I 'CAN' Learn

Front Doors

On Wednesday it way my first really kinda slow day; I think it also really did not help I was so tired. Still struggling with sleeping a bit, waking up early then getting tired later in the morning no matter what time I am going to bed. Continued to get more familiar with the programs and reading up on information different people were giving me to look at. Lots of tea breaks helped me stay alert. In the early afternoon I was given the opportunity to help Martin, who works on the FAN Project, with a creative arts project he was doing with the youth. Those of you who saw the building when you came know from the outside it is a little 'prison' looking, a big rectangle building with only small windows with bars on them, and a big black metal door at the front. Martin decided to have the youth paint the front doors of the building, to brighten it up as well as create a way to have the youth take more ownership of the building. I helped get the stencils ready to put on the door and helped get the youth ready to go. The small moments are the ones that I feel like I am starting to connect with some of these youth, like teaching a young boy how to roll tape to make it double sided. It was a pretty amazing sight to see these young boys all dressed up in overalls, goggles, mouth and nose masks, and gloves. Martin patiently taught the youth, first two at a time to how to use spray around the stencil and not waste the paint. It’s funny how a skill they have used in their 'delinquent behaviour' can have so much potential to it when done with something creative in mind rather then just tagging a building. This gave another chance to work with the youth a bit more which I really enjoyed. But I do find it a bit more difficult to really build relationships in such an unstructured environment. Since I mostly just helped with set up, supervision, and picture taking, I was in the background. There was one youth who was very much going out of his way to try and steal the 'cans' (spray paint cans). Several times I had to jokingly tell him to put them back which is always hard when you're new, cause there is no relationship there and if you push too hard they can very easily tell you to f* off. At the end we realized a few cans had been taken; talking with Martin helped give me a bit different perspective on how he saw it. He had counted them at the beginning because he wanted to know but that it was a trust exercise as well, giving these boys opportunities to prove they are trust worthy and give respect back. Having a box of 15 cans out and only two disappearing with these boys is positive even if two did go missing. What was even more interesting was that a couple of the boys obviously made it apparent they had taken them so they had to give them back, but again it showed that even though they could of got away with it they choose not to. They saved face by letting us be the bad guys telling them to give them back in front of their peers.

More Art Work in the Centre Done By Youth

Later in the afternoon I started working on my learning work plan to get it ready for Eileen (my placement supervisor) for Monday and continued with more reading. Derek had told me that I didn't have to go with him tonight as he had Mick, another Detached team member, working with him tonight. I offered to go anyways a couple times but was just told not to worry about it, they would be fine on their own. I wondered a bit about why as on my schedule Eileen had given me I was supposed to do it; it made me worried a bit that I had struggled yesterday or been in the way. Later in the evening Derek ended up telling me the reason why he wasn't going to have me come tonight was due to the fact they were doing some home visits and he didn't know if I was allowed to come on these visits due to them taking place in the home of families from the community. After hearing that I felt much better just because I now knew it wasn't something about me and I could completely understand why. Derek ended up explain a bit more information about home visits, how they were set up, and why they would happen (mostly when families are in crisis for whatever reason).

Living Room Where I will Watch the Telly

So I headed home earlier then I had thought. Carmel called to check in and stated she was bringing me something home. The night before we had talked about how I have never tried curry fries but had been told by some of my Irish mates that they were lovely and I would greatly enjoy them. Carmel stated she was going to bring me some home when I got back from work and she got off. So.. I had curry sauce, fries, rice, and chicken balls all in one meal. I have to admit, it was pretty amazing. Not something you should maybe eat more then a couple times a year, but for sure it was lovely. Carmel's daughter Tara dropped by with her son Devin. Devin is going back to school next week, so we talked a bit about that and I got to know Tara a bit better. In the evening Carmel and I watched a documentary on the Romma beggars in Dublin. It was very interesting; there is a great deal of frustration on the part of many Dublin people of having the Romma beggars on their streets. I drew a few similarities to how some Albertan’s think about immigrants people in Alberta, but it is always a very specific issue to here in Dublin. The program looked at peoples opinion on the Romma beggars and some of the speculations like if they were involved in organized criminal begging rings. It then did investigation into the issue and speculation of being organized crime but in the end was not really able to find any hard evidence of this, just that families were begging for themselves. The whole issue is pretty interesting. It's very easy for us as humans to make judgements and assumptions on groups of people when there is no communication or connection and in a lot of situations it's very hard not to when it seems like that is all you see. Often we can forget that everyone has their own story, and just because they look as if they can fit into a nice box most of us are not square. But issues like this are a lot more complicated than that; I am very aware that I am a Canadian who is very far away from the issue and don't really have much right to say or pretend I really understand. It is interesting though.