Emmaus South Lambeth

Well, hello again,

Usually you get a star to put on the Christmas tree – but Emmaus South Lambeth did it differently this year.  We had a Star decorating our Christmas tree on Tuesday alright, but actress Jerry Hall (Emmaus’s latest Ambassador) was decorating it with cut-outs of policemen and teachers and nurses, to help publicise an academic report showing that Emmaus saves tax payers £800,000

A vast gathering of the Papparazi gathered in our lounge and launched a firmament of flash-bulbs at her for about 10 minutes – then sped off to the café round the corner to view their efforts on their laptops.  Their departure gave us time to show
Jerry the house and chat to her over a cup of tea, which was very nice.. 

The following day
Deputy John and I went over to Dulwich for a very different event – meeting the Dulwich Runners and the proprietor of Ollie’s Fish Bar, Herne Hill, who sponsored their Charity Run a month ago, We received a gigantic cheque for £4,000!  It is always enjoyable to meet people and watch their jaws drop in astonishment when we tell them about Emmaus – and so often they scratch their heads and ask how it is that they’ve never heard of us before.

We had good news from Lambeth Council this week, that they are at last allowing us to take the electrical items that fail our PAT safety check (and therefore have to be scrapped) to the local dump for free; given that it is estimated  it costs ‘the average Council’ £25 per collection and around 50% of our collections would be done by Council if we didn’t take it,  it has been something of an irritation to pay them when we provide Lambeth with such dramatic savings.

An Emmaus visitor some time ago pointed out the conundrum that Councils operate on the fact that people are either ‘A Resident’  ‘A local Business ‘ or  ‘A charity’ :  when we take a problem to them as residents, they say ‘ah, but you’re a business’;  or ‘ah, but not if you’re a charity’ or they give charitable donations which we don’t qualify for because we’re a business as well… 

Let it never be said that Emmaus claims to be a round peg to fit society’s round holes – but it can make dealing with bureaucracy a total nightmare!

The allotment terracing effort is getting a little tidier each week, and the immensely claggy clay I was dealing with at the beginning is showing the benefits of the heaps of compost slung on it over the year!  At home, the excitement is that our gift of a lovely Christmas Cactus has started budding, so Christmas really is coming early here!

Take care,

Best wishes,

Elizabeth

Hi there,

 Before I start I want to say I’m Jason not  Elizabeth and I want to say how happy I am to have joined the Emmaus Community in South Lambeth.

I came to the Community in June, and I am writing to say how I value the support that they have given me. This will be my first stable accommodation for many years. The Emmaus charity has given me a grant to buy a new driving license after a disqualification period expired. 

Before coming to the Community, I had been living homeless for eight months. This included living in a tent on Clapham Common and working as a dustman for Merton council.

When my job agency found out I was sleeping rough they got rid of me, and I have slept in Leatherhead and Putney Common in a survival bag from that time until being accepted by Emmaus South Lambeth.

I was fortunate to be referred by the Passage Day centre in
Victoria.

Coming from Eastbourne, and then Manchester I have been forced into that situation through bad luck, and a lack of support.

Since these experiences I have found a life again, with a nice community and worth while activity. I’ve cooked for the Community, delivered furniture which is donated and worked in the shop. I’ve also manned the telephone making bookings for the business.

I intend to take an active role as a Companion, until I can venture out into the job market again. I’ll be writing more so stay tuned.

Jason 

Hello again.

The ripping yarn of the week comes courtesy of Mike, our Community Leader, with a round tuit taking a small but crucial role in the proceedings.

The story originates in the mists of time – possibly even before Mike joined us.  Anyway, we have been on the hunt for a very large notice board since – whenever – and at last we found one, approximately a month ago.  Hurrah!  Alas, there was a back pedal on the cheer when it was discovered that the Community Drill had decided to go walkabout.  In the meantime, the notice board was placed against the wall behind our Community Dining Table, below the spot where it would be hung as and when roving drill decided to amble home again.

Which it did, last week – but alas, by then, nobody had time to get a round tuit – ie, to get around to marrying drill, notice board and wall.

To his credit, I have to say that Mike has been reasonably disaster-free for a while, but he chose Tuesday to make up for lost time.  By now, unfortunately,. the notice board was deep in the sulks, having spent weeks staring at chair legs or trouser calves rather than having US staring at IT in an interested and possibly engrossed fashion as nature intended.  Thus when Mike attempted to squeeze his thin-as-a-rake-challenged frame behind a seated Companion at lunch time, the Notice Board seized its moment of vengeful glory and snapped, neatly pincering the portly posterior.  There was a renting of cloth, a shriek and gnashing of teeth, and then, I regret to say, consequential sounds that could have been swiftly smothered laughter from the cheap seats.  (Actually, not so swift and rather poorly smothered, if I’m forced to be honest…)

Our honourable leader turned round to display about 3’ of picture frame edging sticking out of the back of his trousers – and sitting down has been a matter of delicate negotiation for the past couple of days!  The notice board has been banished to a dim, dark recess to avoid future human contact until such time as it can be Dealt With, Repaired and Hanged until Dead.

Did you have snow and ice on Wednesday?  We had a few rather embarrassed snowflakes, but oooh, if this is Global Warming, I think we’ve been rather short-changed.  I wasn’t even as cold when I went on the Climate Change March last December, in the windy cold sleet, when everybody was fervently emphasising the last word in the chant :  “What do we want?  Climate Change  – When do we want it NOW!” (except those wags who shouted ‘yesterday!)’

Be that as it may, I am guiltily avoiding the allotment until Sunday this weekend;   I had the opportunity to put fleece over the teeny tiny green shoots of the onion sets I mentioned last week – and decided it could probably wait another week or two….   And it was getting dark an hour earlier…  and I was still recovering from ‘flu… Glunk….are they still alright…?

The kitchen has been a hive of industry making goodies (parkin, toffee) for our Bonfire Night party when sadly we will be saying farewell to Majonne, our excellent Business Manager.  The Christmas Cake is cooking away belatedly as I speak, and seems to be sending out the right sort of aromas, so we live in hopes… 

No new Companions this week, but we welcomed visit from Emmaus
UK and a couple of very generous donors joined us for an evening meal on Wednesday.

Keep well wrapped up, Best wishes, Elizabeth.