Working in the Cafe

Maybe you're curious about the "work" that I'm doing out here. Well, when I arrived I was immediately trained to work in the cafe. There are several different shifts possible: the morning, afternoon, evening, or kitchen cleaner shift. Before each shift the group of staff that will be working in the hostel meets with the manager on duty in order to share something from the Bible and pray together for 15 minutes before we begin our work. Here is a picture of Meghan, a staff member from Canada, and one of our Dutch managers, Benjamin, right before prayer time for the morning shift. It's 7:45AM, the reason they don't look very awake!

Each shift in the cafe comes along with specific responsibilities. The morning cafe workers cook and serve the breakfast for the guests. The breakfast is included in the 19 euro price to stay a night in the hostel. . .and it's not a skimpy breakfast if you ask me! Throughout the week we rotate making two eggs with ham and cheese and toast, pancakes, and french toast. The guests are usually quite pleased and making these breakfasts now has me really wanting a grill one day - those things are so cool! Look how excited I am about making yummy pancakes:

The afternoon cafe shift includes running the cafe (selling and preparing items on the menu such as hamburgers, spaghetti, drinks, etc.) as well as making the fresh meal that is prepared for dinner each night. Typically the staff eats from this meal because it's free for us and a good way to get a somewhat balanced meal - and it's a fun social event to eat with everyone as well. Guests can join in on the food for 5 euros although typically they buy things that sound more familiar to them, like french fries for example. Tonight's meal was "Pork and Apple Hot Pot", sounds strange huh? Tasted fine though, I think it helps that I'm not a picky eater! Finally, the evening cafe shift includes serving guests as well as doing some cleaning. Oh, I cannot forget to write about the cool dishwasher that we use! We load up a tray with dirty dishes, slide it into the dishwasher, where it gets washed with SUPER hot water in a matter of minutes - pretty exciting because it's really speedy and efficient! So, that was a little taste of what it's like to work in the cafe at Shelter Jordan - I'll be there bright and early tomorrow morning cooking up french toast, putting some hospitality skills to work! More will follow later on the other types of work that I've been doing out here. Have a gouda day!