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Funny to start out this way but my nighttime dreams are evident of what I have been doing since my last entry. This week alone I had a couple of dreams surrounding my work at The Magdalene Centre. No doubt that it is a result of the intensity of the past two weeks. For those of you who do not know, my morning supervisor has been on a well deserved holiday for ten full work days now and will not return until the day after Easter holidays. This means that I have been running the emergency assistance program with the help of volunteer staff members. For the most part, things have gone well but there were also several tough client cases to manage. Some of the highlights include not having electricity and a lack of volunteer staff.

The Adventure Continues

Tanya
2006-03-10 20:25:44

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Funny to start out this way but my nighttime dreams are evident of what I have been doing since my last entry. This week alone I had a couple of dreams surrounding my work at The Magdalene Centre. No doubt that it is a result of the intensity of the past two weeks. For those of you who do not know, my morning supervisor has been on a well deserved holiday for ten full work days now and will not return until the day after Easter holidays. This means that I have been running the emergency assistance program with the help of volunteer staff members. For the most part, things have gone well but there were also several tough client cases to manage. Some of the highlights include not having electricity and a lack of volunteer staff.

I knew something was out of place last Friday morning as I walked from the administrative offices to the Centre hearing an elderly man outside of his flat(on the corner of the street) raise a ruckus about not having his morning coffee. Apparently there was a blackout across the city and we were without power for the first 30 minutes of opening our doors to clients. Another stressful encounter was opening our services without 5 volunteers (2 receptionists and 3 interviewers). It took awhile but we eventually managed to get through our caseload for the day as a drop of volunteers took on additional responsibilities for the day. I made sure to prepare for another slim roster the following week and I am happy to report that I made it through a Thursday with a full roster!

Other than that I have been answering to “boss lady”, “Tex”, “Texas” and “TT” by clients and volunteers alike. The anti-American comments and conversations are increasing on a daily basis. Some for the pure purposes of teasing and others truly concerned with America’s influence in their country. A few weeks back, Peg did mention that it has been good for Australians (clients, volunteers, Aussies in general) to see another face ...