5 Day Catch Up...

I've been extremely busy and because my internet doesn't allow me to log on to my blog or my email at Hosanna Heights I was not able to blog about these past five days until now.
So, here goes...

p.s. I wasn't able to edit/spell check, so there may be quite a few errors.


Thursday
Today Karen picked the three of us up froim Hosanna Heights and took us to Ingle Farm, where she works. Hilary and Ellie decided to go to a "move and groove" class where parents brought their children and they all sang and did actions to songs like the wheels on the bus. They mentioned that there were 58 people in the room... that is a lot of kids!

While they were in their class I sat in on an Afghanistan women's support group. The group of women decided that they wanted to learn about mental illness and how to identify it and what to do when they find it within their Afghani community. Once Ingle Farm heard this request they found a speaker from a local agency to come and talk aobut these things with the group. There was an interpreter because there is a language barrier between the speakers who typically speak English and the Afghani language. However, Karen told me that the women actually know more English than what they lead on the know, but they lack the confidence to speak English with people who are fluent with the language- understandable.

It was very intersting to watch the way the women interacted with each other. All of the women wore head coverings (I should know the technical word) and clothing that covered most of their skin, some wore jeans and a modest shirt while others wore more traditional Afghani full length dresses (again, I dont' know the name). There were about 15-20 women who arrived for the session and they arrived anywhere between 9:45 and 10:30, although the session technically began at 10. When each woman entered the room she went around to every person there and greeted them with the word "hello" in their native language, and depending on how well they knew the person they either shook hands, hugged, or kissed the cheeks of the person they were greeting.

It appeared as if the speaker was going to come several weeks to discuss the topic at hand, and today was the first session. The speaker had a craft for the women to draw their hands on a sheet of paper and in each finger wrote the name of someone they care for. After a few minutes the spearker asked if anyone put their own name in the finger, surprisingly one women said yes. Then the speaker instructed the women to write their names in the palm of their hand explaining that they need to take care of themselves first before they can care for others. After discussing this the women decorated the sheet of paper with stickers, markers, crayons, foam stickies, etc. It was really interesting to watch the excitement the women had when they were decorating this paper for themselves. I feel like most women in America wouldn't spend a whole lot of time on a project like this, who knows, maybe I'm wrong. The speaker then finished the session discussing stigma, steretoypes, etc. and one Afghani women shared a story about a friend who suffered from depression after leaving Afghanistan to come to Australia. I was told about how open this popuation is, I wasn't expecting it completely, but it was refreshing to see people being real. I also noticed that the women left and entered the room as they pleased throughout the session to use the toilet, check on their chidren in the mobile creche (daycare), to anser phone calls, anything really. The other Afghani women didn't seem bothered by this commotion, but the speaker seemed to get disgracted quite a bit. I think it is a cultural thing.

In the room there were the Afghani women, the speaker, a translator, two uni (university) students, me, and a women named Estella who is from another organization like LCC. Estella asked me what I was studying and when I mentioned Spanish within my lengthy major list she immediately started speaking to me in Spanish. At fist I had a little difficulty understanding her because I'm not accustomed to her accent from Chile. However, very quickly I realized how much I missed the language. She told me I spoke very good Spanish, which was good to hear (although I don't believe it because it has been over a year since I've had a Spanish class or conversed on a regular basis in Spanish). I'm a little frightened for my Spanish composition class next year! Anyways, she told me about a festival in April where a group of Spanish speaking women get together and cook a lot of authentic food specific to their country. Not only did Estella invite me to the festival, buts he also invited me to come in and observe the Spanish speaking support group on Monday nights. So, as for right now I'll be going to Ingle Farom on Mondays from 6-9 pm where people will be speaking soley Spanish. This will be a great experience,but I'm a little nervous because I sometimes have a difficult time understanding different accents. Also, I'm not very confident in my Spanish right now and I will be going by myself. Oh well, it will be an adventure.

After the support group Hil, El, and I re-united for lunch. There must have been some sort of misunderstanding because we were instructed to help out at a mommy and me session, but the mothers decided that they didn't need any assistance. So, for the remainder of the afternoon some of us blogged, did a little office work, suduko, and just hung out. When we come back I'm sure some things will get straightened out and we will have a more solid schedule.

Diane who works at Ingle Farm took us home and we spent some time doing our own things. I went on a walk and mailed a letter, and when I got back we got ready to go out. We scarfed dinner (Egg drop-corn soup... it isn't as bad/weird as it sounds... in fact, it may have been one of my favorite things they've served at Hosanna Heights) and caught the bus. Helene's son, Simon, ment us a the bus stop and we went to a 40s swing band concert of one of Simon's friends. It was located in a bar in one of the casinos in Adelaide... I've never actually been to a casino, all the people who were gambling were older and looked sad, guess it wasn't a lucky night.

