Day 5/8 - 26Dec - Spice Café
We have discovered that a café down the road is selling the synthetic drug known as Spice - link
- and we have been calling out five ambulances a day to deal with its
side effects, often a comatose guest on the floor where they fall
randomly and then lie unconconscious, cadaverlike.
Whilst this is The Gate that specialises in the homeless with significant addictions, and we are familiar and perhaps blasé towards alcohol addiction, it is distressing for volunteers to see comatose guests lying on the floor somewhere indoors or tarmac outside in the cold.
The NHS ambulance teams are being very patient with us after regular callouts but understand our mission that makes this London Academy school a repeating 999 all of a sudden, these ambulance teams are of course inspirational and it is humbling to see them in action whatever the circumstances.
Epilesy has been a recurring theme too with some guests having tonic-clonic seizures, previously known as a "grand mal", what most people think of as a typical epileptic fit - link. Tongue biting has led to major bleeding and our novice first aid volunteers have comfronted distressing bloody incidents, and yet more ambulance visits.
I mentioned early on in Christmas week we had filled our large dormintory in the sports hall, simple beds laid out underneath the basketball rings, a second sleeping area was opened as our numbers increased.
We have two volunteers sitting in each of these sleeping areas, a tough shift, to enable our guests to sleep without being disturbed, in the warmth and on a soft camp bed off of the floor.
In previous diaries I have mentioned that we provide a secure bag-drop so guests can relax knowing their few possessions are safe and accessible from storage boxes on-demand 7d24h during their stay.
Boxing Day in the kitchen has an air of relief that we can return to a normal mass-catering menu without the need to tie up so much effort and emotional expectation on roasting and slicing dozens of poultry.
Today it's two fantastic stews, beef or aubergine based that we can easily cook in large quantities, they are fillin, of couse delicious and proved to be popular.
Harrods Foodhall donated a large quantity of parsnips and purple broccoli to us, I had used up the parsnips yesterday and today it was trimming and steaming the boxes of this unusual cabbage. When I told volunteers that I was serving them Brassica compliments of Harrods I would get smiles, laughter or looks of perplexed disbelief.
However a few would scowl or shudder in horror as memories of school day cabbage surfaced and they quickly moved on to the innocuous tray of french beans, food is a great leveller!
My 2019 Justgiving fundraiser: link
Last year's Gate Diary 2018 - link
Regards, Paul
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NB: These diary entries are written as a thank-you to everyone who has donated to Crisis At Christmas, would still like to, or just curious to know what happens behind the scenes.
I write this diary to let you know how we spend your money and to encourage you to keep supporting Crisis At Christmas as it depends upon your donations or volunteering to fund the huge Christmas operation and subsequent year round services
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/llct2019
Whilst this is The Gate that specialises in the homeless with significant addictions, and we are familiar and perhaps blasé towards alcohol addiction, it is distressing for volunteers to see comatose guests lying on the floor somewhere indoors or tarmac outside in the cold.
The NHS ambulance teams are being very patient with us after regular callouts but understand our mission that makes this London Academy school a repeating 999 all of a sudden, these ambulance teams are of course inspirational and it is humbling to see them in action whatever the circumstances.
Epilesy has been a recurring theme too with some guests having tonic-clonic seizures, previously known as a "grand mal", what most people think of as a typical epileptic fit - link. Tongue biting has led to major bleeding and our novice first aid volunteers have comfronted distressing bloody incidents, and yet more ambulance visits.
I mentioned early on in Christmas week we had filled our large dormintory in the sports hall, simple beds laid out underneath the basketball rings, a second sleeping area was opened as our numbers increased.
We have two volunteers sitting in each of these sleeping areas, a tough shift, to enable our guests to sleep without being disturbed, in the warmth and on a soft camp bed off of the floor.
In previous diaries I have mentioned that we provide a secure bag-drop so guests can relax knowing their few possessions are safe and accessible from storage boxes on-demand 7d24h during their stay.Boxing Day in the kitchen has an air of relief that we can return to a normal mass-catering menu without the need to tie up so much effort and emotional expectation on roasting and slicing dozens of poultry.
Today it's two fantastic stews, beef or aubergine based that we can easily cook in large quantities, they are fillin, of couse delicious and proved to be popular.
Harrods Foodhall donated a large quantity of parsnips and purple broccoli to us, I had used up the parsnips yesterday and today it was trimming and steaming the boxes of this unusual cabbage. When I told volunteers that I was serving them Brassica compliments of Harrods I would get smiles, laughter or looks of perplexed disbelief.
However a few would scowl or shudder in horror as memories of school day cabbage surfaced and they quickly moved on to the innocuous tray of french beans, food is a great leveller!
My 2019 Justgiving fundraiser: link
Last year's Gate Diary 2018 - link
Regards, Paul
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NB: These diary entries are written as a thank-you to everyone who has donated to Crisis At Christmas, would still like to, or just curious to know what happens behind the scenes.
I write this diary to let you know how we spend your money and to encourage you to keep supporting Crisis At Christmas as it depends upon your donations or volunteering to fund the huge Christmas operation and subsequent year round services
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/llct2019
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