When the kids are away...

It is 8:48am on Friday now.
Yesterday all three of us went to Ingle Farm. When we got there we split up to experience the two groups that met in the morning. Hilary and I sat in on a session called "move and groove." It is led by a man named Laddie who was described to us as out there, in your face, and similar to Richard Simmons. You can imagine how curious we were at this description. The session had 50 people in a small room. It is a session where parents bring their toddlers to participate in songs and actions with them. We did some that Hilary and I knew like "wheels on the bus", "the hokey pokey", and "twinkle twinkle little star" (which has multiple verses by the way). There were also a bunch that we didn't know. One of the most interesting ones was the ABC's because some of the letters are pronounced different here. Laddie was actually really great with the children, and his wife and 3 children were there and participated. I really wish I could/would have taken pictures of it because I think it is really hard to imagine a scene like I am trying to describe where parents and children are singing and playing together without much reserve. In general I am more and more convinced that the systems here are set up with far more concern for the child and programs and activites are set up with participation from parent and child. This is especially true with the playgroups that I have witnessed. I still cannot think of anything like them in the US where parents bring children to a facilitated session where they stay to play with their children. I sometimes wonder whether there might be different cultural expectations on how long a mother or parent will stay home with the child after birth, or just generally if stay at home moms/dads are still the trend in Australian culture.
After the group was over the children had a snack of fruit, which parents brought to share, and we had a chance to visit with Laddie shortly. As it turns out he seems like a very down to earth man, not Richard Simmons-esque at all. He is actually just a father who has volunteered to lead the group so that it did not cease to exist. I find this admirable. After this group there wasn't much to do until the afternoon so Hilary and I decided to have a bit of fun and try out the toys in the playroom and outside. The wall outside has been painted by people participating in groups and programs at the center. As a part of the wall there is a wombat painted, which was an animal that Hilary, Helene and I spent quite a bit of time trying to find a picture of the other night.


Inside there are a conglomoration of different fun toys, including a trampoline. We may have had TOO much fun with them. Have no fear, we got permission first from one of the staff members to play.


There was one group that met yesterday that I had been told had requested help with bringing in presenters to groups for Women with infants. There was some confusion about whether they were planning to meet and for a while I thought they weren't coming, but sure enough there was suddenly a group of moms with small children gathering in the playroom. The site supervisor had left for the day to go to an appointment so she wasn't there to introduce me. When one of the other staff said it was the right group I approached them to introduce myself. It was a very strange feeling. I introduced myself as a student who was working with Lutheran Community Care for a couple months, and let them know that I had heard about their interest in some presenters coming to their group. I told them that I would be happy to help contact some resources to set it up if they would like to let me know what kind of things they were interested in. The women responded that they hadn't actually thought about it. They said that they were really only there for the social aspect of the group for themselves, and of course for their babies. They said they would give it some thought. I must admit that I felt more like it was a polite dismissal. They didn't seem very interested in meeting me or anything I was saying. I keep looking back at what I said wondering if I somehow offended them or something, but I can't really think of anything I said that could have been taken the wrong way. I let Karen, the site supervisor, know that I had introduced myself and offered to help with that and little about their response(mostly that they had said they didn't really sound interested). It was a bit of a shame because the way that the day ended up going it turned out that there really wasn't anything for us to do at the site all day, and we were just waiting for this group to come so I could meet them, and it didn't seem very succesful. We waited around a bit longer and then Dianne took us home. We rested a bit and got ready to go downtown to hear a 40's swing band play at the casino (free admission). Simon actually knows one of the guys in the band and he came with us, though he didn't seem too keen on taking the bus. I was excited to wear my new dress, which I bought after realizing that EVERYone (female mostly) here wears dresses, especially when they go out.
Morgan helped me take pictures of it since I was so excited about it. Admittedly I might have been more excited about my clever plan to feel more comfortable in the dress by wearing Jersey shorts under it. They even matched the dress. We took the bus downtown and made our way to the casino. We had to have our IDs checked, and were informed that if we hadn't had our passports with us the bouncer wouldn't have been able to let us in. We struggled a little to find our way to the bar area where Matt (Simon's friend)'s band was playing. When we found it they were still setting up so we got ourselves drinks and settled ourselves at a table to wait. Hilary and Morgan were quite excited to be at a bar (rather than a pub) which meant they could get the mixed drink/cocktails that they couldn't get before. We ended having to move when the band started to be able to see them as the room had a few large pillars that blocked the view. There were some really good swing dancers that came out to strut their stuff on the dance floor. It made me more than happy to stay in my chair and just in my seat.
Although, at one point the three of us found a corner almost out of sight to dance in on the way to the restroom. The show was supposed to last until midnight, so we deliberated and decided that we would take a cab home since the last bus left at 11:20pm. You can imagine our frustration when they ended their show at 11:30pm. We sat and visited a bit longer before leaving to find a cab. Matt asked if we wanted to go to the Fringe (a festival that has just started) but after thinking about it we decided that since we had to work in the morning it would be a better idea to just head home. I was glad we had chosen this when we got outside since the night had cooled down significantly. We hailed a cab and were on our way. The cab driver was a major frustration, as it turned out, because he ignored our directions when we told him to turn even though he said he was following our directions and we knew he could hear us. When we finally got back to Hosanna Heights we were all just glad to get out of the cab and most likely do what we can to not have to take a cab again. I went to bed as soon as I could because I knew the morning was going to come faster than I'd like.