Location: The Pomeroy
Date: Wednesday, April 24, 2013; 6:15-8:00 pm
My only visit to this place had
resulted in me getting smoked in ‘Uno’
while listening to the National Anthem. Although
the timing had been pushed back by 15 minutes, I still arrived a couple of
minutes late. This place had one of the
more impressive lobby entrances and requires one to present a picture ID to get
in. Post those formalities; I entered
the activities room to meet our Volunteer leader Lily, as well as some other
volunteers, Paul and Jayne. We were
waiting for the residents to join us and after a bit of an uncomfortable
silence, we started chatting about Chicago Cares and what had brought us
together this evening. Jayne had been
volunteering with New York Cares – the program on which Chicago Cares is based -
and since moving to Chicago, had been exploring new
things to do. I was interested in
hearing more about the NY Cares, especially since NY is a huge place and each
borough is like a city in itself, meaning volunteers would probably have to
stick to their area. Even Wilson would
not be able to cover that entire region.
Oh who am I kidding, of course he would!
 |
| Jigsaw with Kittens |
The reason we were able to talk
was because there were no residents. I
walked around the room and saw that the games had been laid out and everything
was ready to go. We had a selection of
games, ranging from cards, Uno, Dominoes and even a Jigsaw Puzzle where you had
to assemble a picture of kittens! Finally,
a resident came in and sat down by a table which had some crossword puzzle
books. I went over and introduced myself
and he said that his name was Roger. I
asked if he enjoyed crosswords, and while it wasn't
something that he did regularly, we took a look inside and gave up immediately,
when we could not answer the first clue which was “A Chili Brand”. I asked if
he was up for playing Uno and he said that he was. Since there was nobody else in the room, all
of us sat down for a round of Uno.
Jayne had not played Uno in
a while and my understanding of the game was still fresh from the previous
time. I gave her a few pointers and then
we started playing. As usual, my luck
wasn't holding up and even a newcomer like Jayne was giving me a hard time,
albeit without the singing. Soon we had
one other resident come in and Paul and Lily went to play Dominoes with her,
leaving me with Jayne and Roger. I
asked him how long he had been at Pomeroy and he said a few years, though he
had been on the waiting list for almost 12 years. He went on tell us that he was born in
Chicago, but had been living in Memphis for a long time. I asked what took him to Memphis and he said
lack of jobs over here. He said that he
has an associate degree in Engineering, but fell short of the GPA required for
a Bachelor’s degree. Speaking of jobs, Jayne
mentioned how age has now become a hurdle for jobs and how older people are
being phased out, a point that was fully endorsed by Roger. I said why older, nowadays companies are
hiring people straight out of school to keep the costs down; even folk like me
are not safe. The talk of jobs, or lack
thereof, usually results in a discussion on outsourcing – a topic on which I
have said a few things. Roger did have
some interesting comments on Unions though, not being a big fan and called for
their downsizing. We could have talked about
jobs till the end of the evening, but decided on move on to much pleasant
topics such as food, particularly food from Memphis – the one thing the place
is known for, according to Roger.
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| Central Park: One of my favorite places |
Roger asked me where I was from
and I said Mumbai, India. He said, “You mean Bombay, don’t you”? and I was pleasantly
surprised that he knew about that. Jayne
said that she had traveled in India and talked about visiting places like
Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. We discussed
some of the tourist attractions and I asked her about living in Chicago vs. New
York City. We agreed that Chicago is
definitely better and she said the streets appeared cleaner as well. This prompted me to ask one of my favorite
questions regarding the two cities and I asked her what the one main difference
was between streets of NY and Chicago. I
am amazed that nobody ever guesses this correctly and when I mentioned that it
was the lack of street vendors in Chicago, both of them said it should have
been obvious. As much as I enjoy this
aspect of Chicago, I must say that a street vendor does sound nice late at night, after you have been out in NYC! I told Jayne that I do
appreciate that NYC has Central Park, to which she said that Chicago has its
own Lincoln Park. I countered by saying
that the charm of Central Park was being surrounded by the city on all four
sides, a sight that always amazes me. Jayne
asked me about living in Chicago and how I liked it. I said that I missed driving and some of the
challenges in not having a car, particularly going for projects that are a bit outside
downtown. I said that I was getting a bit
tired of this cold weather and wouldn't mind living for 6 months in San
Diego and coming back to Chicago for summer.
Jayne said that she actually loves winter and would do the exact
opposite of me. I have mentioned this 6-month shift to
several people and Jayne was the first one to pick this cycle. Oh well, everyone has their likes.
Throughout this conversation, our
game was going on and Paul had rejoined us.
My record of not winning was unblemished and though I came close, Jane
kept playing spoilsport, though she was very apologetic about penalizing
me. Soon the time was up and I mentioned
to Roger that I had enjoyed our conversation and he said that hopefully I
would be back. I said I absolutely would
and left. In terms of attendance,
tonight was not spectacular, with the volunteers outnumbering the
residents. Often I have heard arguments
that such programs do not make sense and Chicago Cares should focus on those
which need us the most. Now, I am a
scientist by training and was taught to read data and draw my conclusions based
off that. If I was to strictly follow
those guidelines, the critics are right.
But who’s to say Roger’s need is any lesser than others who attend
these programs en masse? Numbers do not always
tell the story, and certainly not in this case.
So what if we had just a couple of participants? I am certain we had made a difference in
their evening and that’s all that matters.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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