Caritas #WalshGlobal

Caritas 

Walsh Global 11

Noah Drlik 

Yesterday was my third time Volunteering my time at Caritas.  The day started at Termini, where the group meets so we can walk to Caritas.  Its only about a ten to fifteen-minute walk to Caritas from Termini, and we needed to be there by 11 so we left around 10:30 from Termini.  We got to Caritas and sat in the Cafeteria listening to the manager of Caritas give a 20-minute background story of Caritas to a group of Italian students.  He gave the lecture in Italian, so I had no idea what he was saying.  It is always nice having other students there because they usually get the gross jobs and us Americans get the cleaner jobs.  After the lecture was given, another man started a prayer.  Again, the prayer was in Italian and I had no idea what was being said I just followed the leadoff the other people in the room.   After the prayer we given our jobs, I got the job of working the sign in booth again.  I like this job because it is clean, and I am behind glass which makes it feel safer. My Job is to take the Caritas Identification cards from the people and look for their number in a book. Once I find their ID number I have them sign the box with that day’s date on it and give them a lunch ticket.  Once they get their ticket, they leave my station and get in line to receive food. It really a simple job but is needed to know how much food was given out that specific day.  Caritas does not want to run short on food, so they use the sign-in sheets to make sure they always have enough.  The hardest thing about this job is the language barrier.  Most people that come to Caritas are Italian speaking people, therefore I cannot hold a conversation with them.  All I can say is “Buongiorno” and “Grazie”, which mean “good morning” and “thank you”. Other than those two words I don’t have any more human interaction with these people.  However, there are a few people here and there that come in and speak English, in which they ask me questions like where I live and what my name is.  I usually lie to them and tell them I’m from Chicago or Los Angeles and give them a new name every time.  I do this to protect myself because I don’t know these people, they are still strangers to me, I don’t want them to know where I live. I feel bad for some of these people, they come into Caritas, with their whole life on their back shoulder.  One man who came in yesterday really made me hurt for him, he looked like he just got beat up.  His face was all beat up and his hands were covered in blood, I don’t know what happened, but I do know it wasn’t positive.  To brighten things up, another man came in dressed as Santa Claus, he was dancing around and acting funny to cheer up everyone in the room. The day goes quickly at Caritas, especially on Tuesdays because we don’t need to help clean up.  On Tuesdays, there is a cleaning crew that is hired to really clean the place and keeps Caritas up to the sanitary standards of Italy. With that being said, we were finished around 1:30 and went and got lunch. It was another successful day Volunteering at Caritas.