"How was it last year? It was stressful, it was scary, it was overwhelming, it was sad, it was… How can I say, isolation? Like nobody can be with everybody. And also in terms of technology and meetings and everything. It was chaos, like we didn’t know where to start, how to start. AMOR, we didn’t have a Zoom account and we were just using other’s. It was… yeah, it wasn’t good because we just needed to organize ourselves. And I think Saturday and Sunday we worked overtime, doesn’t matter. In that point you need to find… it’s just between a lot of things."
"As AMOR’s director I definitely felt like my role is like to maintain stuff under control because at the end if something happened that is no good or anything bad happening at the end, I am the person that is going to respond to that. That was my role in general. And always financial stuff make me stressful, then a little bit stressed about money. And especially also like how things was happening in that point, yeah definitely some stuff make me feel no good and… yeah. Maybe you have more question when I can talk about what I felt about different stuff happening with resources and who’s managing the resources and for what and who decide for what. It’s just a lot of things. I think I was, yeah I had that privilege to be in communication with the people that is directly affected because I was communicating with them, I know them. But also, even though I wasn't like managing the package, or like preparing the food and everything, but I was in contact with them and also managing all the volunteers like, 'Oh, this is the list that you need to call,' telling to volunteers who need to be included in the list of the mutual aid. And in the other side, I was also in communication with funders, foundations, people that donate and all that part. It's like I can see the different scenario, different parts of these: the people that have money and the people that don't have. And that made me really feel some stuff in the middle of both those two worlds."
"And the city, and the state, and all the government in general, the big thing, they couldn't spend, they don't have a system, they… AMOR, even though we are little, little we did the system. We do it, we did it. And they are a big whatever they are. They couldn't do anything like that. And they are looking for support, like asking support from the community to do the work, it’s like okay. That is beside."
"But I'm happy too. I'm happy that we get a year and, yes, personally, and as AMOR, we have hope. And yeah, I don't think about this year as a normal year. We are still not doing events in person. Also I don't think that is something that the state let us to do. But maybe next year will be better. Because this year is better, next year will be better and we will find our way how to to do more community gathering or community events, to be more present in the community, with the community. I think, yeah, I have hope about that."
"I think everybody give the best of themselves, and they really did the work that is needed in that moment, and still doing now too. I really believe in the community, in the people that they can support each other. I think the problem is like, we don't have all the resources and we as community, or as the system is set up, our role is not to do like resolve the state problem. That is the problem, but I know that all the community members that work in this project, they did the best that they could and give all the resources that they have. And that make me feel like or make our community stronger. With the little that we have, comparing with other, with the city level or state level or the country level of resources. The little resources that we have, we make a big impact with that resources. I think that is the, at the end, you can stay with that or we can stay with that. Yes, our effort have a big impact with the small resources that we have."
