Ready for Home Already?

Well I finally have some time to update this thing. The past few weeks have been crazy! I'll start with the teens group. It's no secret that the teens and kids groups are not my favorite. This group was no exception. :P I was paired with Leanne. She is 17 years old and had an infection when she was young that led to a delay in her intellectual development. This is a nice way of saying that she's overactive and very difficult to care for. She is such a sweet girl but she is constantly moving from place to place and acting out. I spent the whole weekend balancing trying to have fun with her and telling her no when she constantly asked me for sweets. Her mom told me when she came that she is prone to overeating and I should monitor her intake. She slept well the first night, but the second night was a disaster. She woke me up five times throughout the night. At midnight she woke me up and asked if she could take a shower! At five in the morning she woke up for good and luckily Canada was up and told me to go back to sleep. God bless her! But besides the frustrating moments, I did enjoy hanging out with Leanne. She has constant energy, and she often does her version of messing. This consists of her saying something like, "I'm gonna sit down, I'm gonna sit down, I'm gonna sit down.......NO I'm NOT!" We ended the group by joining the social at Clontarf Castle. I'm not sure who's bright idea it was for us to bring the teens to the adult social. :P Leanne was walking from table to table trying to sneak in more desserts. She walked over to a table of old women and when I told them not to give her any chocolate they looked at me like I was a monster and gave her several pieces! She had just had so much food and dessert! I wanted to smack those ladies! That happened with that table a few times and each time they gave her more chocolate. I'm sure her mother would be thrilled. Overall the weekend was successful, and I really worked hard to do my best. My supervisor said I did well balancing fun and discipline when needed.

The next weekend was a completely different situation! I had an amazing time. It was not a normal group. We invited three members over to join us in fundraising. We split up into two groups and collected money from the two Catholic churches in our neighborhood. I got to collect with my absolute favorite member, Paul Lockery! He's so amazing!!! We went to the first Mass on Saturday night and as we stood with our buckets he turned to me and said, "Should I sing?" I thought it was a great idea! So we stood outside the church and he sang to the people as they came out! I must say it worked very well! He also sang me my song! "Claire" by Gilbert O'Sullivan. I got a video of it (thanks Sarah!) to take home with me! I'm so happy to have that because I will miss him so much when I go home. Sunday was pure joy! Paul and I hung out with Lennart and Ken in between Masses. We went to get coffee and Paul leaned over to me and said, "I'm very fond of you!" It was so sweet! I love that the feeling is mutual!

The fundraising was very successful! We did eight Masses and our total was about 7500 euro! I was very grateful for the generosity of our neighbors!

Monday morning Erin, Canada, Lennart, and I headed down to Cork to stay with Tom on his chicken farm. I went down there with Erin last July (I can't believe how long ago that was!) and I was ready for another trip to the farm! Tom is incredibly generous and let us all stay there, as well as buying us food to prepare the dinner. The next day we met up with Denis, another Cork CASA volunteer, who hung out with us for the day. We went with the two of them to visit two of their members. Mary and Dermott met up with us and we went out for coffee. Denis and Tom take out CASA members all the time and pay for the outings with their own money. They are definitely living out what they believe, and it was really inspiring. We brought Mary and Dermott back to Tom's house and we had another nice dinner prepared by us "kids." Tom took us back to the train that evening and gave us money to take a taxi home because the buses would not be running when we got back to Dublin. He's so great!

The next morning we got the house ready for the group. It was weird to go from a day off to a group without a day to prepare. I was paired with Bernie for a second time. I don't know if you remember, but Bernie is a tough member to be with. She is 25 years old and has an intellectual disability. When I was with her before, we got on great and I had immense patience with her. This time I felt like I had no patience at all. I think I must be getting ready to come home. I'm still working hard and doing my best, but it feels like I'm struggling more to do this than when I started. The more I talk to people from home and make plans to see them, the more I'm dying to leave! That being said, I know that when I do actually leave, it will be very hard to say goodbye. Anyways, sorry for that tangent. Bernie can be difficult to be around because she is constantly complaining about everything around her. She always says that she hates the activities that we do, the movies we see, and the dinners we have. Everyone knows that she says these things purely for attention, because every time she goes home from the break she calls the next week to ask when she can come back. :) So the reality is that from a young age she learned that the only way she would get any attention from her family was to complain. It's really very sad. However, it doesn't really make it easier when she's yelling at you for not being helpful as you're trying to help her. The schedule of the group was really fun. The first day we had an early dinner at a restaurant that we were trying for the first time. The prices were great and the food was even better! We had Mass in the house after dinner with Fr. Frank. He is such a great person! I really enjoyed the Mass, and at the end he said a prayer for us volunteers and acknowledged how hard it can be to leave our homes and families to volunteer here. It's amazing how a simple sentence of recognition can go a long way. I think a lot of us feel that the management doesn't really appreciate how difficult it can be for us sometimes. It meant a lot to me that he prayed for us and our families. On Thursday we went out shopping during the day, came back for dinner at the house, and then went out to the cinema. We saw the movie "Crazy Heart" with Jeff Bridges. I really liked it, but it wasn't the best choice for the group. Friday went by very quickly. We had a late breakfast and then went for a walk to the castle and played a bit of soccer. The weather here has been so amazing! I keep waiting for the rain to come back. It really hasn't rained here any more than it does in Oregon. I don't know what people are always complaining about. :)

Today is a lazy day. I've been working on my trip to Madrid, Milan, and Venice. Trip planning is complicated when several people are involved! But I am just excited to see Jose, Gabriele, Audrey, and Andre one more time before I go back home. The gelato, pizza, and espresso are just icing on the cake. :)

I hope all of you are doing well!