I was back at Open Arms today and to begin with we had a staff meeting which involved talking about everything from funding and washing machines to some of the residents. One in particular was called in as he had not yet made an effort to find a job or get help in writing his CV. He is the first openly homosexual Jamaican I have seen on the island. The staff meeting lasted three hours though much of it was spent taking long breaks in which they went of onto rambling tangents, but never mind!
Finally the meeting ended and I accompanied Mrs Grant down to the residential area where they were building a new kitchen and canteen with money donated by the British High Commission, unfortunately the builders they hired were unreliable and already the kitchen was a month behind schedule - although now it was almost all completed, however the builders had recently installed a toilet for the canteen but placed it directly opposite the door so there would be no privacy much to Mrs Grant's anger. We spent a while coming up with new ideas and in the end it was decided that an L-shaped screen around the door would be the best choice. I then helped Mrs Grant carry out a daily inspection of the living quarters to make sure that all the residence were keeping their areas tidy and that there were no maintenance problems.
Mrs Grant then asked me to compile a staff handbook which could be given to each member of staff, she had only the briefest notes on what each member of staff did and codes of conduct then I had to do the rest. This project is still ongoing as it was getting late when I left, on the drive back I managed to get a huge downpour of rain but aty least I was inside the car!
