Work

Just back from a relatively tiring day at work. I am a volunteer coordinator in a project in Utrecht, which is one of the bigger cities in Holland. I work three days a week. I'm in charge of finding volunteers and setting them to work assisting the elderly, handicapped or poor in the city. I have about 125 volunteers and 500 clients a year. This has been my job the last two years, before that I worked for the same organisation but then I helped people build friendships. When I really stop to think about it I sometimes feel I'm investing a lot of energy in supplying people with a luxury (instead of feeding the hungry or doing something more noble like that). On the other hand it's also nice to make a old lonely person happy. Like today when an old man called and asked if we could please find someone to go to the hospital with him because he was scared of going alone. We found someone and made him very happy!
It can be quite confronting to be working with and for older people the whole time though. Sometimes I feel like I'm 65 and growing older every minute. So I keep my eyes open for other job opportunities.
But, as you can see, I do work in a beautiful old building in the middel of a historical city. How many people can claim that?