20th Anniversary Dirty Dancing Box Set=Pure Happiness

Sorry it has been a while... Time is flying.

We've had two groups since my last group: an adults group and a 'tweens' group. I was paired with Dora for the adults group and she is my all time favorite member. She lives in a hospital setting (which is a really horrible place to be...in a room with 2 other women, no privacy, etc.) and has cerebral palsy. You would never guess the woman is 51...she has a nose piercing and 2 eyebrow piercings. She has a really soft and warm disposition, loves Patrick 'The Swaze' Swayze, cute men, romantic comedies and of course the movie "Dirty Dancing." While shopping we got a box set which included the 20th anniversary DVD, plus a nightgown, sleeping eye mask, and a toiletries bag. We spotted it and Dora was sold immediately! She needed full assistance with everything, but always cared about my needs. So as I would be feeding her, she would say, 'no, no, you eat' or when we were out at the movies, she offered to buy a drink for me when she bought her Fanta. I felt privileged to spend the weekend with her. She shows so much grace in the way she deals with what life has given her.



The second group was 'tweens.' I was with a girl named Chrissie who has Down's Syndrome. She was a bit of a handful because she chose to exercise her stubbornness many times throughout the weekend. But she was also really playful and imaginative. The whole weekend we played within one storyline, which developed as the weekend went on. It got to be quite complicated involving other volunteers when they were around but still including them even if they weren't. On Sunday we went ot an Adults Social which included a mass. The idea of sitting through a mass did not thrill Chriss ('Mass is boooooooorrrrrrriiinnngg,' she would repeat over and over). But with some distractions (ie: giving her my camera to flip through pictures, and providing her with paper and a pen to draw/write me somewhat illegible notes) we made it through without any disruptions. It was then onto music and dancing at the social which is my favorite parts. The other volunteers and myself are trying to mentally catalogue member's dance moves which we plan on pulling out during a night out in the city centre sometime in the near future. There was also a karaoke-like singing sessions where members went up to perform a song. Chrissie volunteered so up I went with her to do a partial rendition of Shania Twain's, "Man, I Feel Like A Woman."



After the group and had a day to relax, spent the night at Dublin Airport and got on an early flight to Edinburgh. I'm in Glasgow right now waiting for a bus to go up to the Isle of Skye. But when I get home next week, I'll do a full posting on my trip. I'll also try and get some pictures of Dora and Chrissie onto this blog, along with pictures from my Scotland trip.

Hope everyone is well!

Love,

Kate

Yes Gillian, Love?

These last couple of weeks have been filled with a really fun group, a trip to Liverpool and Wales, and experiencing St. Patrick's Day in Dublin. Time is flying. And the unwanted countdown for my time to leave CASA has begun, and it's coming up too quickly.

I was paired with a really outstanding woman named Gillian. She knows every song ever written (google 'Fist City' by Loretta Lynn, because she knew it) and is the picture of pure joy when she clasps her hands at the side of her head, gets a huge grin on her face and lets out this shriek of happiness. The group was one of my favorites: we went to Glendalogh which is a lake in the Wicklow Mountains for a day trip, went shopping trip and I got to experience what a champ of a shopper Gillian is--she knows what she wants and is not afraid to pay the money to get it!--and went out for supper on the last night. Unfortunately Gillian had an upset stomach when we were out for dinner so Erin, her and I went back to the house to clean up and rest. Gillian was just a really funny woman. She had great dance moves, even while sitting in her chair, and her winks really would win any one over.

Glendalogh:



Gillian:



Lennart had had taken the first season of 'Damages' at the library so after the group left, the marathon session of watching most of the episodes began. It was a really relaxing night and then on Saturday I packed for Wales and we watched the last couple episodes of the show.

So now for the trip: It was really good. It boosted my confidence for my solo travelling time after I'm done at CASA. I had a lot of fun and met some really great people which, I've realized, is essential to maintain sanity while travelling alone. I slept at the John Lennon Airport in Liverpool in my first night and had a bit of a sketchy encounter with some guy in beige camo pants that decided to sleep in the same little nook that I found. At 4 in the morning, he woke me up and asked if I wanted a beer. I was asleep, had ear plugs in, and had my hat covering my face, so you would think he would get the hint. But no, apparently not.

