Day: -11 Hamburg Henry

Henry was a german ex-patriot who spent many years working on the dock in Hamburg.

Every day he would arrive at the shelter with 3 or 4 plastic buckets, a massive sandwhich of non-descript origin and was always puffing like a steam engine. Henry was convinced that we had worked on the docks together in the 50's (clarification: I was born in 1966 and have never been to Germany).

Henry's day to day routine was a mystery to everyone. His nighttime routine was predictable however. After checking in and getting some food he would make his bed and head straight for the bathroom. For hours he would sit on a chair and sort through the contents of his buckets. Henry did a lot of things in the bathroom, but going to the bathroom wasn't on the list.Henry's prefered method for relief was to pee in a plastic jug. He would fill the jug and then dump it in the sink, rinse everything off, and start the cycle again.

One night, he faithfully followed this routine until a mishap occured. From upstairs we heard yelling and cursing and the sound of thrown furniture.Usually this was the signal that tempers had frayed in the TV room, and so we raced off to intervene. As we tried to get up the stairs to the second floor, there was a mass of people shoving to get to the main floor. Halfway up the stairs we could start to get a sense that this wasn't a usual emergency.

Confession: I like the smell of bleach. A little bleach in a lot of water has a soothing sense of cleanliness for me. The thing about bleach, the really really REALLY important thing, is not too mix it with ammonia. Ammonia and bleach can cause one of several reactions, the following is shamelessly borrowed from here.

Reaction type 1: Ammonia directly reacts with bleach to form hydrazine (N2H4, which, in addition to being extremely poisonous, can burn even in the absence of air! It explodes on contact with rust!

2NH3 + NaOCl -----> N2H4 + NaCl + H2O

Reaction type 2: Bleach hydrolyzes into sodium hydroxide and hypochlorous acid, which in turn decompose into chlorine gas and nascent oxygen (both poisonous). The chlorine gas in turn reacts with the ammonia to form chloramines, also very poisonous.

NaOCl -----> NaOH + HOCl
HOCl ---> HCl + O (monatomic oxygen)
NaOCl + 2HCl -----> Cl2 + NaCl + H2O
2NH3 + Cl2 -------> 2NH2Cl (chloramine)
4NH3 + 2Cl2 ------> 2NHCl2 (dichloramine)
6NH3 + 3Cl2 ------> NCl3 (trichloramine or nitrogen trichloride)

Henry had inadvertently collected an industrial strength bleach bottle as his nightly urinal. Half way through his business, a violent green cloud erupted from the bottle, causing a rapid decompensation in Henry's aim resulting in a liberal sharing of the pee stream with all and sundry. The mix of a deadly chlorine gas cloud and an errant pee stream had caused the panic and stampede for the main floor.

Fortunately there where no casualties. I would like to say that the experience cured Henry of his sanitary mis-demeanor's but sadly that was not the case. What amazed me however was the care and concern that the guys showed for Henry. Sure people were a bit p.o'd at the interruption to the evening show's but mostly they worried for Henry and showed an amazing tenderness and compassion for him. Early on in my shelter career, I was blessed to be witness to that. It was another day of defeated stereotypes held by a naive newbie shelter worker.