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The Centre |
I often get nervous on my first day of anything due to
anticipating what could be to come. This normally makes it impossible
to sleep and leaves my mind racing. The night before my first day of
my placement this anticipation, along with struggling to adapt to the
time change, and making the choice to sleep during the day left me
struggling even more so to try and relax into my bed. I ended up not
finding any sleep until at least 4:30am (that would around 9pm
Canadian time), giving me a good 3.5 hours of sleep before I needed
to be up. Carmel, wonderful as always, had tea ready for me when I
made my way downstairs. I grabbed some toast and ate it quickly while
I tried to make sure I had everything I needed and looked half
presentable. Carmel insisted I take an umbrella (which made sense
because it was raining) and then would not take 'no, thank you' as
answer when she stated she was going to give me a ride to my
placement (which did not make as much sense as the first). Since I
had arrived there had been questions on where my placement was
actually taking place. I was pretty sure it was a building that the
locals referred to as ‘The Den' but was met with some skepticism
due to it being such a small centre. There was a bit of a guessing
game going on to where it was I really did have my placement at.
Carmel, looking out for me again, wanted to drive me just to make
sure it was indeed the right place. Seeing as how the place was only
2min walk away, I did try to protest but lost due to the rain. Once I
had indeed made contact with the centre and got confirmation that
they were expecting a Canadian to arrive, Carmel seemed to feel
comfortable enough leaving me to it.
I walked in being a bit nervous, Martin, one of the caretakers,
was getting the centre ready for the day. I waited a bit as I had
made sure to be a bit early for my first day. People began to arrive
slowly, Martina, a member of the Education Project, was one of the
first people to come in. She introduced herself and chatted a bit.
She gave me a tour of the facilities and made me a cup of tea. She
gave me an envelope with a letter and outline from Eileen, my
placement supervisor (who is on holidays until next week). The letter
talked about how my first week was going to look, gave me names of
all the people working in the centre and their positions, she gave me
information on all the projects being run, information on models of
youth work being practiced in Ireland, a work plan to model mine
after, and other articles related to work in Ireland with children
and youth and in the juvenile justice system. As others arrived I was
introduced to them and was given information on the projects they
were working on. Derek, part of the Detached Youth Work Team, arrived
and spoke to me in more detail about the work that project did. He
also made sure to introduce me to Michael, the centre Manager, who I
had been in contact with throughout the months leading up to my
arrival. Derek set me up on a computer and gave me some office space.
I went through some of the information I was given, drank quite a bit
of tea, and got to know different staff members as they arrived. The
day was kinda slow, as many of the workers are still on holidays and
others just returning. Martin, part of the FAN project with Eileen,
the team I was going to be working mostly with, spoke to me a bit
about the project. Martin also had creative arts projects he was
going to get the youth involved with tomorrow and invited me to help
out as everything was so slow at the centre this week. I was only
scheduled to be at the centre for a few hours during my first day to
meet people and get to know the centre. I felt very content with
everything that happened. I enjoyed getting to know the staff team
around the building and got a very warm welcome by everyone. I am
looking forward to getting to understand a bit more in-depth about
the programs and working along side the team at the centre. It's been
rainy off and on throughout the day; but I am still enjoying it much
more than our 30 degree, then thunderstorm weather from back home.
Although the humidity is huge here, it’s not like living in sweat
like our summer has been.
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My New Home For a Month |
Once back at home the first problem I encountered was that
although Carmel had showed me how to lock and unlock the door in the
morning, which seemed simple enough at the time, I was not finding it
that simple at the moment. I struggled for several minutes, trying to
look normal when ever a car would drive past or someone would walk
near, don’t think I was really managing it well. I was thinking
about giving up and just waiting until Paula showed up as we had made
plans to meet up in an hour, but when I realized, due to the rain I
needed to use the 'lou' (look, see i'm Irish already!), I thought it
best I find a way in now. Mary, Paula’s Aunt lives in #5 next door.
I had not actually met Mary but thought it was my best option, and
had already heard from both Paula and Carmel that Mary was excited to
meet me. I went next-door ready to be embarrassed by finding out how
simple it was to open the door. Mary answered the door and the house
was filled with people. She said hi and introduced me to everyone,
asked about my placement. She invited me in for tea, but laughed when
I told her about my predicament of not being able to get into the
house. Carmel came home just as Mary was coming to the house with me.
It turns out I not completely useless as Carmel had told me to turn
upwards when opening so I had assumed I needed to do the same thing
but learned that it was in fact the opposite for when unlocking. I
made my way into the house with Carmel, she made me another cup of
tea and chatted with her about my first day. Soon Paula showed up and
joined the conversation. We decided to head off but were going to
start at Mary’s first.
People who know me, know I love tea. Not only do I love tea, I
love tea Irish style, with plenty of milk. But this trip turned into
me getting a look at just how much tea is really drank in Ireland in
a day (remember by this time i had already had about 2 cups at
placement and had been offered it more like five times). We stopped
off at Mary’s and had tea with her. After we made our way to
Paula’s parents home and had tea again with Paula’s mother and
some wonderful homemade soup. Paula’s mom is wonderful, as sweet
and as welcoming as Paula. She told me about how she travels and the
places she goes, how it is a family thing often as she travels with
her sisters frequently. We then spent the next few hours shopping for
a rain jacket and groceries. The rain jacket was a task that did not
happen, being a 'big' girl, clothing shopping not often fun for me. That being
one of the reasons I really did try to bring the things I thought I
needed as I know it would not be as easy for me to buy replacement
things if they were forgotten. I don’t think most understand the
struggles of this unless you have really been 'big'. Yes, all women (and men) can struggle with maybe finding things they think they look good in or
fit them just right (since we all can have self image issues), but the embarrassment of putting
on jacket after jacket that does not even come close to fitting can be a lot to take in. So
thus we move on to food which, ironically enough, seemed to be a much
easier task. Paula was great with both, and helped me get through the
first part a great deal. Groceries here are much cheaper than in Canada.
It’s a fun experience as well because things are prepared and
packaged often in just a bit different way. Also some of the
household staples would be very different but I find very exciting to
learn about and try new things. With groceries in hand we made our
way to our last stop at Paula’s sisters. I learned that three of
Paula’s sisters live in a very close area, close to their parents
as well. Offered tea once again but this time declined as it was
getting later. Paula drove me back to Carmel’s and helped me
unload. Paula left back for home and Carmel returned home a little
later.
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The View From My Room |
I had supper and Carmel and myself settled in the living room and
a last wonderful cup of tea for the evening. We chatted and watched different programs
until we settled on a movie about Michael Collins directed by Neil
Jordan, a 1996 film, with Liam Neeson. Good film with an interesting
look at the IRA and Collins role in the fight. I then headed to bed.