A rough week

I finally had some not so pleasant days recently. I think that the initial feeling of being glad to be here has worn off, and now I'm more in tune to what actually goes on here. Life sucks for these people, and maybe even worse is that many of them are happy with their state of life.

It started on Monday night while I was “on the house.” One of our transitional guests, call him Dave, came home drunk. He apparently had a really bad day and felt the need to have a few drinks in order to unwind. While it might be easy to sympathize with him about this, it is strictly against our rules to drink at all while a guest in our house. The only possible consequence for his actions was dismissal. Every other day I’ve been on the house, it’s been really quiet. Now I found myself having to tell a drunk guy nearly three times my age why he was no longer allowed to stay with us. Talk about a challenge. After talking to him for more than half an hour about all this and getting help from another staff member, we asked him to pack his things and leave. I was happy he accepted this without getting out of hand. This really boils down to Dave not being ready to move on with his life.

The next morning I was asked to take a look at a sick guy in our parking lot. He was not in good shape, and I ended up calling the fire department to take him to the hospital (the FD out here operates the ambulances). In the afternoon, I looked after another sick guy and managed to piss off one of my fellow staff members (for something unrelated). Later at dinner, a local case worker called the fire department to pick up the second sick guy. I feel bad about not doing it sooner myself. He was drunk and probably just dehydrated, but what if that amount of time had health implications for him?

During dinner, there seemed to be more than the usual amount of people who reeked of alcohol. I had my first time of doubt as to the point in serving the people here. The biggest thing is just wondering if these people give a damn about their lives. Many of them do nothing to move up in life and are content living in poverty. I’ve been able to move past this for the moment, but I’m sure the doubts will come back from time to time. What I really needed was a day off, and that’s today. I’m going rock climbing with a Boy Scout troop tonight, so that should be just what I need.