Marian led Seira and Seri over to an area where a middle aged woman was taking a loaf of bread out of the oven. The woman set the bread on the counter to cool, then turned to them.
"What can I do for you, Marian?"
Bethel, this is Seira and Seriel. Girls, this is Bethel. These two wanted to help us totrial. Seriel here will be helping you with the bread. Will you keep an eye on her and answer any questions that she has?"
"Of course."
"Good. I'll let the two of you get to work then."
Once Seriel was squared away, Marian turned to Seira.
"Come with me, please."
Marian led Seira over to a corner where a stool was set up near a large bucket and several sacks of potatoes.
"I'll have you start by peeling these. The soups we make here have a lot of vegetables in them, so we are always needing someone to peel potatoes, chop and slice vegetables, and things like that."
Seira nodded. Marian watched her get started.
"I'll be by to check on you from time to time to see if you need anything. And there's plenty more work to do when you finish that."
Seira nodded again, but she didn't look up from her task. She was focused on the potato she was peeling so that she wouldn't cut herself with the knife as she worked. While she had peeled plenty of vegetables before, she wasn't so skilled at the task that she trusted herself to do it while distracted. That was a good way to get injured. There were a lot of potatoes to peel so it was a tedious, time consuming task. But it was also a relatively simple task that was well within her abilities to do without supervision...as long as she paid close attention to what she was doing so she didn't cut herself or cut too deeply into the potato she was peeling.
From time to time, Marian came to check up on her progress. Other volunteers paused to say hi as well when they passed by on their own tasks. Many of them gave Seira small tips that helped her with her task. Ways to hold her knife better, or tips on how to angle her blade better to make the peeling go more smoothly. When she had finally finished peeling all of the potatoes, it didn't take long for Marian to come check up on her.
"Good. Now that you've finished with these, I've got some carrots and celery for you to slice. Come with me, please."
Seira followed Marian over to a counter that had been set up for slicing vegetables.
"The carrots will need to be peeled before you slice them, but the celery will not. And you don't have to worry about slicing them thinly. They don't need to be perfectly even either, so you don't need to worry about that. As long as they're bite sized, you're fine."
Marian left her to get to work, and Seira did just that. She started with the celery. Even though Marian told her that the slices didn't have to be the same size, Seira figured that she could use the practice so she tried to make them even. She just didn't worry about it when she failed. Which she did. A lot. But she kept at it, and by the time she was finished with the celery, Seira thought that she might have gotten a little better at it.
When she was finished slicing the celery, she moved on to peeling the carrots. It was slow going since she had to pay close attention to what she was doing, but she worked steadily until the task was completed. Once she was finished slicing the carrots, Marian asked her to help one of the staff members take in a delivery of vegetables. Her job was to count all of the vegetables while the staff member marked them off on his list. Then they carried the vegetables into the pantry. When Seira asked why they needed to count the vegetables that came in, she was told that it was needed to make certain that they got what they had ordered, and to keep records of the supplies they had on hand.
After everything had been put away, Seira was told to go out and help the people who were serving the food to those who needed it. Seri was already there when Marian brought her out to where the food was being served and showed her what to do. Seira stood beside her sister and helped to serve food to the people who stood in line for it. Each one got a bowl of hot vegetable soup, and a piece of bread.
Most of the people she served were strangers, of course. But she did recognize a few of them. Some were people that she and Seira had helped to find and free from the rubble they were trapped in. These people recognized her, and they smiled as they got their food. Some even said hi, or thanked her again for helping them. One even paused briefly to tell her a bit about what they were doing now, and that she was lucky in that her entire family had survived the collapse. Seira thanked her for letting her know. It was a good feeling to know that the people she had helped were doing better now.
Every once in a while, Seira would glance at her sister to see how she was holding up. It was clear to her that she was as affected by seeing people they had helped as Seira herself was, and that she too was happy to see that people were doing better. Relatively speaking, of course. Both girls stayed as long as they could. But after several breaks, others came to replace them. As they made their way home, Seira and Seri talked about their experiences at the soup kitchen. Both of them had enjoyed the feeling of being able to help others, and they decided that they would do it again some trial. Seira wanted to learn how to cook better so that she would be of more use in preparing the food that was served, so she asked Seri if she would give her a lesson or two before they volunteered again. Seri grinned at her, and promised that she would.
