces you would find at Coyote Hills. We have been doing this poster contest, now for five years! And we were worried we wouldn't get a good outcome because of such short notice...but we got 295 posters! The most we've ever gotten. And that ment...a lot of work for me. My job was to take all 295 of them and first separate them by school, then by grade, then teacher, and then alphabetize. Which was such an easy job NOT. That took about three hours just by itself. Not only does that happen but, we also have to enter every single poster into the computer with the name of the student, their school, email address and phone number. That way we can contact the families and let them know if their son or daughter has won any of the places or honorable mentions. The students don't just have to draw a picture though. They also answer questions. So all in all, that helps the three judges add up all the factors for their favorite poster/artist. The student who wins first place not only gets a prize, their school gets five hundred dollars. My job wasn't very difficult, but it was most definitely time consuming. Not only that but then we put all the posters up in the Coyote Hills Visitor Center so the public can view the art work. Tomorrow, we have the awards ceremony for the artists and the families to come and watch their success. Then we also give a tour of the Butterfly Garden that we have worked so hard on so we can just make the kids more aware of what is happening to the habitat around them. The whole point of this contest is to spread knowledge because if you think about they are going to be the ones who put up a fight for saving and conserving land. Florence was very pleased with the outcome. And I can't wait to see all the kids tomorrow and meet them! :)

Lets Make an Assembly Line!

For the third time volunteering Jennifer and I went to the Tri City Volunteers. It was something different than the Senior Center so we decided to try it out. It wasnt that bad actually. It was really easy to sign up and start volunteering right away. Before we started we had to go to this room and sign papers. I thought the room we did this in was cool. I know, this sounds wierd, but it was! It was like sitting at a conference table..you know, those long ones with a bunch of chairs around it. I felt all important. Anyways after we signed all the papers we followed the lady to the back. It was kind of stuffy back there. The back is what the picture is. I was amazed at how much food they had. There were boxes and cans everywhere. Also bins with stuff in them. We then signed in and put this bright yellow vest on. While we did this Zena, Karlie, Sierra, and Alencio came in. We all stood there waiting for someone to tell us what to do. Finally someone told us to go bag cans and other non perishable food. We all formed an assembly line so it would get done faster. My job was bagging the cans of beef stew, how fun. This is all we did too. There were a lot of bags done when we finished and I'm sure the people who are getting them will appreciate the help Tri City Volunteers gives them. Basically, i had an okay time. It wasnt really fun but then again I dont think any volunteering is. Me and Jennifer are going to go back for our last time. I liked volunteering there in a wierd way because it was easy stuff and it was so convenient. I can just go back and volunteer whenever i want, all i have to do is sign in when i come in and sign out when i leave. Pretty easy and simple. Hopefully next time will go by just as fast and easy.

Time to Work at the Register

As the time krept closer to writing this blog, I had to figure out a place to volunteer for a few hours since I was unable to be with Kate one evening. I decided to call one of my friends to help me get some hours in and luckily, she has been volunteering at this thrift in Irvington. So, she said I could tag along. which, I happened to do after school today. We drove right over to the store and drove to the backside of the store. I thought this area was kinda sketchy but, then again I have never been here before so I would'nt really know much about it. I was nervous to get out of the car, I honestly didn't know what to expect. Though, I had to get out of the car. We walked through the doors into the shop where I was greeted by a short Asian lady with a clipboard. She welcomed me and told me that I could stay and help. All I had to do was be in the backroom and sort clothes that people donated the days before. It was quite easy but, the bags were in these big yellow wooden bins which was hard for me to pick up the bags of clothes because well, I'm short. I managed, and opened the first bag and started folding. A few minutes later the lady checked up on me and asked if I was doing alright. Of course I answered with a "yes" though I was thinking "these clothes need to be washed about 20 more times" but, that would be rude. She let me continue. As I was folding I realized that some of the clothes were damaged and nobody would ever buy it so I didn't really know what to do till another volunteer said that the green wooden bin was for clothes that weren't "sell worthy". By this time I was sort of bored and wanted to actually I don't know, be more involved with he store. So I asked the Asian lady with the clipboard if they needed help. Luckily she said I could work at the crash register with another volunteer. It was actually really fun and I liked having a small conversation here and there with a customer. By this time, it was 530 and time to go and so we left. Yet, before we were to leave and let the other volunteers take over I wanted to know the head lady's name since I couldn't see her name tag the entire time. Her name was Kim. I thanked her and left. So my volunteer opportunity was quite fun and a good experience.