This week has been pretty much the same. There was not a lot of activity this week at the center and the temple is closed until after this week. We had a drunk patron (an ex-member of the Church) come in challenging the leadership of the church and wanting us to get in touch with a family member of John Huntsman who had baptized him, but Golden kindly walked out of the FHC and he followed him. We left some things for him to pick up in the event he remembered what he asked us to do. So far he has never showed up.
This week however, I (Diane) had the opportunity of work with a deaf sister. She was a member from the deaf branch in our stake and had never been in to a FHC. At first I thought I could not train her on the note papers that she was use to. I told her on the note that I would prefer to type the conversation and instruction and that I thought it would work best.
I split my computer screen and put Open Office on the bottom and them I would point to the place that I would talk about and he would do it. When we got her account open, it was so exciting! She turned to me and just squealed because she was so happy. Everyone heard her and asked what she had found. Everyone enjoyed her moment.
I spent the next couple of hours just typing instructions and then pointing to FamilyTree and letting her try it. She was picking it up really fast. It was close to closing time so we all left and she said that she would be back.
She came back a couple of days later, so I sat with her and let her fill in her FamilyTree that she had written out on a pedigree. This time I did not have to teach so much; just guide so I could do notes. When she finally got all her information in, I thought I would show her the fan chart of her pedigree. Once again, she let out a big holler. She patted her chest to indicate that she loved the colors and could not believe what she was seeing.
I printed both the fan chart and the traditional pedigree for her to take with her. She was then ready to start research and trying to extend her family. It was time for us to leave and the FHC was full to capacity, so I turned her over to Aurea the relief volunteer for the center. Aurea was happy because she is good at research but is not a member and does not know familytree so it worked out good for both of us.
Diane left about an hour after the shift change, but I (Golden) had been working with Carol Jones, a black patron who had come in to try to trace her family tree for a family reunion. Her family was from North Carolina and I spent about 2-3 hours working with her. After Aurea and Zaida came in to relieve us, I continued to work with her for over an hour more. Diane left to go home about an hour before I did. Carol was military and was going to stay on the base during the time of the reunion. She (as others who we have worked with) said that if she had known it was going to take this long, she would have come in weeks earlier. Liz Hanson had worked with her before we came on this Wednesday. She had hoped to get 4 generations in, but once she started on listing her cousins and aunts and uncles, we only got a couple of generations done and she was going to get more information at the reunion and come back later to add the rest of the information.
Subway during Rush Hour
Most of the time, the subway ride is much like this. We grab seats whenever we can and it may take three or four stops before we get a seat, unless someone offers theirs. It is very hot and sometimes we get a car that where the air conditioning is not working so it gets muggy even though it is underground. (We saw our first rat while waiting for the subway at 66th Street-Lincoln Center to go home as it scurried across the platform and down where the tracks were. At that point there are four sets of tracks with the two center ones being express and the outside ones each way are local. The 35 minute subway ride each way is our "bonding time."
DampRid (dehumidifier bag)
When we get back to the apartment, it is always nice to get inside. The air conditioners have been running all day (three window type) and the DampRid bag keeps the humidity down. This is almost a month's worth of water in the bottom bag and it is one of four in the rooms and one in a closet. Needless to say, there is a lot of water around Manhattan Island.
This coming week, the non-member volunteers are going to start their vacation time so they won't be coming in until after Labor Day. We will be serving longer hours to make up for that. Both Diane and I have been able to get quite a bit of our own Dutch and Norwegian work done. With the temple closed for another week, there will be more to do on our families when it reopens.
We are waiting to hear about a Hebrew class that is supposed to start tomorrow night and go on Monday evenings and, depending on the cost, etc. we may give it a try. The teacher is a professor of Hebrew and supposed to be very good. We may as well add another language into the mix, what with all the diversity we have here in New York City.
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