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| The pleasures of telling other people where to go | The pleasures of telling other people where to go |
| (4 months later) | |
| I have always fancied wearing a high viz vest and directing traffic and my chance came on the day of the Danby Christmas Craft Fair. The car park got very crowded, so I had to check where the spaces were and then wave people into them, at the same time sending 4x4s into a grass field. It was curiously satisfying, helping people and yet telling them where to go; if anyone near the North York Moors wants a car director for a charity event, please let me know. | I have always fancied wearing a high viz vest and directing traffic and my chance came on the day of the Danby Christmas Craft Fair. The car park got very crowded, so I had to check where the spaces were and then wave people into them, at the same time sending 4x4s into a grass field. It was curiously satisfying, helping people and yet telling them where to go; if anyone near the North York Moors wants a car director for a charity event, please let me know. |
| It's not all earnest being a 'small society' volunteer. Before our most recent Fairtrade meeting, we all ate together at the pub that kindly lets us have small room for nothing (thank you, the Blue Ball in Malton). After the food and chat, we set to and decided some future events: another craft fair in March and a chocolate tasting at the next Fine Food event in Malton. I will miss this, but will help to get it organised and others can encourage customers on the day. | It's not all earnest being a 'small society' volunteer. Before our most recent Fairtrade meeting, we all ate together at the pub that kindly lets us have small room for nothing (thank you, the Blue Ball in Malton). After the food and chat, we set to and decided some future events: another craft fair in March and a chocolate tasting at the next Fine Food event in Malton. I will miss this, but will help to get it organised and others can encourage customers on the day. |
| Meanwhile we've had two Fridays of Fairtrade stalls this month, one at the local council offices and the other at West Heslerton primary school, where the schoolchildren almost cleared us out of nodding animals and jelly beans while their parents bought tree baubles and paper chains. Everything on sale was fairly traded and all from the Fairer World shop in York's Gillygate. | Meanwhile we've had two Fridays of Fairtrade stalls this month, one at the local council offices and the other at West Heslerton primary school, where the schoolchildren almost cleared us out of nodding animals and jelly beans while their parents bought tree baubles and paper chains. Everything on sale was fairly traded and all from the Fairer World shop in York's Gillygate. |
| On the asylum-seeker front in Leeds, there have been busy Short Stop Tuesdays with the Grace Project at Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network with a lot of anxiety on the first when almost all my calls went to voicemail. Several were returned in due course and everyone seeking a bed for the night was placed, including a young man who has slept on the streets of Bradford for several weeks. | On the asylum-seeker front in Leeds, there have been busy Short Stop Tuesdays with the Grace Project at Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network with a lot of anxiety on the first when almost all my calls went to voicemail. Several were returned in due course and everyone seeking a bed for the night was placed, including a young man who has slept on the streets of Bradford for several weeks. |
| Our kind hosts have their own crises. One who had said 'yes' rang me back again. as his roof was now leaking with all the rain. I thanked him for being so thoughtful as to let me know, and he carried on trying to get builders out. I rang the referring agency Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers to change the arrangements and all was well in the end. | Our kind hosts have their own crises. One who had said 'yes' rang me back again. as his roof was now leaking with all the rain. I thanked him for being so thoughtful as to let me know, and he carried on trying to get builders out. I rang the referring agency Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers to change the arrangements and all was well in the end. |
| The month's next session saw my first person placed very quickly, but then my calls on behalf of two more homeless asylum seekers all went to voicemail. Well into the afternoon, I tried a few people again and the most wonderful couple agreed to take them both. Then I had a call back from one of the voicemails, asking: would the guest mind a crying baby? We agreed that anything would be better than the freezing streets. So it was back to the other couple to tell them it was now just one guest, while the other took his chances with the baby. | The month's next session saw my first person placed very quickly, but then my calls on behalf of two more homeless asylum seekers all went to voicemail. Well into the afternoon, I tried a few people again and the most wonderful couple agreed to take them both. Then I had a call back from one of the voicemails, asking: would the guest mind a crying baby? We agreed that anything would be better than the freezing streets. So it was back to the other couple to tell them it was now just one guest, while the other took his chances with the baby. |
| My last session of the month was less happy: only one Short Stop referral but sadly it was a very young man from Iran whom I have placed before. Like many people barely out of childhood, he is a bit disorganised and doesn't always make it to the bed that has been found for him. Last night he spent on the streets of Leeds but the kind host today has arranged to meet him at the bus stop. Let's hope he makes it that far. While in Leeds I saw my long-standing asylum-seeking friend, who is hoping for permission to stay in the UK. She has a problem with her heating. The thermostat is next to the cooker, so every time she cooks the heating goes off and the rest of the house gets cold. As she is a believer in buying cheaper food which takes time to cook, this means a cold house for a lot of the day. The helpful gas man and I shake our heads but come to the conclusion that she will need to cook with the back door open. What can I say, except it's a good thing that she's not in a back-to-back with no through ventilation? I had been thinking about my own heating arrangements: debating with myself about what to do with my heating allowance. I shouldn't get it and if I do, at least it should be taxed. I have a well insulated house, I am fit and active and I have an index-linked public sector pension. It seems that only pensioners are to be protected from the appalling welfare cuts by the current Government. That may have been a promise, but other promises were made that have gone out of the window. | My last session of the month was less happy: only one Short Stop referral but sadly it was a very young man from Iran whom I have placed before. Like many people barely out of childhood, he is a bit disorganised and doesn't always make it to the bed that has been found for him. Last night he spent on the streets of Leeds but the