I took a bus into the city centre and walked around to get myself orientated. I visited the Liverpool Cathedral and attended the service that morning where I was 1 of 6 others in attendence, plus the priest.



I basically spent the entire day walking around and seeing the sights. I went to the International Slavery Museum which was nice and saw a couple other Cathedrals. In the afternoon and I was pretty bored of just walking around so I went to see a movie and it basically began a time of just waiting for my train to leave Liverpool at 11:45pm. So I walked into a Burger King (to use their free wifi)and started chatting with a Irish guy who had gone to school and was now working in Liverpool. We went to a pub just down the road to listen to some really horrible karokee, but it was nice to interact with another human being. His friends joined us for a pint and then I had to go back to the train station to catch my train to Betws-y-coed.

In front of the Liverpool Docks:



After spending a few hours in a freezing train station in Chester, I finally arrived in this really sleepy town of Betws-y-coed at 6:30 in the morning and walked around until the hostel opened. The town was in a valley surrounded by mountains. It was a really scenic place that was quiet and really relaxing. I had not gotten very much sleep at all over the past couple nights and so as soon as I got settled, my head hit the pillow and I was out for a couple hours. I got up and went on a hike up the a lake farther up in the mountains. I returned to the hostel and had some supper and basically had a shower, read part of my book and went to bed ridiculously early.



The following morning, I got on my train for Holyhead and then basically got right onto the ferry to come back to Dublin. There were so many (mostly American) tourists coming over for St. Patrick's Day so I got to chatting with a few of them, over the course of my travels that morning.

It was nice to get back to the house and upon arriving home, I met 2 of the new volunteers, Ovidui from Romania (pronounced Oh-vee-doo) and Lucy from the States. Both seem like they will be a lot of fun.

We all headed into the city centre to watch the St. Patricks Day Parade the next morning, only to be disappointed. The crowds were unbelieveable and streets were packed beyond belief. Back at the house we played games and had a few drinks that evening which was a lot more subdued than the madness that would have been Dublin.

Erin, one of the American volunteers who has been here for a year and a half will be leaving on Saturday and so some members and people from the office came over to the house for a bit of a goodbye party that on Thursday afternoon. It was a really nice afternoon, and a great way for Ovidui and Lucy to be introduced to CASA. Last night we went out to Gibneys for a drink and listend to some sub-par music, but I think Erin really enjoyed herself. It is going to be very wierd when she is gone because she has kind of been a staple person in this house for a long time.

This was a very news-y post. Sorry for rattling off the itinerary of these past couple of weeks. Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day! Love you and miss you all!

Kate

Who Ate All The Marmalade?

After a pretty un-toppable teens week with Jane, we had church gate collection weekend and invited three members to the house to help out. Paul, Anne O'Rourke, and Ken came out, which was a great number and it felt a lot more natural and family-like than normal groups. They came on Saturday and we divided up and went to two Catholic churches in the area for Saturday night mass and the Sunday morning and evening masses to collect money for CASA. Anne, Mary (the nun who lives in the house full time), America Kate, and I went to Seabury, while the others went to the church in Malahide. We had a bit of a competition as to whose church would make the most, and although we were in front on Saturday night, the other group blew us out of the water on Sunday. Within one weekend and 2 churches, we raised 7500 euro (around 10 000 dollars). Not bad, if I do say so myself.

