Today was not the most exciting day so far, but it still had its great points. We walked to our internship and spent the first half of the day in a meeting surround the programs that work on family relationships. There are new divorce laws here that require a couple to be separated for at least 6mos and attend at least mediation sessions before they can think about going to court. Often, there is another couple sessions of mediation required before an actual divorce would happen. There is a really strong focus here on what happens to the kids throughout this process. There are also a lot of parenting classes that are offered through the organization I am working with. According to them, though, it is easier to get adults to a parenting class than a relationship workshop. It was another opportunity to meet more people who work for Lutheran Community Care and that we might have chances to work with closer. After the meeting Hilary and I made our Mac & Cheese. We struggled to light the stove with a match and had to get some help from Helene in the end. It was wonderful to have a comfort food like Mac & Cheese, but it definitely didn't taste the same. By the way, all cheddar cheese is white here. It is interesting to me. We had another meeting in the afternoon to start planning a staff development day that will take place in April. It was a very different style of a meeting from the morning. The morning meeting had 11 different people who attended and was very professional. The meeting this afternoon was just 3 staff and the three interns. We spend most of the time making jokes, and having a couple quick geography lessons. For example, I was intrigued to find that there is such a thing as a Billabong. I though it was just a clothing company, but it is in fact a residual body of water that is left after a river changes its route drastically. I can't really say if we accomplished much in our meeting, but I am excited to say that I completed the first draft of the Newsletter I was working on yesterday. I also acquired a couple more pictures from the BBQ which I will put at the end of this post. At the end of our day Helene dropped us off at a Newsagency where we could get postage for Morgan to send her fiance a valentine. It takes mail about a week to arrive here, so we figured it was safe to mail it now. Which reminds me.... if anyone is curious my address here is:
101 Morialta Road
Rostrevor, South Australia 5073
We also checked out the phone store to see if my phone would work to put a different sim card into. It turns out my phone is locked to the AT&T network, which is ironic since I can catch different local networks if I wanted to make an extremely expensive phone call home. The other option is to buy a phone and prepaid minutes, which will cost atleast $100. We decided that we need to re-evaluate what we want to do. Unfortunately, this trip to the newsagency and store meant that our walk back doubled and it was at least 3 miles walk back to where we are staying. To make it worse it was hot and I didn't have any water left. But, we all made it safely. We know better for next time though. The supper we arrived back to was great. There were cheesy potatoes and vegetables to go with rice. It tasted so good by the time we made it back. When I got back to my room my voicemail was finally reset so that I could set it up for me and listen to the 11 messages that I already had. Unfortunately there were about 6 from a woman trying to book an appointment to get her nails done. From the sounds of them I look forward to getting more messages from her. It feels better to have it set up though. There rest of the night has been spent visiting and resting. Tomorrow is Friday and I think we are all pleasantly suprised that it is almost the weekend again. The week has gone by VERY fast.
Here those pics I mentioned...
They let me pretend to helpcook. Next to me is Katarina (Helene's and Klaus' daughter) and their son Simon. While cooking we were talking about visiting pubs and they told me that its important (like everywhere else) to make sure to keep track of your drink. So then I was asked to carry the tray of meat into the room we were eating in and of course put down my beer. Then I rethought it and carried it like that. Helene had to take a picture of me as soon as she saw me. She thought it was hilarious. They jokingly told me, though, that the safest thing to do would have been to have "skulled it." Which is their way of saying "Chug it."
This is Jeremy and Noah. Jeremy is the third and oldest child of Helene and Klaus. Noah is Julie's energtic son. Julie is in the 2nd picture with her daughter Gabby and Hilary. We will be going to Renmark with Julie and Gabby to help with children's activities while Julie runs a parenting workshop. Renmark is about a 3 hr drive away.
Helen Lockwood (furthest left) is our main contact here. She is sitting with Morgan, Di, and Emily. Di and Emily also work in the Magill office of Lutheran Community Care (The Learning Centre). The final picture is the picture of the three American interns that will run in the Staff newsletters and such with the story about us.
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