cafe chaos

last night was the most incread- ibly awefull cafe chance in the year since i have been working there. half an hour before we opened, there were already eleven guests waiting before the door. within five minutes of opening the plates were empty, and we were struggling to make more while dealing with the rest.... kahle came in, barely able to stand, sat, and promptly lost his lunch. immediately after, while still sitting in the mess, he bagan eating anew. the others in cafe arent as used to seeing the extreme cases, so i got to talk to kahle, try to establisch what he was on, and if he'd be okay.. (i guessed at H and alch, maybe pills.. it was confirmed later when a few others junkies got there) meanwhile, two new guests had gotten into a rather loud argument consisting of "shut the f^(% up" "oh, you! thats just what i needed, a @$$hole." and various other negative albeit not quite contextual comments. i went and sat down between them, and tryed to keep them from talking or looking to each other. this prooved difficult. the bigger and more agressive of the two, markus, kept yelling about how he cant get any coffee, and that the people working here are all __________. i was sitting next to him, asking if he needs a cup the whole time. oh brother. finally, i got an answer and went up to get some coffee, and he tried to grab my bum. i snapped around and read him his rights (which included being thrown out) if he didnt control himself. and made him repeat what he understood. (yes, he was so drunk that i wasnt sure). a few minutes later, a little old lady came in and said that a man was lying on the street. i went out, and took hans and thomas (guests) with me. markus was laying there, unaware of how he got outside.) the guys helped him up, and we got him to some stairs he could sit on. i went to get him some water, and the other aggressive drunk grabbed it from me and poured it over markus head. that started another fistfight, but i was standing in the middle! thomas and hans came to the rescue and held the others back and i calmed them down a bit. then we decided to have the guests leave in shifts to avoid further trouble. marcel (a guest who was clean and dry) took marcus with the help of the other aggressive guy, who was calmer by then. i helped clean up a bit, and get kahle woken up. he was still a bit disoriented and couldnt move very well, so hans and i helped him to the streetcar (this guy uses two canes, but wasnt really able, making it an interesting situation as we had to support him and place his canes for him). hans said he'd take kahle home from the streetcar, and marcel saw me pass by, and asked me to come back and help with markus, so after getting kahle and hans on their way, i doubled back to help coax markus forward. we got into the next streetcar, and i was very relieved to get out again. man, it was a long night!
oh, the picture is old, its a postcard we send out asking for support, but it is of guests at cafe chance. the only one still living is hille, the man on the right. he's a brazilian indian and a story in and of himself.