Tetris for Advanced Players - an experience report with Futterbox
I had wanted to ‘donate’ some of my free time to animals for some time and recently got the opportunity to do so via Time Bank: Futterbox, a kind of ‘food bank’ for animals and their people who do not (or no longer) have the opportunity to buy food and accessories at normal prices.
Just before Christmas - very fittingly - my first assignment was to collect food donations from a pet shop and deliver them to the organisation's premises, where they would then be distributed.
‘I can do that’, I thought to myself, “it can't be a problem”. Drive there - load up - drive on - drop off - done. And doing a bit of good at the same time. Perfect!
When I arrived at the pet shop, I asked for the donations for the food box. ‘Hold on,’ was the reply, ’I'll get the pallet in a minute.’
What, a pallet? What, pallet? Why pallet????
There were so many bags, boxes and parcels that at first I didn't know how I was going to manage. Like in the computer game from the 80s, I stuffed and crammed my car to the roof. Until the end, I wouldn't have bet on it turning out.
I had wanted to ‘donate’ some of my free time to animals for some time and recently got the opportunity to do so via Time Bank: Futterbox, a kind of ‘food bank’ for animals and their people who do not (or no longer) have the opportunity to buy food and accessories at normal prices.
Just before Christmas - very fittingly - my first assignment was to collect food donations from a pet shop and deliver them to the organisation's premises, where they would then be distributed.
‘I can do that’, I thought to myself, “it can't be a problem”. Drive there - load up - drive on - drop off - done. And doing a bit of good at the same time. Perfect!
When I arrived at the pet shop, I asked for the donations for the food box. ‘Hold on,’ was the reply, ’I'll get the pallet in a minute.’
What, a pallet? What, pallet? Why pallet????
There were so many bags, boxes and parcels that at first I didn't know how I was going to manage. Like in the computer game from the 80s, I stuffed and crammed my car to the roof. Until the end, I wouldn't have bet on it turning out.
A nice lady even put a whole bag full of donations straight into my hand - she was just about to go shopping for her own pet and saw me putting things away in the car park.
After taking the many, many donations to the Futterbox clubhouse and putting them on the shelves, and after a few encounters with happy four-legged and two-legged friends, I was given the explanation for this exciting challenge:
‘I forgot to tell you that there's always a bit more at Christmas, of course!’
P.S.: A huge thank you to all the donors!
Author: Karin Schmidl