Once upon a time I used to live in East Austin in a tiny, overpriced apartment.

That was manageable because Uncle Sam was paying my employer the big bucks, so I got the luxury of paying $2400 for a 1 bedroom apartment with a garage to park in.

The defense contracting life wasn’t long for me, but it was definitely an interesting experience being able to teach service-members how to build and deploy software.

Teaching them a trade they could carry beyond their service, but also knowing that everything taught would also be used to one day build systems used on the battlefield.

I always walked past the picnic area next to two colorful buildings, with what appeared to be loose chickens. And a sign saying Casa Marianella. Always an interesting bunch of folks around it. Intrigued, I looked it up.

Turns out they’re a refugee shelter.

Us yanks are great at producing ‘em, and Casa does a great job helping them get on their feet. It’s pretty impressive. Folks would come in and be given a bed to sleep on, food to cook with, a place to wash up, and a mailbox. And in under 3 months they’re off living independently and being contributing members of society. Not a perfectly smooth integration, but I’m desi so who am I to judge.

So I thought I’d try some cosmic bargaining and balance it out by volunteering.

Found the contact email and said hello I am a software developer and I was here to help.

I had tons of ideas and fun whiteboard solutions of how they could automate a bunch of their manual processes. Doesn’t really work when most of the staff struggles with computers. Also nonprofits aren’t known for having massive budgets to blow on IT.

What they did need.

Someone to take the massive pile of mail that comes in every day and sort it alphabetically.

When someone comes looking for their mail, find the appropriate mailbox and give them their stack.

When someone needs ingredients to cook with or toiletries, go fetch it from the pantry or storage.

When someone comes in with donations that aren’t money, properly inventory it. If it’s money, fetch someone from the staff.

When someone says the bathroom is out of soap or toilet paper, restock it.

Big fancy software developer from a big fancy tech company. And all they needed was some simple human labor.