When my youngest daughter went to volunteer at a recycling centre to fulfil her 10 hour community service requirement of a university course, I tagged along and served out of partly being curious and a little of "nosy parkerism".
Here I must state that I greatly admire the work these dedicated volunteers do in my neighbourhood. They sell donated clothes at nominal prices to refugees and illegal immigrants. There is a van that sell second hand but serviceable shoes and slippers in poor areas of town during week day working hours. I heard that volunteers would drive to other states in poor little towns to sell whatever items donated but not saleable in the city. Interestingly such items include clothes, shoes, household tools, kitchen implements, travel cases, children's toys ...
It was quite a few years ago, at least six. As far as I remember I worked three 4 hour shifts in the mornings. Most volunteers appeared promptly at eight am in front of the shop lot. The key holder opened up the place and assigned the various volunteers to different stations. I was placed in the section to process white and black paper. All the other ladies are regulars and for them it was a social occasion. At 8:30am a big size commanding looking woman got out of a big BMW with an Indonesian maid in tow. She was assigned next to me working coloured printed glossy paper. We tore the donated paper into small shreds with gloved hands. Each of us wore masks over our noses and mouths for hygienic reasons.
After an hour or so different things came in from the locked recycle boxes after they were sorted by the leader (key holder) and his team. (My daughter as a university student was placed there for an overview of the entire recycling effort) A small bag of clothes came in, the holder gave it to me to put in the bin right behind me in the shelves. Before I could throw it in, Mrs BMW asked for it. She threw the content out and looked over all the items. They were lovely and expensive sports wear: tennis skirts, golf shirts, yoga tights, leotards for ballet ... all kinds of colours and of well-known brands, every single one of them in small size. She took eight of the twelve items for various individuals of her vast extended family as a matter of her right. Nobody in the room bat an eye lid. I was watching closely every movement and listening avidly to every word uttered and inferring expressions not verbalised.
At 11:30 am the car came for the duo and the lady in charged of food deferentially invited her to pack fried beehoon (a form of rice noodle) and liquid dessert (red bean soup) before leaving. For the rest of us mortals, tea break is at 12 pm. As a total stranger, I must say that the people in charged are extremely polite and nice to me and my daughter. My daughter and I enjoyed the treats tremendously. This organisation is an off shoot from a group in Taiwan. They are serious Buddhists and life long vegetarians.
This event happened so very long ago that I have well forgotten it. What triggered the memory I will write as the next blog.
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