I just had my second volunteering experience and damn. Is that all we could do? In order to support the victims of the recent earthquake in China, the Red Cross started collecting funds, pitching several tents in each city across the country where people could come and donate money and inform themselves concerning the recent tragedy and how they could help.
We faced a number of let-downs such as a low number of donors, little money stocked and a generally disturbing attitude from people passing by.
It was early afternoon and we were placed on one of the main streets with a lot of traffic and a lot of people constantly passing by. Yet in almost 4 hours of waiting less than 40 people actually came up and offered their help. The most appalling part was the fact that every two minutes some spoiled brat would park his luxury-dream-toy-car daddy bought him right in front of us, stare confused at the big RED CROSS “Appeal for China” sign, have a laugh and turn his back, whilst people who looked like they barely had anything to eat at home, or barely had a home kept coming, offering their modest help, certain of the fact that it will be of more use somewhere out there amongst the earthquake survivors. Those who donated the most were precisely the ones who barely had any money for themselves either.
I’m pretty convinced we got less than 80 € in 4 hours, with hundreds of people passing by, most of them ignoring us completely or staring insistently with a dumb look on their face, pondering(?) whether it’s worth the effort or not to walk up and share what they had with those more in need. Some of them even made faces, rolled their eyes at the back of their head as if saying “whatever, why are they even trying, why should I care about what happens in some far away country – wait, where?”. Others gave their best to mock or insult us, build ‘witty’(to be read REDNECKISH!!) phrases showing their pain in the ass or their superiority, since they couldn’t be fooled to spend 4 hours in the sun for some *in their opinion* worthless cause.
A gypsy boy tried to steal the box where we collected the money. now if THAT isn’t FUCKING DISTURBING then I don’t know what is. but then again, that’s something common in our country, isn’t it?
All in all, the heat was unbearable, our fellow citizens’ attitude discouraging, our wait endless, and our funds not quite increasing.
Go fuckin Romania, go!
