And I am back…
I really was on a go here writing nearly everyday and now here I am 2 months later, posting a post.
What had I been upto, volunteering for the 30 days of Ramadan at Concordia University with the Muslim Student Association.
I actually got delegated the job of coordinating volunteers and tasks needed to be accomplished. In the 30 days (starting from 25/09/2006 - 23/10/2006), it was my job to ensure that food for 400 people was prepared on time along with the appropriate salad and dressing. In addition to this, I also had to ensure that the food was transported to Mcgill University according to the appropriate channels (Concordia University, served 200 people, McGill University served 200 more). In in a tightly run schedule, because we had from 9:00 till 4:00 in the vegan student run (People’s Potato) kitchen at Concordia University to finish cooking rice, making salad and dressing and sometimes making a sauce for the rice. The meat dish or main dish was ordered made from another restuarant. Our job was to ensure equal distribution of food in containers between McGill and Concordia Universities. And lastly, serving the food to the fasting public after sunset. After all this, it was up to cleaning and planning for the next day.
During the ensuing weeks while working there, I developed a rapport with the other volunteers, I learned to think on my feet to solve an impending problem and often times coming with creative solutions to dull and tried queries. Above all, during this time, I learnt to appreciate assertive communication (which I used a lot) and finding a straighforward yet polite way of getting things done as quickly as possible. Also, the virtue of flexibility and quick adaptability I learnt during this experience, because often times due to lack of certain ingrediants or volunteers(all volunteers were University students, knee deep in their studies) depending on the day. Another thing I appear to have finally tackled is my disturbing habit of procrastination. With the amount of work I was subjected to, daily from 9am-12 am, I finally learnt to manage time properly and appropriately. This volunteer work taught me that I have my limits, I am not superhuman to complete a set of tasks like a computer. I must be adaptable yet perservere to finish tasks that appear to have a higher priority set based on some earlier decided calibarations. Above all, I finally learnt how not to handle a conflict without caring overmuch on how the other person perceived me. Getting angry on volunteers does not help alleviate the problem, rather it creates resentment. I learnt it is better to be direct yet polite rather than a) quiet and mousy or b) loud and obstructive and hurtful.
Behave like a professional and treat everyone in such a manner. It would go a long way in creating a healthy work enviornment.
All in all it helped that the volunteers helping out were highly motivated and willing to get things done. Without such passionate companions, it would not have been fun at all facilitating tasks and people.