The morning shift was spent packing up boxes as per my first day, except this time I was working with a group doing a company volunteer day. I didn't find out what type of company the volunteers were from, will have to check how they signed the wall when I go back in next week.
The company group looked really young and when they first arrived I made the mistake of asking if they were a high school group. Whoops, that question was met with a few death stares! Turns out they were mostly first year uni graduates. One girl was wearing pearls, gloves and suede boots. Everyone dresses really well in Tokyo but I thought that was a bit much for a shift in a warehouse. The group worked lightning
fast and again I struggled to keep up. I think there was a bit of competition to see who could pack and tape the boxes the fastest. Maybe they thought it would get reported back to their supervisors? Akiko-san can fill and tape a box within 45 seconds. Much faster than the slow moving gaijin. She should be promoted immediately.
Next we sorted groceries into baskets for the afternoon collection time. People are able to come in on Thursday and Saturday afternoons between 2 & 5 and collect some donated food. Orange baskets for families of up to 3 people, red baskets for families of 4 or more. I was getting pretty hungry looking at all this food being passed around, so lucky for me it was time for a lunch break.
When I came back after lunch, we finished setting up tables to hold the vegetables, bakery and packing areas. People arriving at the food bank have to first register their details and inform the volunteers of any food allergies or religious aversions to pork etc. They also have to provide proof of how many people are in their families. People are only able to access food from the food bank once a month so the date of their visit is recorded on their card and then handed to a volunteer. If there is a red dot on their card it means they have registered with a government agency and have been deemed needy enough to also get a small bag of rice. They are always short of rice donations so they need to be careful how it gets divided up.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are expensive in Tokyo, so these are very carefully divided up into small portions as well. Only things that came in large portions were the donations from Costco. Hello trays of croissants and doughnuts :) Had to remind myself several times that the baked goods were for the needy people not for the greedy people.
Most people came to collect their food at the beginning of the sessions so there was plenty of time to chat to the other volunteers. The afternoon group were either in their early 20's (I could be wrong though!) or older retired ladies, all Japanese. One lady was particularly impressive, she speaks both English and French fluently, which was handy because some of the refugees were from Cameroon. She also stood up to any of the sneaky types who were trying to take more than their fair share of the donated goods.
I found that the other volunteers are happy to chat away to me in English when we are talking one on one but they don't like using English in front of the group. Works for me! When they are giving instructions in Japanese I try and catch the few words that I know, then I copy what everyone else is doing. If that doesn't work I ask someone directly one on one. Cross cultural communication at its best! Now I know why I took that random subject at uni while I did a semester of International studies....
