Place: Victoria Baths
Date: 16 July 2011
Hours Worked: 4 1/2 hours
Today was Day 1 our of 2 'Beach Days,' which started at noon and ended at 4. We met up outside the baths at 11:30 a.m., and went inside to figure out who would be doing which tasks, and when we would switch, etc. Cecilia and I took 'lifeguard duty' first, which was really just each of us sitting at the top of the tall stairs at the end of the pool and making sure the kids did not climb up them, and also to be ready to jump in if need be. The others did the other jobs, like running the cash register, playing in the sand with the kids, and doing art projects. After an hour of being lifeguards, Cecilia and I were replaced by Brandi and Paige, and we moved onto the arts and crafts. We worked on a wall mural by gluing bits of colored paper onto the cardboard pieces, making the scene of a neighborhood with an amusement park visible in the distance. Eventually, I moved onto coloring a jellyfish, then resumed work on the mural. Around 3:30 p.m., I went back into the pool area and helped Neil clean up the scattered sand from where it had been tracked all over the pool by essentially squee-geeing it up to where the rest of the sand was. After I had done my fair bit of that, it was time to go so we went on our way with the crafts we had made that day.
Working today was a lot unlike the other days; we weren't dong much, if any physical labor, mainly just watching or helping the children who came and making sure they were having fun and not getting into trouble. The hour I spent watching the kids passed fairly quickly, and was quite entertaining as well. We didn't have to jump in at all, but there were two older, bigger boys who I think may have caused a bit of trouble later with not listening to the no running rule, but other than that they were entertaining to watch. It was especially funny to watch as new children came and tested out the water; only one little girl said it wasn't freezing or jump back. So for this little bit, I was mainly entertained but a bit cold too, since there was a bit of a draft in there. After we moved to the arts room, the main thing I felt was hunger; I hadn't had time to eat that morning and forgot to bring a snack with me, so I bought a bag of chips and had that hold me over until we left. When I went to go help Neil, at first it was a lot of fun to do but then I got a bit exasperated as it seemed I was doing the same spots over and over, which I was since some kids were still playing and spreading the sand I had just cleaned up. By the time I left, though, I was too hungry to care about the sand being perfectly cleaned up, and Neil and Martin said that was fine since we'd have to do it again tomorrow anyways.
Today, I think, I saw the sense of community the most that I have so far. I don't know how many people I had been expecting to come, but I was surprised by the amount of people that came. When I was helping Neil clean the floor, I remarked that there had been a lot of people who had come today. "Wait until tomorrow," he replied with a smile. "There should be a lot more." I also did notice that it didn't seem like very affluent people who came, and also noticed that it was mainly non-white families; there were mainly a mix of Indians, Oriental, Black, and a few Middle Eastern families. Also, I did notice that even though the children mixed and played with each other, none of their parents seemed to know each other, so I wonder if they were all from the same neighborhood or from scattered about, even though the Beach days are supposed to be for local families. It was interesting though, nonetheless, because in America, at an event like this usually the parents would start conversing and sharing stories of their children, maybe if their kids are interacting well setting up a playdate for them in the near future. Here, though, they simply kept to themselves, only talking to whomever they came with or their children, and sometimes Martin or Neil. They (the parents) seemed not quite protective of their children, but as if they were sheltering them from getting too friendly with the others. I don't know if this is common here in England, but it just seemed odd to me that they did not want their kids to be too friendly with the others. It may be that since there is such diversity among the people who came, and most of them were directly from India or Africa, etc., that they are uncomfortable with emerging themselves into a different culture. For example, most of them still spoke their native tongue and barely any English when one of us would try to talk to them, and their kids weren't much better at it since they weren't growing up in an English speaking environment.
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