Alice Springs Adventure

Tomorrow I leave for Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. This trip is intended to gain an experience that someone traveling to Australia wouldn't normally find. I'll be interacting with mostly Aboriginal people and I'll learn heaps about their culture and way of living. While I'm up there I'll take a three day tour to Uluru, Valley of the Winds, and Kings Canyon. Some of these places, especially Uluru, are very important to Aboriginal people and I'm keen to have a look at their way of life. Will post pictures and stories upon return. Alice here I come!

Busy Day at Ingle Farm

I spent today at LCC's Ingle Farm location, the Family Zone. They have a sort of partnership with a primary (elementary) school and occupy a building on the school's campus. Here they provide many weekly services for families including English classes, day care, Busy Fingers, parent groups (parenting skills and techniques), post pregnancy support group, Move & Groove (sort of a toddler exercise/dance class, very cute), an Afghan women's group, new mums baby group, twin group, and playgroups. In addition to the weekly services Family Zone also holds classes about parenting - from discipline to cooking. Much of my time will be spent caring for children while their parent/s are in groups or classes. The Family Zone does some really great things here and I hope to be involved in a lot of it.

Today was pretty busy for an introductory day. I arrived at 7:30am to help serve breakfast to kids who hadn't gotten breakfast at home. We made 5 1/2 loaves worth of toast (some with butter, jam, and vegemite), 1 platter of cheese sandwiches, and 2 platters of pancakes. Everything was eaten and this breakfast program is so popular they are looking for ways to fund it for everyday, not just every Monday.

After serving breakfast and cleaning up I accompanied a social work graduate student doing a placement at Family Zone on a 2 hour home visit. The mother stays home with the 5 children and home schools the two eldest (9 and 6 years). While they were learning, the other social work student and I played with the 4 and 2 year old while the 5 month old mostly slept.

We returned back to Family Zone for lunch. After lunch I helped watch the children of mums who were taking part in Busy Fingers. This group of women are those who have been or are currently in an abusive relationship and it's a safe place for them to come and talk and get support from staff at Family Zone. After the group had finished I was packing up my bag and joined a discussion with a couple other staff. Almost at once I wished I had packed up a few minutes earlier because the story was so grave.

One of the women in the Busy Fingers group had a 5 month old baby who I had been watching and playing with much of the 2 hours Busy Fingers was in session. The woman had announced during the group that she was pregnant again - 9 weeks in fact. During her pregnancy with her now 5 month old, the woman's husband had threatened her numerous times and once told her he would kick the baby out of her if she didn't do what he demanded. To be in such a threatening situation again and so soon has to be incredibly terrible. The woman is seeing a professional counselor and weighing her options about the new pregnancy.

It's things like this that need prevention. I don't know much history about her and her husband or how long she's been attending the group, but hopefully Busy Fingers will help her feel supported and staff at Family Zone can listen and give advice when appropriate. Right before I left we said a prayer for her and her children.

Although the light shone on such a sad story today, I'm looking forward to more experience here and hopefully some uplifting news.

Beginning Work

So far, the things I've been able to do for Lutheran Community Care have been a little limited. There are two training programs I have to go through before I can actually start doing meaningful things. I also had to get a police check. I'm glad everyone now knows I didn't commit a serious crime after I stepped off the plane nine days ago. Last week I visited several different office locations of LCC and yesterday I finished organizing a training program that may or may not be useful in the future.

Today I started some of the more interesting stuff. I worked at an op shop (similar to Goodwill) which will probably become a regular, once a week job. It was pretty cool, I worked mostly in the back and helped sort shoes and clothes. Garments that are too worn to be sold as clothing are cut into rags and then sold to car shops. Not many people came in to the shop today, but there have been as many as 200 people in one day. Tomorrow is another unknown, but I'm booked for the training sessions I need and should be starting some more new things soon.

Can't wait for more!

Getting Started

Flat Tony and I have made it to Australian Lutheran College in Adelaide, SA!

As my schedule starts to come together I'll soon be starting some volunteer and service work! For now there's time to explore the City of Churches.