Anyways, the concert was really entertaining. The band was called Lucky 7, even though there were 8 people in the band :). They played really good music, an all the the pople there were really good swing dancers. It was interesting because it seemed like everybody was comforable dancing with everybody else... there were 70 year olds dancing with 20 year olds, and it didn't seem weird to anybody. I think they assumed that if you were there enjoying the music you also knew how to swing because this older gentleman asked me to dance, and even though I didn't want to, I told him I wasn't very good, he convinced me to join him, and I think he regretted it... really. haha. I know how to West coast swing dance where there are a lot of turns, twists, picking up your partner, etc. and everybody there was East coast dancing which concentrates on footwork. I didn't know any of the footwork and when he tried to teach me I just started to laugh, I'm sure it was annoying to him. When I observed everybody else dacning I'm pretty sure I was the only one who was asked to dance who didn't know how to. haha. oops.



Friday
Today we walked to Magill to find our that Helen and Helene had planned a rather intersteing day for us. They were both very busy working on a tender (grant) and wanted us to experience more of Australia and Adelaide's history. Our first destination was to visit the Magill Interpretive Trail. It is a small trail that explains some of this history of Adelaide and various other facts about the surrounding area. The trail iteself is outdoors and was built by members of the community. It was a nice little excursion on our way to the local art gallergy. We arrived before it opened so we stopped by the bakery and bought goodies, I bought some scones and hot cross buns to bring back to with the people at LCC Magill. We then toured the gallergy, it was the last day that one of the aritist's work was going to be on display/for sale, so soon we'll have to check out the next batch of work.

We then walked back to the Magill site where we had lunch, checked our emails, then took a bus into the city. We went to the Migration Museum located in Adelaide. I am not usually a museum person, but I really enjoyed learning about the history of Australia. However, we were only there about 1.5 hours because we were quite tired from the concert the night before and we felt like our brains were not able to take in all the information. We want to go again a few times to broaden what we know about Australia, and the buseum was free, so why not?! :)

We then went ot the state library... it was really funny because we went to the info desk to see about getting library cards and were told that they don't check out books at this libraray. What type of library doesn't let people check out books?! haha. We were directed to a sepate library in the basement of the same building where we could check out books, but we were unable to get cards because we don't have proof of where we're staying. Afer this discovery we went to the Mortlock Library. This was a wing off the state library, but was more like a museum exhibit that displayed a lot of cultural aspects of Australia. The second and third floors had walls of bookshelves that were packed with older looking books... and guess what, you can't check out these books either. I think this is silly... the books are just sitting there, not getting any use!

After gaining a wealth of information Hilary and Ellie caught a bus back to Hosanna Heights and did their own thing while I cauht a bus to the LCC Blair Ethol site. I did the same thing I did last week when I hung out with the at-risk youth at the afterschool program. It was a really tough week because the girls wanted to dance and there were some guys there who don't typically come who were obviously intoxicated, and it was clear that they were up to no good. When this happens they have to cancel the events because if they continue with the plans something will go down. I just hung out with the girls, but I left a little early because Matt (the guy form the 40s swing band) and Hilary made plans for us to hang out with some of his friends in the city.

I caught the bus into the city and got some take away (to go) sushi from a place called the Sushi Train, it wasn't bad. I then caught the next bus to Hosanna Heights.

It turns out that Matt's friend weren't able to make it, but the three of us hung out at a couple of places where there were tables to sit and chat, a bar, a DJ, and an outdoor patio. A few of Matt's uni friends happened to be there, so I got to meet a couple of girls, they were really nice. We decided after a bit to head to the Fringe. The Fringe is a festival that is in the city that lasts 2.5 weeks. There is a lot of food, tents to buy random things, some carnival rides, and a few tents that offered "freak shows." Matt got some nachos, the first Mexican food we've seen... there isn't much of it around here. Then we headed back to Hosanna Heights.



