Ellie's Hunt for the Illustrious Fairy Penguin: Farmer Ellie!

So, I have A LOT to catch up on! It's quite different not having Internet to update my blog every day. The last time I wrote ended with our Wineries trip on Sunday night.

Last Monday I went to the Magill office hoping to catch a home visit with the client I'd tried to arrange one with the previous week, but ended up not having much luck. I spent the rest of the day doing little bits of school work around the office. We spent some time talking about different things that we need to make sure to do in order to develop a better understanding about culture and religion in Australia, but its starting to seem like we won't be able to fit it all in before we have to go home. I was meant to take the day off since we'd done a training on the weekend, but I decided to do it the following day instead.

Tuesday I spent time catching up with Tim on the computer and then did a bit of grocery shopping. Jess invited me to come along to her small group in the evening. It turned out that they were going to a church called the Miracle City Church to hear a speaker from Louisiana. I have to admit that I found myself a bit worried about the way that the speaker/s would portray the US. When we arrived at the church the first thing I saw was a younger looking teen boy with an older woman speaking in tongues over him. He actually looked really scared. We continued into the worship space which was loudly rocking already. There was a band in the front which was playing worship music. We found ourselves seats and settled in for the experience. The worship was VERY different form anything I'd experienced before. I had only heard about similar ones. There was a lot of music, which I liked. Before the message a man came up to talk about his recent trip to Papa New Guinea. He told about all of the healing that was done through them. He told about one specific instance where they watched tumors actually disappear from the bottoms of a man's feet. I must admit I am a skeptic, but the congregation really was into it. It reminded me a little of a Baptist service because of the musicality of the pastors and the constant interjections from the congregation. The message didn't necessarily do much for me, but it gave me insight into a different aspect of religion in the US, and Australia. The speaker that gave the message was from a Suburb of New Orleans. She talked about her life and how she grew up and then about continuing to grow in faith throughout one's life. Afterwards there was an altar call that seemed to last forever, I think it must have been at least 45 min. During this time people came to the front to be prayed over and then would collapse and lie on the ground for varying amounts of time. There was one guy who stayed in front after he got back up and waited to be prayed over again. Some were completely still and others seemed almost like they were having a seizure. One of the members of the small group explained that the people were coming into God's presence and they often wanted to stay there and so that is why they wouldn't get up right away. It was all just a very interesting experience. The people were all very nice and welcoming. I also met Jess' sister who is coming to work at a camp in Iowa (Riverside) later this year. I'm hoping that Jess will come to visit her so I can see her too :-D.

On Wednesday I headed out to Calvary for the day. I rode along with Belinda to Aldinga to check on a new house and get the keys. Its a little frustrating because though the house has been underway for quite some time, there are still many things that aren't quite right. The keys did change hands, but the work will continue. The houses are a part of the Calvary Housing Association which provides longer term housing for clients after they've been able to move through the supported accommodation program. In the afternoon there was a staff meeting which was kind of neat. There had been quite a few families that transitioned into more permanent housing and some that were moving in so it was exciting to hear how all of that had gone. It was also neat because some of the little things that I had been working on were brought up and I was assigned some new tasks that help make me feel like I have more of a role than just sitting around and observing different house visits etc. It was Helen's birthday so she invited the three of us out to tea with her family. Then we went back to her house so she could open presents and we ate cake that Morgan had made for her.

On Thursday morning I met Belinda in the city near the train station for a DV rally. There have been a couple recent death's related to Domestic Violence which has caused a bit of a stir about the issue. There were speakers from Parliament and even the Attorney General spoke. It was quite exciting. The event was really organized and the speakers had clear and attainable goals in mind. There are hopes of organizing a team that will research and compile statistics about domestic violence related deaths, which could lead to conclusive findings and encourage changes in the laws. An example of this from where teams like this have been organized is finding that in most cases of DV related death, there was an occurrence of strangulation prior to the death. Based on this, the consequences of strangulation could be made a bit harsher, hopefully to catch the situation before it escalates even further. Before leaving we all put roses on the steps of parliament house. In the afternoon we went to a Vacant Possession (Eviction) in Elizabeth. Elizabeth is an area that has been often described pretty negatively to us. It is apparently known for its population being of lower socioeconomic status. A lot of the houses are beat up and it was explained that there is a lot of alcoholism and drug use out there, as well as generational unemployment. The house that we went to appeared to still have its tenants there, but they didn't respond when we knocked on the door. We called for the bailiff, but he couldn't get out there until 3:00. That meant that we had to kill 2 hrs. Belinda took me on a tour to show me some of the other neighborhoods in the area, including Devaron Park, which is one of the worst in the area. We made it back to the house around 3 and it appeared that the tenants had vacated at that point. Their storage container was gone and the car that had been there earlier was gone. Sadly, though, their dog was not gone. We went to see the inside of the house, and it was so disappointing. The tenants had clearly urinated on carpets and left rubbish all over the house. There walls were damaged and doors were off the hinges. A locksmith was called to change the locks, so that the message was clear to the tenants that they were not welcome back. When we went back to show the locksmith where the back door he would be changing we discovered that the handles of the screen door had been removed and that meant that dog was able to get in. The dog was a young, skinny looking (probably mutt) but with the look of maybe a bit of pitt bull in him. He wasn't very aggressive, but he definitely didn't want to be left alone outside anymore. At first I was afraid he would be aggressive, but it quickly became apparent that he hadn't been given food or water in quite some time. We called the pet rescue people, but they couldn't come out until the next morning. (An update from now is that the dog has been picked up by pet rescue because the tenants didn't return for it.) The saddest part of the whole situation was that the bond (what we might call a deposit and would normally be used toward any needed clean up) is already be eaten up by the amount that the tenants had owed for unpaid rent.

Belinda drove me home at the end of the day and I spent the evening going to check out the shops (grocery etc) that were open later in the suburbs on Thursday nights.

On Friday I decided I would go out to Calvary again to be an extra body around the office to answer phones and things. It was nice to feel useful, and I got to go home a little early so that I could pack and be ready for our trip to Mt. Gambier with Jess. She picked Hilary and I up at the house around 5 and we headed out of town. We stopped in Murray Bridge for tea, just a bit of fast food. We ate at Red Rooster, which boasts that it is "Unlike those American chains" (KFC) which flocked here.

We travelled the rest of the way to Keith (a bit over half way) where we would stay the night with some friends of Jess'. Tammy and Kaylene decided they would take us to the pub, since it was about the only thing to do in the small town. It was great fun.

It ended up being a little bit later of a night than we expected. We were all ready for bed when we got home. We had a few options for beds, and then they offered that I could sleep in a Swag. Well, I'd never heard of that so I had to say yes. Turns out its like a sleeping bag that can become almost a little tent. Crazy cool huh?

We got a bit of a late start in the morning and as a result didn't get to Mt. Gambier until about 12 noon. Emil (A-mill) and Marty gave us a GREAT tour of their farm. They have some huge amount of acres like 456,000 or something. They do cattle (to eat) and sheep. We also got a good look at some of the neighbors spud farm. Apparently they grow like 9 different varieties of spuds which get made into a variety of different products. (Chips, hot chips, McD's fries, mash) Even more interesting apparently this farm is the only supplier for one of the kinds in the whole state (or something like that). We drove around in the boys' Dad's old Valiant to see the tour.