Kids Group and Gay Bingo...but not together!

Well the kids group went just as I expected. It was fun and so exhausting that by the time I got home I wanted to hide under the covers and sleep for ten days. The kids starting arriving around two on Tuesday afternoon. I was paired with Megan, a very sweet and sensitive little girl who only has a physical disability. I met her on my last kids group when I was with Lauren. This time, Lauren was with May. I was amazed at how well behaved Lauren was this time. She definitely showed improvement, although she still had some of the previous behavioral problems. I think it helped that it was Khadija who was the supervisor and not Rebecca. Rebecca is so sweet and great with the kids, but she lets them get away with murder and it makes it hard on us volunteers.

Anyways, here's more about Megan. She is eleven, but she'll be twelve soon. She is a very mature girl, so I was often thinking that she was older. This became a problem only when she acted her age and I was inwardly annoyed. :P Truth be told, while I have fun with kids, taking care of them for four full days is too much for me. Megan had just been bowling and to the zoo the week before so she was really whiny about going again. I tried lots of different ways to get her excited about certain things but she refused to bend at all. But when we did things that she really wanted to do, she was wonderful and we had a lot of fun. She liked being with me because I'm American and she could ask me all about the American culture. Tuesday was a quick day with dinner and a trip to the bowling alley. Like I said before, Megan wasn't into it, and so we walked around the lobby for a while. (If I were her, bowling for a second time in two weeks would be much more fun than sulking in the lobby!) By the time we got home it was almost time for bed. Wednesday morning, everyone was up and ready by eight. We all had breakfast and then had a few hours before Jimmy picked us up for the zoo. The few hours between activities during this group were tiring. Megan has a hard time walking, so she couldn't run around with the boys. There were much more boys than girls this time, because in the kids groups, female volunteers can be paired with male members. Lauren wanted to play with the boys most of the time, so Megan was kind of left out of the group. I definitely made an effort to integrate her into the group, but a lot of time she didn't even want to hang out with the other kids. So I just tried to think of fun things to do. She loved doing nails and make-up so we did that a lot. It was fun doing girly things, although you can't really do make-up and nails all day. Luckily, the days were packed with activities. The zoo was fun, even for Megan. We were able to split up into small groups, so there wasn't any need for fighting over which animal we saw first. I was able to think of fun things to keep Megan occupied and forget that she had just been there. After the zoo we went home to play for a while before dinner. That night, a priest came over for Mass. It was an extremely successful service, and the kids sat down the entire time! When Mass was over, it was time for bed.

We all had to get up by seven on Thursday. It was Khadija's bright idea, because the previous morning had been messy with kids waking up before their volunteer. Jimmy picked us up around half ten for swimming. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of all of our kids at a pool, but it turned out to be really fun! Megan hadn't been in a long time and she had a blast. Because of her condition she isn't able to swim very well, so I held her most of the time. She is not very big, so I was able to swim with her all around the aquatic center with little trouble. We even went down the water slide, which I was really scared to do! But I had to pretend I wasn't scared to keep her from being scared! We were only there for an hour, which I think we could have stayed much longer. We had to go because we needed lunch before our movie. We were going to see Ice Age 3 (again...) but we were late for that so we saw Harry Potter. I was so excited! I wanted to see it but I was told it was too long for the groups. Megan was also very excited to see it, because Ice Age 3 is for little kids, duh. It was three hours of quiet children, which was enough for us! We went home and had dinner and more playing before bed.

Friday morning was a little sluggish. We were all so tired, including the kids. Jimmy came again at half ten to take us to the park. We were only there for about a half hour before it started pouring down rain. Jimmy came back to rescue us and we ordered lunch instead. Before lunch arrived, I convinced Megan to come upstairs and see what the boys were doing. They were having a little rowdy party in one of the rooms upstairs, and we sat on the bed and watched them all wrestle. It was really fun, and so good for Megan to be a part of the group. Parents started arriving at around two. Megan was really sad to leave, so she was a little mopey during the last hour. She didn't want to do anything and even her favorite music wouldn't cheer her up. So we just cuddled on the couch. I felt bad that she didn't want to go home, but I was happy that in spite of her complaining, she had a really good time.

We all gathered back at the Malahide house and had a quick meeting to conclude the group. We were all so tired and ready to relax. I honestly think that four days is just too much for everyone involved. The kids were so ready to go home, and us volunteers were running out of energy. I think the week was an overall success.

That night Kate encouraged me to go to Gibney's with her. I was pretty tired, but I wanted to go out and socialize with people I didn't have to see all the time. We ended up talking to a few people and we had a good time. The next day, we hung out around the house. I spent some time alone reading and doing crosswords. It was very relaxing! Later, Kate and I headed out to Dublin to see what kind of trouble we could get into. :P We stopped in a few pubs, but settled in our favorite place in Temple Bar called Oliver St. John Gogarty's. It is always crazy packed full of people, mostly tourists. There is also a lot of people wearing crazy costumes. The music they play is fun dance and sing along music. We met a group of guys who were here on holiday from England. They were all wearing plaid shirts and swore up and down that it was an accident! It was so funny! It turned out to be a bachelor party, and the groom-to-be told us that he was the best man and his friend was getting married. It was unfortunate to find out the truth because Kate and I agreed that he was the cute one! haha Most of them left around midnight, but two of them stayed and hung out with us. They were really fun guys, and we were bummed that they were from England and not Ireland!

I went to Mass at half twelve yesterday in the village. Afterward, I went to rent Gone With the Wind. I just finished the book and it was so amazing! (Thanks Sarah!) So I treated myself to watching the entire movie in one sitting, all four hours of it! That really sucked up my entire afternoon! But it was really good, of course. Clark Gable is so amazing as Rhett! And there could never have been a better actress to play Scarlett than Vivian Leigh. Anyways, after it was over, Kate, Erin, and I headed out to Dublin again. Kate heard about this bar called The George that has gay bingo on Sunday nights. It turned out to be 15 minutes of bingo and a few hours of drag queens dancing to music, which was equally entertaining! I was looking forward to seeing the announcer named Shirley Temple Bar (Temple Bar is a famous little area in city center, which this bar was very near to.) But she was out sick, so we had a substitute. But she was very entertaining so I didn't mind. I actually got bingo at the very end, but I was way in the back and it was SO crowded! I had to push through a giant crowd of people and by the time I got up to the stage, it was over. But it's probably for the best because the announcer was so mean to the people who had won! We had to leave at eleven because the last bus on the weekdays is at half eleven. But we could have stayed and watched the performances all night! We're definitely going back there again. They have it every Sunday, and since groups usually end on Sundays, we decided it would be a good way to de-stress.

We're hanging out here today, but we have plans to go out to Dublin for some shopping tomorrow. I also need a trip to the library. I've been reading a lot since I've come here. It's a good habit to get into now before winter when it gets dark by half three!

Ok, well this is long enough. Goodbye, my friends. I hope all is well all the way over there in Oregon!