Saturday
I slept in today, and it was much needed! When I moseyed down for brekky (breakfast) I decided it was a beautiful day and that I wanted to go to the beach. I checked with Hil and she was game for the adventure, but El had to stay behind to chat with her boyfriend because they made plans to skype at 3pm. It took a while to get there because the busses aren't regular on the weekends, but we finally found our way to Grange Beach. We went shell hunding, read a little, got a bit wet, fed/ got attacked by the seagulls, and tanned. It was a peaceful day... it felt great to get away from everything and just bask in the sun, I want to go again soon! When we left we got a hold of Ellie and she met us in the city where we ate dinner at Cafe Primo. It was really good, and you get a free pancake with every entree you purchase, so we all had a pancake after dinner. It wasn't what you think of when you think of pancakles... it was cooked in a pizza oven and almost an inch thick. Each pancake was served with a side of syrup and a side of heavy whipping cream. It was actually really good... and it was wonderful because it was free! :) The three of us headed back to Hosanna Heights after dinner and just hung out until we crashed for the night.



Sunday
Helen picked us up this morning ot go to Glynde church with her and her family. Unfortunately, Hilary got burned really badly yesterday at the beach and needed some time to rest and recover from her burns so she stayed back from church. After the service Ellie and I joined in on the youth group meeting. The church is starting up a youth group and met to do some planning, and get some of our experiences and input. After the meeting we went to Helene's house for tea and coffee where we chatted for a while. Helene then took us back to Hosanna Heights where she wanted to make sure Hilary was okay. Helene was very sweet and switched on here "mum mode" and made sure Hil was applying aloe evey so often, using cold cloths over her burns, etc. Helene told us that there is a giant hold in the ozone later above Australia, so the sun is much more direct. While Hilary rested a bit more Ellie and I went to Kmart so she could purchase some random things for a care package. We walked home, had dinner, and I went on a walk to buy a phone card and got Ellie some Australian candy bars for the package. I got back and typed all this up (eventhough I have to re-type it in on my blog packe because copy/paste doesn't work).



Monday
Today Yvonne (the head of LCC) picked us up at Hosanna Heights and was planning on dropping us off at Blair Athold, but got lost along the way so we ended up at the Sefton Park LCC site. We had a meeting with Yvonne (who will be taking over our schedules for the upcoming month), Sharon, Hil, El, and me. We went through and examined our schedules and what we had going on until the End of March. It was good to get things set up and figure out what we will be doing individually.

After our meeting were dropped of at Blair Athol where I met with Joe who is in charge of the Friday night youth events there. He is having a meeting on Tuesday with Cathy who is in charge of the Refugee services, and a few other people to figure out a way to restructure the Friday night programs. Joe is from some where in Africa, and I noticed a big differences in the ways our cultures communicate. For instance, I was under the impression that we were going to be chatting breifly and our conversation lasted about 1.5 hours. I also spoke quickly and often had to repeat myself because even when I tried to slow down it was still difficult to understand. On the other hand, Joe thought, said a little, thought some more, finished what he was saying, then thought in silence. At first I honestly just wanted to get the converstion over with, but then I slowed down and tried to appreciate the differences in our cultures. After we discussed what we were planning on discussing he wanted to chat more and more, which was okay, but I felt like I was supposed to go because I was expected to be working in the op shop. I took the opportunity to get to know him better and realized as an American how I value some things that really don't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

I then returned to the op shop where we sorted heaps of clothes, and we also made a few purchases... haha, the things I've bought for myself are all from and op shop (thrift store) minus the hat I got on clearance the other weekend in the city.

After helping at the op shop we helped Jill, who does reception and emergency relief data entry at Blair Athol, and I met with Cathy about me working with refugee programs. Little did I know that the Afghani support group I am attending is actually put on by the people at Blair Athol. So, I was already involved in the programs. She referred me to someone who is trying to get a tender (grant) to put on a conference in the African community so that people from the ethnic enclave can learn about opportunties and ways of becoming leaders within their own communities. I think this is a wonderful idea because people who are not from the enclaves may not be able to properly identify the needs of the people in the community. I might be assisting him on writing a grant, another intmidiating, but wonderful opportunity.

I was bummed out because I was planning on going to the Spanish speaking support group tonight, but I found out that the bus system does a terrible job of reaching Ingle Farm. If I go it will take 2 hours for me to get home, so I would be up at 7am, working at 8:30am until 9 pm, and will not get home until 11:00 pm. I have a feeling that I would get burnt out very quickly, so I have to figure out if there is any other form of transportation for me to get home. Hopefully I can chat with Estella on Thursday to see if she has any ideas.

Instead of going to Ingle Farm Hilary, Ellie, and I had dinner and went to Helene's house to watch the Australian movie, Castle. I'm not going to lie, it may be close to the worst movie I've seen. Don't get me wrong, I like the opporunity of getting more of a cultural experience, but I will proabably never see it again. Helene and her family agree on the qualitity of the movie... it was an experience.