Day 1 First Place Van Tol
I spent my morning at First Place. When we first got there we thought we were locked out but we ended up being at the wrong place so we walked across the street and we got in. We tried opening a door when we got in but the door was locked so we started to walk up the stairs but then a lady opened it for us. Amanda and I told her what we were planning on doing and what high school we went to. She didn't seem to know why we were there or anything so we decided to explain a bit more but she still looked confused. So we decided to call Mr. Tuit to get things figured out so we could start touring our place. After a while a guy came and took us back to his office and we sat around for a long time with five other people in the room so it got kind of uncomfortable because it was a small room. Eventually, they left so we got to sit down and that's when everything finally began. At first he explained what they were doing and how things work there. So Amanda and I listened politely. Even though it got boring but it was still interesting.
One thing I learned was that many homeless people line up in the morning on the sidewalk and wait for the volunteers to come out and get all of their names. Once the volunteers collect all of their names they put their names into a plastic bowl and draw names randomly. Whoever gets their name drawn, gets to work but can only work once a month because the others need a opportunity also. All of the people get 15 dollars a month for working but one guy gets 22.50 because he works at God's kitchen every Sunday. He washes all the dirty dishes then goes and does his thing. The reason he's the only one that does that is because the people there only want him to work there because he is a hard worker, always has a great attitude, and works overtime. Before it was time to leave we had to put 22.50 in an envelope and 15 dollars in the rest of the envelopes for all the people that had worked or are working later this week. It didn't take that long but it was better than just sitting there and doing nothing for the couple hours that we were there. So after that was finished it was time to go so we talked to him a bit more, thanked him and walked out the door and waited for the bus to come. Overall, we had a good time visiting First Place.