The first day, Patricia picked me up at 7:45 a.m., and we headed over to a client's house, where I got to see how "measurements" work. This basically means that Patricia went over to a client's home (with permission, of course) and measured whatever it was she was supplying fabric for, or making for the client. I helped her in measuring and carrying around samples to show the clients.
After going to 2 homes of clients, we made it to the store around 9, and I began to help some of the other volunteers around the store. We were hanging fabric up on hangers and putting them on the racks, rolling fabric, and straightening up, all while attending to customers.
In dealing with clients, I had to attend to all their needs, help them find fabric, and be creative in suggesting different fabric samples. Occasionally, it required great patience, as many didn't know what they were looking for, but being patient and polite made for easy communication.
The first day, basically all I did was hang up fabrics and help customers. I learned a lot about dealing with people I don't know, and helping them.
The second day, I went to Patricia's store and spent the first few hours labeling price tags for one of their upcoming sales, and changing tags on the hanging fabrics.
On this day, we had a particularly weird customer come in. She entered the store around the same time I did, and I immediately went over to see if I could help her, but she politely declined, so I left her to roam, letting her know to call me if needed. I went about my business, changing tags and such, when I noticed it had been a few hours, and this customer was currently sitting in the back of the store, behind a rack of fabrics, talking on her phone. It was a little suspicious, but we let it slide.
However, as one of the girls I was working with walked by her, she heard the woman say "There's going to be a nuclear explosion. Get the food into the cell and meet your dad down there." We were immediately alarmed, not knowing if the woman was just crazy, or if she knew something we didn't. We ran to the back working room and filled Patricia in on what was going on, and she told us to let the woman be for a bit and see if she left on her own, and if not, we'd go again and ask if we could help her. We followed her orders, and eventually the woman left the store, in a hurry.
It was definitely a lesson in how to deal with people, especially in potential dangerous situations. We weren't really sure why she would come to a fabric store to tell whomever about a nuclear explosion, but it certainly did worry us. We were kind to her, offered her help numerous times, but every time she turned us down and would go back to her corner and get on her phone. It was definitely one of the stranger experiences I've had.
For the remainder of the day, I worked in the back room, rolling fabric, which basically means I was using a machine to spin fabric onto a cardboard cylinder to display it.
Volunteering at Patricia's store was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about dealing with strangers. I learned how to handle uncomfortable tasks, the workings in a fabric store, and I learned a lot about working alongside other people.
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