I was paired with Anne who is in a wheelchair, and needs the hoist to transfer. She is an exceptional lady and we had a really great time together. She was one of the members in my first group but was really quiet. However when she didn't have other people to overshadow her, she really came out of her shell and we had a lot of laughs. Probably one of the funniest involved the hoist, the commode and what happened as we were lowering her down. America Kate, Anne, and I laughed until we were crying. Anne had a really bad cough so I kept reminding her she had to talk to one of the nurses at the hospital where she lives to get it taken care of. We talked about what she probably needed and agreed antibiotics would be the best bet. For some reason she loves to refer to people as 'Spida ______' so she would be 'Spida Anne' and when you want to get a guaranteed smile out of her, you just have to say 'Hi Spida'. After our discussion about the cough and solution she looked over at me and said 'Spida Antibiotics'. It was hilarious. Anne is great. I wanted to get a picture of myself, Erin (another volunteer) and Anne so I could have a funny picture of 'sisters' but that never panned out. She loves playing cards and literally has over a hundred decks. So we went on a walk to a shop to pick up some M&Ms (which she also loves) and picked up another deck to add to the collection and then came back to the house to look through Irish recipe books and prepare supper together. It was a really relaxing and rewarding weekend and it reminded me of how people can often find money to give.

We had two days off and headed down to Cork. Lennart, Claire, Erin and I took the train down and were met at the train station by a CASA volunteer from the Cork chapter. For some reason, CASA Cork has an unusual amount of 40+ year old single men who are a part of the organisation. Needless to say, they are very, very kind and we stayed with one of those volunteers, Tom. Tom raises hens for eggs and has land that he is now renting out. He also has set up these egg vending machines around Cork and his local community where customers can put their money in (at the wholesale price) and take home farm-fresh, free range eggs. I was very impressed at his creativity/ingenuity. The chicken business has apparently done very good things for his bank account because he has this amazing house that has about a million bedrooms and a beautiful kitchen (Sam, you would be in heaven...I'm talking granite countertops!) that very rarely gets used, judging by the contents of his fridge and pantry. We were preparing supper one night, and Claire found a rolling pin in one of the drawers that was 'waiting for a wife to be able to use it.' It was really great to be out of the city and felt very home-like as we walked down the road and Tom met cars on the road that pulled over, rolled down their windows and stopped for a chat. On our second day, we had a huge breakfast with fresh eggs, gathered that morning, and then we went into Cork and met a couple members to take them out for coffee. They ended up coming back to Tom's where we had a nice dinner together. Tom also generously gave us money for our taxi ride back to Malahide for the train station. It was such a relaxing couple of days off and nice to see a bit of rural Ireland.

We had a young adults group in these past few days and I was paired with Stephanie, a 22-ish year old with Cerebral Palsy. She was in a wheelchair, was non-verbal and communicated by indicating 'yes' by looking up and 'no' by looking to the side. I was a little bit nervous about spending so much time with her, especially because CASA is all about building relationships and constantly being involved in conversation. But it was good. It was one of those things that you just have to do to figure out. I had probably my most frustrated moment of my time here when we were out shopping on Thursday afternoon. She wanted to get a CD so we stopped in at HMV to find something. There is so much selection at a store such as this, and you never really think about it until you have to break down the options in a yes/no format. I knew what kind of music she liked and so we stopped by that section, went through every CD available of her favorite bands, and the answers to everything was 'no'. We went around the store a few times and nothing piqued her interest. I knew she knew what she wanted but I didn't know what that was. Needless to say, we were passing by a Michael Jackson DVD section and on the off chance she wanted a DVD I picked up 'This Is It' to offer as a possibility. She looked up! I was so happy! We were both so happy! I think she was frustrated at me for not understanding what she wanted and I was also frustrated for not being able to understand, but when we figured it out I think we were both excited, relieved and feeling triumphant to have solved the mystery! Friday was a beautiful spring day and so we all went on a walk to the Malahide Castle. We brought a soccer ball kicked it around for a while before heading back so the caregivers could pick up their members.

I cannot believe that I have been here in Ireland for 2 months already. It has flown by, and I know these next few will also be gone before I know it. I was responding to an email from a friend recently who was asking about my time here and so I started to think about my experiences so far. I feel really lucky to be here. It is so great to feel like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing at this point in my life. I'm excited for these next few months!

I hope home is good. Sorry about the lack of pictures on this post. Miss you all!

Love,

Kate