Nothing ruffles feathers of a small town folks more than an arrogant newcomer! The overzealous new kid in town, moi, have stepped on a few very fragile toes, at the art gallery.
"You may dust the shelves in the gift shop, but are not allowed to rearrange the merchandise!" I was accosted on the street, by one of the Mayflower descendants.
All I had done was distance mass produced "Made in China" items from local artists' objets d'art!
"The gift shop is ours, we merchandise, and need to know where things are." She added as she continued walking. I bet she lives behind one of these signs!
I didn't bother telling her that, not only the acting director had given me permission to do so, but she also had a few things to say about her and her buyer accomplice.
The animosity didn't end at the sidewalk. The volunteer position that I was offered in June, upon my visit with my students (I have witnesses), was given to someone else, fresh out of the woodwork.
"It was out of my hands," the acting director conveyed her regrets, "the board voted for Barb to be the Chair of Education and Outreach Committee."
Guess who sits on the board of directors and with whom Barb and Barb's mother hang out!
My first reaction was to withdraw altogether, from the Education and Outreach program, as well as the gift shop. The beauty of volunteering is in being able to walk away. But then, I decided to rein in my middle eastern temper and pride, and stick around to stick it to the board and its members!
Barb, a working itinerary teacher with some background in art, was patronizingly polite, full of ideas, chatty and definitely in control. She reminded me of my last French consultant who never sat through one of her ideas in a classroom.
The Chair of this small meeting this morning, was a gentleman who's supposedly in my corner, but he hadn't even looked at my proposal. I felt invisible, useless, and out of sorts for the rest of the day. However, I did my shift in the gift shop, with a smile on my face, and rearranged more than a few items, without dusting!
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