First day off after a weekend of hard Olympic GamesMaker Volunteering.
On both shifts I was in the general foyer area of the North Greenwich Arena. Our official duty was Queue Management but what it amounted to mostly was answering questions and taking photographs for people. I've got one more shift there, then I'll be rotated; the Team Leaders spend 3 shifts in one area whilst team members are rotated for every shift.
It was quite an experience. On Saturday we started at 2.30 and went on till 12 (though we finished early) and on Sunday we went from 1.30pm till 11.30pm though again we finished a bit early. We were on our feet for almost all that time. We were allocated a 20minute break for dinner plus two 10min breaks, but since it was about a six minute walk to the Workforce Break Tent, we just used the 10 minute breaks to sit down. We had been told right at the start of training, that as Event Service Volunteers we were the most privileged of all the Volunteers...to interact with the general public and to help make their experience special (certainly taking the photo of Mr and Mrs Chuck O'Reily from Belvidere New Jersey would beat the socks off holding Tom Daley's towel or Jessica Ennis's water bottle). Our job was to welcome and we welcomed!!!!!
To be honest, it was nice seeing so many people happy and excited and helping that and that helped keep us going. It's always fun knowing that you've done something nice for someone.
It was pretty clear though, how far down the priorities the GamesMaker Volunteers (and the workers in general) are in the Great Olympics Machine. We truely are the Grunts of the Games
On Saturday they ran out of hot food halfway through the evening for our dinner. By the time my team came to eat it was some noodle salad thing or salad sandwiches; just what is the point of salad sandwiches? There were some big army guys and police officers there...they certainly weren't happy to just have that to keep them going. There were these Harvest Crunch bars there, because I was hungry and there was no proper meal, I tried to take two but this guy started shouted that it was one each, only one each and just would not let it go. I put it back in the end. One of the other Team Leaders said she took two apples and he actually chased her down the queue to get her to put one back.
Yesterday, they ran out of hot food again, but this time it lasted almost to the end. With luck, they'll have got it right now.
But really, none of us are particularly surprised by it all. I did expect there to be more food around, not necessarily 'proper' food but snacky type stuff like biscuits or sweets since Cadbury's and Macdonalds are such big sponsors. Apart from that, as Volunteers, we mostly volunteered because we wanted to help and out of interest, not for freebies or to see anything so we'll live, we don't expect anything. And of course we have got our uniform...a few people came up and asked where they could buy my little bag thing. I told them to keep their eye on eBay after the games!
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