The Volunteer Revolving Door

The ever-changing landscape of volunteers is like a revolving door at a busy store.  People come and people go and each one contributes and takes away something very special to the family that Warm Heart can often be.  They come from all walks of life, states and other countries, they come from universities and colleges and they come as the wayward traveler looking for a place to call a temporary home.

They focus on everything from medical treatment and hearing tests to microenterprise and teaching English.  They work with Hill Tribes, develop a coffee planting initiative, work on PR and develop concepts and paperwork to help streamline the volunteer process.  The volunteers at Warm Heart often wear many hats and do a hundred things and are still able to be apart of my experience here in Thailand.

The three people that really had an impression on me were Antonia, Patrick and Mel. 

Antonia is one of those med students from Ireland that goes to school in Scotland (or is the other way around? I can’t remember now) that is tomboyish and frank.  Her personalility is one that naturally flows with mine.  My abrupt nature doesn’t freak her out.  She’s the type of atheist that can have an hour conversation with me about it and never once try and convince me that there isn’t no god.  She’s the type that takes comfort in the void that follows death.  In many ways I find this admirable—in many ways I find this sad—she was quite fine with that.  She been gone for almost a week now and really I only knew her a few days but I miss not having the opportunity to know her better.

Patrick is one of the funniest and mature 19 year olds I have ever met.  From UNC and southern at heart he has a charm about him that makes you immediately trust and like him.  He language skills are incredible and he would routinely take fruits, vegetables and peppers out of his pocket to munch on.  He was the kinda guy that worked his ass of, exercised and still had the time to have fun and enjoy himself.  He was a pleasure to work with and one of those people that you hope you one day cross paths with again.

Mel was my beloved little room mate for a week (her last week at warm heart actually).  Mel eased me into the house share situation with sweet grace—I mean she seriously handled me the first two days I quit smoking AND put up with my silly antics of stir fried bacon and cabbage (actually its super good).  It was a pleasure being able to tell her about who I was and what made me tick and to talk about life, love and other mysteries.  Her emotional self and mine seemed to coexist together quite nicely and I was blessed to have her as my roomie (even if it was for just one week). 

We welcomed Divya yesterday and it’s a blessing to know she’ll be here for 10 months.  Seeing and meeting new people is nice but having some consistency has its benefits as well.  Me and Divya will be getting out $3.00 massages today after work and just hanging out with each other.  Sometimes it’s the best way.  As always our normal thai staff is present and accounted for and the adventure continues.