CRASH!

Just a heads up, my computer has completely crashed and after being looked at by an IT guy here it appears as though it cannot be fixed without some intervention from home. I haven't figured out what that will mean, or whether it can be done yet though. I won't be able to blog as I have been for a bit so please be patient and I will get to it as often as possible.

Since I have time at an office computer I will try to update the things that I can since I was last able to blog.

On Monday morning Yvonne (the exec. director of LCC) picked us up from Hosanna Heights (HH). It has been decided that for the next chunk of time we will be working mostly with/through her. She transported us to Sefton Park (Her home office) but got lost on the way. When we finally made it we came into the office to meet with her and Sharon about what activities we were planning for the next month. It quickly became evident that Morgan and Hilary have really identified and found things that they'd like to be involved in, and my calendar was still pretty empty. We made the contacts for the things that I would like to work with after the meeting though, and I am excited to be officially starting my individualized activities this week. There are still plenty of frustrations, and frustrations that I know will arise later, but I just need to be patient. I will be spending my time between three different activities. I will be working with Emergency Relief Services through Blair Athol, which involves interviewing individuals in crisis and providing services as applicable such as food vouchers or parcels, bus tickets, or referrals (for example.) I will also be heading down to Calvary where there are a couple shelters and a transitional housing program that I can get involved with. This is the aspect I have been most looking forward to. The third aspect of my activities will be working out of Sefton Park on some more office or administrative tasks. After our meeting we were transported to Blair Athol to start our day there. My first task was to meet with Sharon and Audene about how I can get involved with the Emergency Relief program. It was explained to me and I was plugged right in to observe the appointments that were left for the morning (they only have appointments in the morning). Unfortunately there was only one more appointment left and they actually didn't show up at all. It was still a great opportunity to visit with the volunteer who was doing the interviews at the time. She showed me a bit about how the computer database works and what kind of information we use. I spent a short time in the shop helping after lunch, and then went back to help with more office tasks inside. We talked to Yvonne to find out how we were getting home and discovered that she had been able to get in touch with Calvary and the woman running it would be out to meet me on Tuesday morning. Overall it was a really productive day. While waiting for Yvonne to pick us up I learned how to answer the phones and how to enter more data into the system. Yvonne drove us home and we settled in a bit for the day. After supper we got a call from Helene letting us know that she'd be willing to watch a movie with us that night. We settled on a time and when it came the three of us began our walk to Helene's house. It was a longer walk than any of us acknowledged, but we made it. We had a cup of tea with the family and then watched The Castle, which is another classic Australian Film. I really believe that it was an Australian version of Joe Dirt (a film in the US poking fun at "white trash" or "hicks" if you will). Here that group of people are called Bogans. There were some truly awful hairdos and outfits in the film, which only added to its humor. In reality it isn't an amazing film, but it was amusing to see and be able to watch with an Australian family. We sat and visited for a bit afterwards, but then Jeremy drove us home before we fell asleep where we were. The night was bit hard for me because there is a lot of sarcasm used in the humor here, and as most of us know I am just not very good at it. By the end of the night my self esteem was a bit deflated from feeling a bit stupid at not getting jokes. I made it a point to go to bed right away, especially since it was already 1am.

Tuesday morning started with my crisis. When I got up and tried to turn on my computer it would not start. I spent a half hour messing with it before I had to give up and get ready for the day. I am thankful that I was able to make a phone call home to Tim to help me calm down, or else I might have been hysterical all day. I decided to pack up the computer and take it to Sefton Park with me since I knew that the IT guys worked out of that office. When we got there we set up the computer right away for Matt to look at it. There were no breakthroughs while we were there though. Hilary and I were brought to Blair Athol for the day. I spent the morning sitting in on Emergency Relief Interviews and getting to know more about the program. By the end of the morning I was putting data in the computer myself. The program has certain important guidelines set up. One is that in order for a person to be eligible they must live in the area. The program is funded through grants from the Government specifically to serve people in the area. Other guidelines include that a person can only have 3 appointments in a 12 month span of time and they can't come within a fortnight (which is 2 weeks). The services really are intended to help tide someone over for a couple days until they receive their next welfare check or payday. I really enjoyed visiting with the volunteer who was doing interviews today. Her name was Ruth and we talked about some interesting things which varied from our speculations on one of the appointments to the cultural differences of Marriage between the US and Australia. This stemmed from my discovering that individuals can still receive welfare payments even if they are married to someone who is employed. Even after becoming a family there is still an emphasis on the individual rather than just the household. I believe that the US definitely looks at this differently when deciding how much assistance a family can get. After the meetings were done for the day Hilary and I ate lunch and then she went to work in the shop while I worked a bit more in the office on tasks that needed a bit of help. While doing this Helen happened to come into the office and offered us a ride to Magill. We decided to take it since we didn't know how else we were going to get home. It also gave us a chance to blog. In the process of leaving we called over to Sefton Park to see how things had gone with my computer. Matt had not been able to get anywhere and said he would need the restoration disks to get anywhere. This is a real struggle because they, along with any of the warranty info, are at home in my closet in Waverly, IA. Besides that, if they have to restore windows I will not have any of my programs like i-tunes, yahoo messenger, or skype. It would be a bit expensive to download any or all of those programs again here. I am having trouble deciding if it is worth it or if I should just try to make due without it. Regardless I am really frustrated and upset about it since it is a new computer, and I have only had it since September. We did get a bit of good news, though. There is a house that we will be able to move into on the 9th of March which will allow us to cook our own food and solve some of the problems we've been having where we are staying now. It will cause some other issues, I'm sure, since we will be living in even closer quarters. We will have easier access to things though, and there are things like a washer and refrigerator that will be very helpful. It has been a hard day, and I am looking forward to getting back to my own space to think, and probably sulk, a little bit.