Volunteering (part 3)

Beautiful border, September 2023 (photo credit FLRM)

After I wrote that I neglected to photograph the flower border when I visited FBL and FLRM, I received the photo above to remedy the error! The border is even more lovely in real life than it looks here.

My volunteering days run like this: alarm at 6.30 a.m. and I decide whether to get up for meditation, shower or stay in bed. If meditating, it's 7.00-7.50 a.m. There's an optional second sit from 8.00 to 8.30 but I don't tend to do both because I prefer to have more time for myself before starting work.

I start in the kitchen at 9 a.m. and I'm usually there before the cook, so I often choose a bit of the kitchen and give it a good clean. Two retreatants arrive for vegetable chopping duty from 9.15 which usually runs for 45 to 60 minutes, then they go off to do retreat things and I hang out with the chef for the next stage - clearing the decks and starting the actual cooking part.

At 11.00 there's what's known as the Huddle, when anyone from the Operations Team (as distinct from the Teaching Team) meets to see how everyone is, to pass on messages, and to find out whether any help is needed. Then we have a tea break together when all the young people in the team have their breakfast.

Back into the kitchen at 11.45 to finish preparing lunch, and I like it best when I'm given responsibility for people who have to have something non-standard. It depends on the cook in charge - sometimes all I do after chopping is to fetch, carry, clear and wash up. 

Two more retreatants arrive at 12.50 to help with the lunch service which starts at 1 p.m; at 1.10 p.m. the leftovers are on offer so anyone who wants can help themselves to seconds. I usually hang around during service especially if the non-standard options are complicated, but then I get a break until 3 or 4 p.m. (depending on the cook) and we make the evening meal. Two different retreatants arrive at 5.50 p.m. and dinner is served much like lunch. 

Sometimes we have everything ready by 5 and have an easy relaxed time; sometimes we're preparing food right up to the last minute. One evening the rice cooker broke down, so five minutes before dinner time we had 80 people and raw rice. That was a little difficult, but everyone got fed in the end, just a bit late. Then I'm free for the rest of the evening. 

On Monday evening there's my study group via Zoom, and I've more or less successfully found a place to sit that's both undisturbed and has a decent WiFi signal. I've been going home to Leamington on Tuesday where I can chill and maybe watch a film before going to my regular Buddhist group, and I've been driving down to mum and dad on Wednesday for the last two weeks. Mum and I have been extraordinarily productive in terms of getting jobs done involving finance, house maintenance and health.

There have been events at the retreat centre that I've missed, including Mitra ceremonies for two members of the local group and the ordination of five Spanish-speaking South American women. In practical terms this had the effect of needing to remember the new four- and five-syllable names of the ones who have restricted diets; in spiritual terms this meant a whole lot more... 

Friday is the day that most retreats end after breakfast and new retreats start at tea-time, so lunchtime on Friday is quiet and the community who live here all the time look forward to having chips for lunch. As the two weeks of the Spanish speaking ordination retreat ended we had three different retreats start, with a whole new list of food intolerances to remember. I've been getting a whole lot better at working out how to remember who needs what but there is always potential for disaster.

I have worked with six different cooks while I've been here. I wrote previously about the first three - chaotic, creative, organised - and the next three have been similar - organised, difficult and organised again. The difficult person had no written recipes and neither delegated nor communicated. When I asked questions or made suggestions she mumbled unintelligibly until I gave up asking her to repeat what she'd said. So I just wandered about, tidying, clearing and washing up and responding to direct requests. But she was the one who had to deal with the broken rice cooker, and on that occasion she was heroic.

As I'm writing this I'm due to go home tomorrow, so there's been a lot of thinking 'this is the last time' for this or that. But I have already been asked to come back for a weekend in November, and there are other opportunities that I might take up, so I'm looking forward to maintaining the relationship with the people I've met here.