Ok, ok, stop with the emails. I get it. I haven't written a blog in awhile, but I do think about it a lot. The reason I have neglected writing--I work, sleep, and eat. And when I am not working, sleeping, or eating, I am thinking about one or all activities. Today I worked 10.5 hours--2 of those hours were spent on detached youthwork in the bitter cold night. When I get home the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer and write. Mostly I want to curl up under my electric blanket, eat mince pies (why don't we have these in the States, they are amazing), and drink something warm. I don't usually work such long days, but the Minister of Education is coming on Monday for a youth leadership awards ceremony and I have been put in charge of decorations. I spent the last 3 weeks saving children's artwork from the bin (which reminds me that one time in my first weeks here while cleaning up in the playroom, I told a child to just throw the train set in the bin, I meant the plastic box that its kept in, he of course thought I was telling him to throw it away, that was an awkward moment) and coaxing 3-9 year olds to draw pictures of their ideal community so that I have enough artwork to put up on the walls in the play hall where the ceremony will be held. My boss is under the impression that we save all the children's artwork and so she told me just to ask one of the other youthworkers to get everything out of storage. Little does she know that storage must be code for dumpster. I think my mom put all of my artwork into storage too.
I have been absolutely frantic trying to get enough stuff together, because this is my first big responsibility and I really want to do a good job.
But anyway, like I said 11 hours isn't typical. I have been asked what is a normal day, but the truth is there really isn't a normal day; my schedule changes all the time. Usually though on Mondays all I have is afterschools. So I go in at 1:45 and stay till 5:30 (half five is how they would say it here, never five thirty). I am one of four afterschools staff--2 come in every day, Lena comes in Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I go in Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. We usually have around 15 kids age range 3-10. It is sometimes absolute madness, but its getting better. Also on Mondays I have been doing youthwork training from 6-8 pm, but that will only go for another week.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I come in at 1 and work till 9:30. I do several different things. I do some general office things for youthwork, such as going through all the registration forms and updating numbers and adding new young people to our contact list. I also am going to start working on a nonviolence flow chart to help our head youthworker teach nonviolence. After I am done with that she wants me to work on all these action plans and other things that will help us better understand what our goals are for youth work and if we are achieving our goals. On Tuesdays starting at 5:30 we have junior youthclub and then catholic youthclub. On Thursdays (now that my child protection class is over) we do detached youthwork in the evenings. This involves walking in a huge loop, with lots of detours in between, around the Shankill and Springfield. The purpose is to try to engage with new youth and to interact with them in their space. For instance tonight we met a bunch of the catholic boys who come to club at one of their favorite spots burning a large plastic crate. We had a nice chat and warmed up a bit while they slagged us and turned all of our names into dirty phrases. This is considered a good interaction and just good craic if you ask me.
On Wednesdays I have afterschools and then detached. And then on Fridays I have afterschools and protestant youthclub. This is all subject to change though depending on many different factors. I also attend community meetings for groups with long names like The Greater Shankill Community Safety Council or something like that.
Add to all of this the fact that I had a persistent cold for most of November and killer hangovers every weekend (if I didn't drink it would be culturally insensitive, well that's my excuse anyways)--I haven't had much energy to write. Now if you will excuse me I think Sister Myra is going to bed so I can finally watch what I want on the tv and then go to bed to start the crazy cycle of sleep, eat, work all over again.
during marching season, you would think they had their fill. But no, now the police have gotten into the action.
