I suppose that everything happens for a reason.
Ive given up trying to understand why and just accept that, well, that is how it is.
Yesterday is a good example of the highs and lows, the tests and balances of working with Reach Out.
I was not in the best frames of mind yesterday, (what do you mean that's normal for me)? I am normally quite sensible, (yeah ok its a 50/50 shout on that), but I try!
Ive been a bit under the weather recently and was in no real mood to be screwed about.
You see, I will never accept rudeness or nothing less than the truth. That's just who I am.
So when I get confronted with that I tend to do my 'Hulk' thing.
And so it came to pass that yesterday afternoon 'The Hulk' came out in full force.
We have had a particular 'difficulty' with one of our lady street folks before, trying to steal food, bitching and complaining about everything. She is well known amongst the street folks for her bad attitude.
So yesterday she receives her food from us as normal together with the other 200+ we served at Bus Stand Klang.
We decided to donate some clothes we recently got over the last two weeks and last Saturday and yesterday we arranged queues for ladies and gents, got the clothes out and began to distribute. Actually, what we do is have them queue up and then help them one by one select suitable garments from our clothes boxes.
This particular lady is first in the queue. She selects some items and then moves off. All is good. but then she comes back pushing others out of the way. So I stop her and ask her to rejoin the queue at the end of the line.
I then see her going to the side of the mens queue and snatching clothes from one of our elderly gents who is in the queue selecting his clothes. I snatch them back and then ban her from the line. She is told to go away and that we will not serve her.
She then accuses me of not providing food, which I refute as I personally served her about 30 minutes earlier. I am then subject to a torrent of filth, to which, as this is a Chinese lady, I respond to in some fairly street Cantonese I know, (one of the great things the Royal Hong Kong Police taught me)! I am then forced to follow her up and down the street to make sure she does not rejoin the queue and disturb those who have been queuing patiently.
Filth after filth is spewed from this womans mouth, I'm a "bastard', a "fucking uneducated Australian", (which amused me being Scottish), told to "fuck off bastard you don't belong here", a "fucking asshole European", to "get out of my country bastard you dont belong here", that my wife was a "filthy fucking whore", to name just a few of the lovely expressions thrown my way.
I must admit I raised my voice slightly ( well actually she got the full force of my flowery Scottish vocabulary, and of course the said Cantonese).
Amazingly enough I was approached by numerous of our street friends after this who thanked me for putting her in her place as they were fed up with her attitude.
You see, rudeness wont be tolerated. Lies wont be tolerated in the work that I do.
We are volunteers. We do this out of our care and our compassion.
Others may say well just walk away. I don't think so.
Why?
Because if one person is allowed to get away with that the whole fabric of what we do disintegrates and others will become the same as that lady. The trust is gone as others on the street will think that we don't care about order, commitment, care, fairness.
I hope that the lesson she learned yesterday will change her but I doubt it as she has done this so many times before.
What a start to an amazing day.
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