kind host today has arranged to meet him at the bus stop. Let's hope he makes it that far. While in Leeds I saw my long-standing asylum-seeking friend, who is hoping for permission to stay in the UK. She has a problem with her heating. The thermostat is next to the cooker, so every time she cooks the heating goes off and the rest of the house gets cold. As she is a believer in buying cheaper food which takes time to cook, this means a cold house for a lot of the day. The helpful gas man and I shake our heads but come to the conclusion that she will need to cook with the back door open. What can I say, except it's a good thing that she's not in a back-to-back with no through ventilation? I had been thinking about my own heating arrangements: debating with myself about what to do with my heating allowance. I shouldn't get it and if I do, at least it should be taxed. I have a well insulated house, I am fit and active and I have an index-linked public sector pension. It seems that only pensioners are to be protected from the appalling welfare cuts by the current Government. That may have been a promise, but other promises were made that have gone out of the window. |
| So on the way home, I stop off in York and spend my heating allowance in Fairer World who will deliver the goods to the local food bank for me. Although this is a sort of win-win - more fairly traded food helping local York people - it still seems to me to be deeply shocking that one of the richest countries in the world is reducing its citizens to food banks. And remember people can't just go in and take what they want; they have to be referred by their social worker or a similar person. | So on the way home, I stop off in York and spend my heating allowance in Fairer World who will deliver the goods to the local food bank for me. Although this is a sort of win-win - more fairly traded food helping local York people - it still seems to me to be deeply shocking that one of the richest countries in the world is reducing its citizens to food banks. And remember people can't just go in and take what they want; they have to be referred by their social worker or a similar person. |
| My Wednesday work with Coasties, clearing footpaths and doing other maintenance in the North York Moors national park, has been wet and muddy. The month's first day of building steps at the historic former alum works saw non-stop rain and we finished early, but the next is dry and the fine weather spurs us on. | My Wednesday work with Coasties, clearing footpaths and doing other maintenance in the North York Moors national park, has been wet and muddy. The month's first day of building steps at the historic former alum works saw non-stop rain and we finished early, but the next is dry and the fine weather spurs us on. |
| I end up a bit filthy after a graceful slide into the mud before a ditch was re-dug but we have mince pies and mulled wine and I drive home with my usual feeling of smug satisfaction with another job well done. Steps have been cleaned, ditches dug and blackthorn cut back and the Cleveland Way is more passable than it was yesterday. There is also the good company of the rest of the group. Short Stop can get a little lonely at times, with the phone calls all going to voicemail, so Coasties is a good counterpoint to that. | I end up a bit filthy after a graceful slide into the mud before a ditch was re-dug but we have mince pies and mulled wine and I drive home with my usual feeling of smug satisfaction with another job well done. Steps have been cleaned, ditches dug and blackthorn cut back and the Cleveland Way is more passable than it was yesterday. There is also the good company of the rest of the group. Short Stop can get a little lonely at times, with the phone calls all going to voicemail, so Coasties is a good counterpoint to that. |
| In the pouring rain again, I get a bus to Leeds to see my friend. We exchange cards and I give her a gift for Christmas. A nun from her church is also visiting as well as another friend, and there is a lot of laughter and chatting. It all seems like any other gathering of young women (and me) until the others leave and we talk about the latest stage of her appeal to be allowed to stay in this country. A shadow falls and yet again I think what as asset she would be to all of us and particularly the community she is already so much a part of in Leeds. | In the pouring rain again, I get a bus to Leeds to see my friend. We exchange cards and I give her a gift for Christmas. A nun from her church is also visiting as well as another friend, and there is a lot of laughter and chatting. It all seems like any other gathering of young women (and me) until the others leave and we talk about the latest stage of her appeal to be allowed to stay in this country. A shadow falls and yet again I think what as asset she would be to all of us and particularly the community she is already so much a part of in Leeds. |
| That struck me earlier in the month on a short holiday in Norway – yes, it's no good depending on me, or other volunteers, round the clock for essential services that what we should be paying people to do. The young guide on our coach, in telling us about his country, says how settled asylum seekers are welcomed with lessons in Norwegian, a job and somewhere to live. He obviously approves of this and has no hesitation in telling a coach full of (mostly) British people. How refreshing but how sadly unlikely to happen here. Even if a guide like him felt the same way, would they say so? So my small society ends another year. It did not occur to me when I started that it would keep going for so long but the need is still there. The next post will come when the days will have started to lengthen and we can dream of certainties, like the wild daffodils at Farndale, and of hopes, like permission for my Leeds friend to stay. | That struck me earlier in the month on a short holiday in Norway – yes, it's no good depending on me, or other volunteers, round the clock for essential services that what we should be paying people to do. The young guide on our coach, in telling us about his country, says how settled asylum seekers are welcomed with lessons in Norwegian, a job and somewhere to live. He obviously approves of this and has no hesitation in telling a coach full of (mostly) British people. How refreshing but how sadly unlikely to happen here. Even if a guide like him felt the same way, would they say so? So my small society ends another year. It did not occur to me when I started that it would keep going for so long but the need is still there. The next post will come when the days will have started to lengthen and we can dream of certainties, like the wild daffodils at Farndale, and of hopes, like permission for my Leeds friend to stay. |
| Janice Gwilliam is a retired London schoolteacher who blogs monthly for the Northerner about her voluntary work with asylum seekers and refugees in Lincoln Green, Leeds, and maintaining footpaths on the North York Moors | Janice Gwilliam is a retired London schoolteacher who blogs monthly for the Northerner about her voluntary work with asylum seekers and refugees in Lincoln Green, Leeds, and maintaining footpaths on the North York Moors |
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