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
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