I was excited for my first day of volunteering, and honestly had no idea what was on tap for me for the day.

Within a few moments of arriving Tami informed me that she had to leave for about an hour to run some errands, and that I would have full run of the place. On one hand I wasn’t so shocked, I’m a very trustworthy person and have expressed many times to Tami how excited I was to be volunteering at CityTree. On the other hand, what if I was some crazy lunatic who trashed the place and split before Tami knew what hit her!? Luckily for everyone I was much more content to sit and complete my mission of reorganizing the library, albeit bookshelf, and to stamping each publication with CityTree's logo. I happen to love organizing, in all forms, especially if the overarching theme of what I’m organizing deals with the environment. The sheer range of information accumulated in the library was incredible: “Herbal Tea Remedies”, “Feng Shuei for Children”, “100 Ways to Reuse Newspaper”, “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh”. Within a half hour of arriving at CityTree I was woman-ing the phones and sifting through piles and piles of information with the sun on my back and a warm breeze running through my hair. “Ah”.

As promised, Tami returned from her morning jaunt after about an hour. The library was nearing completion. We sat for a few minutes sorting miscellaneous paper from the shelves into “compost-able” and “reusable” piles. A thought came to mind: why doesn’t everyone do this? What would happen if everyone took three minutes of their day to think in those terms instead of “keep” and “trash”? But to CityTree this was already second nature, or should I say first nature. We then set about cleaning the house for courses that were scheduled for later in the day. Boring, you say? Why volunteer to clean someone else’s house, you ask? In following ancient Jewish tradition, I’ll answer those questions with one of my own: have you ever made your own cleaning supplies? What about in your blender? Again that thought came to mind: why doesn't everyone do this? It's so... natural, for lack of a better term.

We continued cleaning, sweeping, dusting, washing. It was refreshing to know that the dust I swept up and the water I used wasn't going to some far off never-never land, but instead to the papia tree out front. A little later in the day, Yonatan the gardener came to install a drip irrigation system, an internationally acclaimed technology used commonplace in Israel. It was so much fun to be outside in the dirt setting up a system that would save water and time. As we finished installing the irrigation system the cooking class participants of the evening had arrived and were busy tasting various organic/local/natural concoctions a-la-Tami. A course on traditional Arabic medicine and nutrition was being taught in the living room as various volunteers manned the phones and computers. CityTree was a bundle of activity, and I was so happy to be a part of it.

תגובות

Becca! Sounds like an exciting first day indeed, and reminds me of my first days in CityTree, sitting in the ecological living room and using the drill with a special attachment to pulverize used paper in water to be used as building material in the garden :)
What days are you at Tamis? I want to come by and meet you!
Hope all is well!

-- Tess, 22/06/10