For those of you who still aren't exactly sure what I will be doing or what Bethany house is i'm now able to give more details cause now I have a clearer picture in my head. Bethany house is one the services a organization called the Bethany Christian Trust provides. They mainly work in Edinburgh but have a couple of different services in other cities in Scotland. Bethany House (I will more than likely refer to it as the House when I talk about it in my writings). Is a hostel for people who suddenly don't have a place to sleep with a roof over their head. (I will talk more about homelessness later). Sometimes residents stay for a couple of weeks or sometimes as long as a year and everything in between. There are two groups of four project workers that rotate two days on two days off 12 hour shifts. Myself and the other two Volunteers who are with me (Simon and Dana) will be working with both groups. Sometimes we will be working one rotation with one group for a week or so or work 9-5 or something like that. Pretty much my schedule will be different each week. My job is to pretty much help out wherever they need help. That includes doing waking people up, help doing lunch or help clean after lunch. holding the office, doing window checks, Cleaning a room after a resident moves out so another person can stay there, and holding devotions. There is a wide variety in each day that I could be doing.
I'll go through a typical day that I have been doing so far. At 845 a.m. we all gather into this really small office. Sometimes I don't see how we can all fit but we do. One of the people who worked nigh shift goes through the list of residents and tells us what happened the night before. We then have a prayer. Then we have time for people to get tea or coffee. I will say now that I have taken a liking to hot tea and milk (Don't worry I still love my Sweet iced tea). We then go downstairs to a much bigger room. If its the first day of that groups rotation we listen to a recording that the other group made telling us what has happened in the last two days at the house. Which I have found out could be a lot. We can have several people move out or move in or other things that kinda happened. Then we go and wake up residents. Then go back downstairs and have a short staff devo and another prayer. Then who ever is on shift lead tells the other people what they are doing that day (Which could and does change all the time depending on other things coming up). Then we break and get to it. In the mornings we go to the flats to make sure that the common area's are clean. We have six flats total which all have around 4 or 5 rooms. They all have a lounge area a small kitchen and bathroom and shower. The residents rotate who is supposed to tidy up each area. Checking the flats can take any where between 20 minutes to an hour depending if you get caught up in conversation with one of the residents. This takes usually one person to do. The others are either cooking lunch or in meetings with a resident or just in the office. then at 12 we have lunch and after lunch one of the staff members helps clean up. Each flat is on a rotation on kitchen help to clean up. After that there is break time which could mean a short nap or a nice walk around the city. Then a staff member holds a devo for residents if the want to come. Then around 3 we have tea break for the residents. Then sometime after that one person will go up and do window checks which is kinda like flat cleaning. We have to go into each room everyday and make sure their window isn't open to wide. Sounds weird I know but its a government rule. This could also lead to talking with residents. Then dinner at 5 and then I go home.
This is a very short summary of a typical day here. I'm sure I'll dive deeper into different aspects of my work here throughout the year. Here are some pictures so far!
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| My fellow volunteers/roommates Simon who is from Germany and Dana who is from North Dakota and is also in the YAGM program |
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| Fellow YAGM UKers We have Maridith, Libby, Dana, Jessica, and Mycah |
