Mail Check, Please

On Monday, both Mark and I had the opportunity to work in the office of the Inn and answer the "side door." During the day and also during the serving of the meal, many people come and ring the doorbell. Some are asking for diapers, others for a glass of water or a snack cake. But most of them want to see if they have any mail or if they can use our phone.
For people in transitional housing, it is important to have a permanent address. Otherwise, they can miss getting important mail like bank statements and social security checks. Many people use the Inn's address as their permanent one. So the Inn has a file cabinet where we keep the mail in alphabetical order. If a person wants us to check for mail, he shows us his I.D. and we go to the proper drawer and hunt for any mail.
Some of our guests have prepaid cell phones. Others have used up their minutes, had the phone stolen, need to charge it up, or just don't have any means of telephoning. So we have a phone for their use in our office. A staff member needs to be present during the calls. The most common phone call seems to be to a relative. A guest wants to check in, let the relative know how he is doing, and what the latest news is from the street. Sometimes a friend has gone to jail, or died, and the news needs to be passed on.
The other way people use our phone is to call the Inn during serving hours and ask for a person they believe may be eating or waiting to eat. Monday I had a man call from the prison and ask for Robert. I went out to the yard and called for Robert. I was told he hadn't arrived yet. One cannot put the prison caller on hold because it disconnects the prepaid phone call. So I returned to the office and told the caller his friend hadn't come yet. He called back 20 minutes later, and I tried again. This time Robert was there and was able to talk to his friend. I have been told by the staff that sometimes a person in jail will call and if none of his friends are around, that he will use his call time to talk to the staff member, just so he has a conversation with someone outside the prison.