Lucky Strikes

Another new challenge was in store for me as the members arrived at the CASA break house on Friday afternoon. Anna Cloak came a little after 4pm with another member, Anne accompanied by their helper Grace. Anna is about 65 years old. I was told before the weekend that she enjoys joking around, but that is hardly a helpful hint with her because I had no idea what that meant. How do you joke around with someone you've just met? So as we all sat in the sitting room and got acquainted with our members, I was asking Anna the normal questions. Where are you from? Do you have family in town? Have you been to CASA before? But to my surprise, Anna didn't even look at me. She had no interest in answering any of my questions. So after about 15 minutes of that I started to panic. I was thinking, what the hell am I gonna do for three days with a woman who doesn't want to talk to me?? But I calmed myself down and decided to observe her behavior with the people she already knew. Even though she didn't talk much to anyone else, she had a particular way of connecting with them. And as soon as I felt that she was comfortable with me, I started to mimic her behavior with them to test it out. You see, Anna likes to play a game with people. She will tickle someone when they aren't looking. And then when you look at her and say, "WHO did that??" she says, "It wasn't me!" And that is literally what I did with Anna the entire weekend! You would think that a game like that would get old after about, oh I don't know, 20 times? However, I was so thrilled to have some way to connect with her, that I didn't care that I used the phrase, "Who tickled me?" over a hundred times. It was great! All I had to do was make a silly face and she would laugh and laugh. If I didn't play that game with her, she would sort of retreat into her own world, so I would often make sure we were teasing each other in some way at each moment.

I will admit that having an activity to do was a good relief occasionally. Friday night, we all headed out to the bowling alley. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I really love going bowling with the members. It's a great way for them to have fun and to boost their confidence because they are all able to play, and to do well. And all of us volunteers are there cheering them on. Most of the members were doing very well that night. But in spite of the bumpers, Anna wasn't doing so great. I don't think that it hindered her fun, but I do think she was a little disappointed each time it went down and only hit a few pins. So halfway through the game, after seeing her only get maybe 3 or 4 pins per turn (two shots each turn), I said a prayer that she would have a really good turn and get most of the pins down. Right after I said that prayer, Anna got a strike!!! I couldn't believe it. You may say that's coincidence, but there's no doubt in my mind that God was looking out for us. You should have seen the look on her face. It was so great!! From then on out, she was back to her previous game playing standard, but it didn't matter. It was a really good night for her.

The next day was filled with shopping, a viewing of Night at the Museum 2 (an encore presentation for us volunteers), and dinner at the Grand Hotel. The first part of the day moved very slowly because Anna wasn't interested in shopping whatsoever. But she did like the movie. All of the members were so excited for dinner. That was a really good time for everyone. After dinner, we all came home and spent some time in the sitting room. We played bingo, chatted, had tea, and some of the members sang songs. By 12am I was really ready for bed! Anna got slightly confused at night about what room she was staying in and where the bathroom was. At 1am I woke up to find the door open and Anna wandering around the halls! But I was half asleep myself so it was a very confusing moment for the both of us!

Sunday morning we all gathered for breakfast and games before Mass. After Mass we had a quick lunch and prepared for the members to go home.

I think that the weekend was a success. I really feel like I'm getting better at this job and it's easier for me to put all of my needs aside for those three days. Even though I was tired by the end of each night, I still tried to give Anna as much attention as I could. And I think she had a really good weekend with us.

All of the members interacted with each other nicely. Sometimes the groups don't really come together very well and the members are in their own world with their volunteer. Which is also great. The point of CASA is to give one-to-one attention for the members. But it's really nice when it feels like a whole family together for the weekend. Another member I really loved this weekend is Paul. It's really hard to describe how wonderful Paul is, but I can try. He's probably in his 50s and he is in a wheelchair. He is one of the sweetest and most gentle people I've ever met. And he loves to arm wrestle! He was always having fun no matter what we were doing and it was easy to interact with him. Whenever he asked me my name, he would say, "Claire, from the moment I met you I swear..." :) I really look forward to visiting him again soon.


Other than working, life is the same. Kate and I have been trying to make it out of Malahide and explore Dublin more. We're headed out there tonight, in fact, to see what we can find. Although I am a little afraid there won't be much to see on a Monday night! But it's summer now, so I'm sure people will be out doing things every day here.

Now I'm off to the park. The cleaners are coming and I'm lucky that the weather is nice enough to go out for a walk.

As always, I miss you people. Emails are always welcome. :)

Love,
Claire