First Day of Work in the Caf (with pictures!)

August 6th

     Monday. The day I start my new job. I wasn't really nervous, just...nervous. I'm always nervous when I start a new job. First in the sac, and then the Java Hut, and now the caf. I woke up before Karen and Mariam. I had heard Priscilla tell Christa (both are early risers, and I

was awake) that she was going to the lounge to hang out, so I dressed and headed over there. I tell her that I am starting in the caf today, and she seemed pretty excited about that. It is about 12:30pm or so when Ulises comes in. Apparently he hadn't heard I was switching, because he

looked surprised, smiled and said "really?" Yep! I wasn't sure if I needed to wear closed toed shoes, so I asked Ulises, and he said no flip flops. Only "tennies". So I go back to my dorm and get my converse. I really didn't like wearing either my converse or my tennis shoes because my

spider bite was still swollen, and wearing shoes that covered it was a bit painful. So I really couldn't wait to take my shoes off, and my work day hadn't even started yet. When I was walked into the dorm to get my shoes, Karen and Mariam were getting ready, so we all headed back to

the lounge. We decided to go to the caf at 1pm, even though lunch started at 12. We didn't really see the point in eating lunch, walking all the way back to the Village, only to have to walk all the way back to the caf. So we go to the caf at 1pm. They were serving philly cheesesteaks.

I had had them before while I was here, so I knew they were going to be pretty good. Karen hadn't ever had a philly cheesesteak, and she was afraid they were going to be gross like the chili. I was like "Karen, trust me. If they were gross, I would warn you." So she gets the philly

cheesesteak. So while we are eating, I take advantage of my phone's speaker not working, and I take pictures of everyone at the table. And they don't even know I did it :) We had to report in the kitchen at 2pm. When you enter, there are two swinging doors. As I went in, I let go of

the door, and it swung and almost knocked Ulises out. He looked at me and said, "Me-kyla, why?" Sorry Ulises. So we gather around in the kitchen. All of the volunteers and all of the kitchen crew. We all get introduced to each other. The shift leader, Isaac, looks at me and said,

"What is your name?" Karen interrupts and says "Stephanie. Her name is Stephanie." I have a confused look on my face, and so does Isaac.
     And then Mariam said, "No, it's Nickel."
     And then Karen was like "No, it's Stephanie."

     Mariam interjects "Karen! It's Nickel!"
     All this time, Isaac is looking at me as if saying "Which one is it?". I told him, "Mikayla is my legal name, so you can just call me that."
     "No, she wants to be called Stephanie."

    "Uh, her name is Nickel!"
     "Really, you can just call me Mikayla."
Ok then. That was embarrassing. Thanks guys. Isaac was confused, but he did end up calling me Mikayla. And Karen called me Stephanie.

And Mariam called me Nickel. So I adapted to having nicknames. Isaac looks at Karen and tells her what needs to be done for the day, and I follow Karen. She gets a rag and a spray bottle full of disinfectant, and she begins to wipe down all of the tables. We split up, and each did

half of the tables. And then we put the chairs on top of the tables. We refilled napkin dispensers, cleaned out microwaves, cleaned the dishes, swept, and mopped. I swept inside of the kitchen, and mopped it. I put the mop away and was ready to attack another task when Isaac tells me I

should mop in the dish room, where all of the dishes were washed. It was really dirty. There was so much black water from all of the dirt from the past weekend. I eventually got the floors cleaned, emptied out the disgusting water, and was ready to get to another task, when Isaac,

yet again, comes up to me. "Would you mind mopping the bathrooms too? Mariam is cleaning them right now." So I, yet again, filled up the mop bucket, and proceeded to mop the bathroom floors. And then I was completed for the time being. Because we worked during dinner, we

would take the hour before dinner began to eat. We had steak that night. Really good steak. And fries. So when we served dinner, I chose to serve rolls. It was interesting. It was a really good night. Mariam left a bit early because she wasn't feeling well, so after we finished serving dinner,

we cleaned off tables, stacked chairs, swept, mopped, and we were finished. So about 7:30pm, we were finished with work. It wasn't too bad. A 5 1/2 hour shift. We hang out in the lounge. All of us are making bracelets tonight. Even Ulises. He came up to me that day and asked if I

could teach him how. And I did. Unfortunately, I didn't measure the string very well, so it was a bit of a short bracelet. We went to sleep at a reasonable time, and so the day was done.

Nickel

Priscilla!

Karen!

Mariam!

Ulises!

Desiree!

The caf salad bowl!

Teaching Ulises how to make a bracelet