Volunteering

I am not a great housewife, never claimed to be, but here I am anyway.  Although I do not miss having an office job (although I did at first), I do miss being with other people, doing something useful, being with other people, feeling valued for my contribution, and being with other people.  I get quite a lot of enjoyment out of social events, particularly with the American Women's Club of Dublin, but that's not everyday and it's not the same.  Since I can't work now due to my residency status, and really I don't want to at this point, hubby suggested I try some volunteering.  Not only will it help fill that void, but I can do it as little as I want, and it will look good on a  resume to show how I filled this time if and when I need to go back into the workforce.  Hopefully that won't be until after I have kids and they are back in school (I have baby fever right now).  I found a website that listed all sorts of volunteer opportunities, and decided that the one at Imaginosity, a children's museum that is on my bus route, looked like the best fit for now, due to the easy transportation and baby fever and all.

Have you ever volunteered anywhere before?  My experience has mostly been like this:  Place:  Please volunteer, anybody, we are desperate!  Me:  I'll do it.  Place: Great, we don't know you or what you can do but we are desperate so start now please!  That is now how it went here at all.  First I had to submit my name for consideration through he volunteer site, who then passed it on to the place.  Then the place had to review my basic info, like my age and hours of availability, and decide if they wanted to deal with me at all. Then the place sent me an email saying here is what we expect out of you, if you are okay with that then submit us this other application AND A RESUME, which I did.  Really, are resume???  The description of the position was help set up for craft time.  I don't have a resume for that.  I dug up my last version of my professional resume and added a few lines at the top about how I had volunteered for church before, then put in the cover letter an explanation of  how I was a professional before but moved, blah blah blah.  Then I had to wait to hear back from them and go for an in person interview, at which the lady said they are really informal there.  This process is not what I consider informal, but at least the interview was, and we agreed I would start after my vacation (or Holiday as they call it, which I think is more fun) and come for a few hours every Wednesday for at least a month, then take it from there.  But first I had to fill our a form to get vetted by the Garda (police background check), on which I had to list every place I have lived, and when I lived there, since I was born.  That seems like overkill, since I only had to list the last 10 years when I got my security clearance working for the U.S. Government, but at least they are being thorough with the people who will be working with little kids.

Today was my first day.  I think they forgot I was coming, and weren't really sure what to do with me.  They weren't that busy so I only stayed for 2 hours, which included getting me oriented a bit.  The next two weeks are going to be some special camp stuff while the kids are on school break, so they expect to be really busy and have some more structured stuff to do, and I think they will need me more.  The reason I started this week was so they would have a chance to show me what's up before the craziness hits. I had to wear one of their volunteer t-shirts while I was there. They have a bucket of shirts they rotate, I think even the staff has to do that, you just wear it for the day then leave it behind and pick up a new one the next day.  Unfortunately, they only had one size that said volunteer on it, and it was a little snug :(  So I wandered around for about 15 minutes and found out that this place is actually really rad.  They had a ton of interactive exhibits along with the activities, like the ones I helped with.  I am jealous I didn't have this when I was a kid!  We did have the Exploratorium, which I loved, but I think this is targeted at younger kids and have lots more stuff to climb and play on.  They even had this section that was a green screen where you stand on it and play a virtual video game and see yourself on TV.  They flashed a screen of high scores and it was all pictures of adults :) 

After wandering around I "helped" with Nursery Rhyme Time, which meant I laid out some yoga mats, then did the hand motions along with the songs while I sat in the corner in case any kids (toddlers) looked my way.  Then after a few songs they brought out a bucket of random instruments for the kids to just play with.  I actually did help a bit there, ushered some new kids into the room, helped some figure out what to do with their instruments, and just encouraged the kids to play and make a racket!

Then, after music room cleanup, it was Toddler Art Workshop time, where I helped set out supplies, did a tiny bit of helping with glue sticks, and then, after the kids left, I helped cut out more shapes for tomorrow's craft.  They keep mentioning I can lead my own craft class, so I might bring in a bunch of flower or star or whatnot cutouts that I make with my crafting supplies and have them glue them to a piece of paper to make a picture of a garden or something.  After seeing the kids today, I need to keep it easy and simple.  Or maybe I will come in the afternoon when (I think) it's geared more towards older kids.  It's kind of cool that they want me to be more active when I come next time, but I also have only spent like 2 hours total there, so that seems like it's jumping the gun a little!  I did tell the coordinator that I would make a project at home and bring it in next time to see if that is the kind of thing they are looking for.  Maybe I will be leading it soon, time to hit pinterest and look up toddler friendly crafts!

So far the people seem nice and I had some fun, so looking forward to going back next week.