On Wednesday I went to a volunteer induction at Meals on Wheels. It was neat to hear the history of the organization and learn about how it functions here. Meals on Wheels originated in Great Britain in 1947 and then moved on to Australia in 1952. It began in the US in 1954. It seems that the initial motivation for the program was for families who had lost their ability to cook, whether it was due to age or disability or actually losing their physical location to cook in, due to World War II. In South Australia the instigator was a woman named Doris Taylor, who was actually disabled in a childhood accident. She was persistent in pushing for the endorsement of the program by the government and was successful in this. The volunteer induction went over the process of cooking meals -which begins at 7am and then delivering them starting at 11:15am. What I liked most about the presentation was that it really focused on the fact that the service provided is far more than just a meal. The intention of the program is to provide a nutritional meal to individuals unable to consistently provide it for themselves, but further it is meant to be a social contact as well as a welfare check for the individual.
After the induction, Jess had to leave to do a presentation and I spend time looking for things to do in the city and talking with her co-worker Vicki. The research quickly turned into looking at Visa information. I have now read through all of the information the Australian Immigration website provides about a temporary employer sponsored visa. On one hand it's made me more hopeful, as it really makes it sound like a "simple 3 step process." An employer must apply to be able to sponsor a foreign employee, then nominate a position to be filled by a foreign employee (which can be done at the same time), and then finally the foreign employee applies for the visa to work at this position. Sounds quick and easy right? Somehow I just don't fully believe that's true. Before I knew it, Jess was back...and I hadn't left for the city yet. It was discussed and decided that I could spend some time helping out at the Meals on Wheels office and would come back on the following day. On our way home, Jess mentioned that she and Michael had plans and suggested that I try to call Helene to see what they were up to. I did this and was invited to come over for a visit and Tea (supper). Though Helene insisted it wasn't a big deal, I felt the invitation was especially gracious as it was Klaus (her husband)'s birthday. I really enjoyed getting to see the old friends and spend time with them. After tea, I spent time visiting with Helene about Lutheran Community Care and their new endeavors, such as an office in Alice Springs (Northern Territory) and Wartburg interns that have come since I was here. She told me about changes to the experience that interns have, such as living at the Seminary and stricter rules about what individuals can(not) do before receiving certain trainings. It sounds like a lot of positive changes have come in developing the program further. It was arranged that I would come to the Magill office on Friday afternoon for lunch to see what had been my "home" office and meet the current Wartburg intern, Jordan. Of course this was foiled when I got home and there was an e-mail from Janine at Calvary (the site where I interned and where I applied for a position recently) asking that I come to meet with her on Friday at 2pm and then earlier as she would be getting very busy in the following weeks. I of course agreed to meet at this time.
On Thursday, I went with Jess back to Meals on Wheels as it had been decided that there would be work I could do. I was surprised when they did no sort of orientation or paperwork (such as a confidentiality policy). I spent the day helping enter data into the database and some other organizing that needed to be done around the office. The funniest task I was given was to make 100 copies of a volunteer booklet. It was funny because no one knew how to use the copy machine so it was somewhat a trial and error task. I figured it out in the end, but it took a few errors. At the end of the day the staff held a surprise party for Jess and another co-worker who is getting married a couple weeks after her.
At the party, Jess and Marie were given a gift of a basket of food items. The items were all intended to be a part of a recipe that was submitted to a cookbook the staff made for them, but which wasn't ready because it had been sent to the US to be published. There were snacks and MOST to my surprise, drinks (champagne, wine, beer as well as soft drinks). The girls were given the task to make a wedding dress on their models with supplies they were given such as toilet paper, a trash bag and ribbon. It was quite amusing. The staff hung around and chatted until it was time to go. Jess and I headed off to change at her house and then pick up her engagement ring which had been getting cleaned. We decided to stop and get something to eat. We were at the mall, which often include a supermarket here, and found a deli in the middle of the mall with some delicious looking chicken options. We got them and headed back home to cook. I watched the cooking food while Jess and Michael ran an errand and caught up on some episodes of Blue Heelers, which is somewhat like our Law and Order show.
Finally, Friday arrived and it was MOVING DAY. It was arranged that would finally move into a spare room with Hayley, Jess' sister. This was the original plan but it was decided that since I was doing stuff at Meals on Wheels I would stay a bit longer with Jess and Michael. She arrived to pick me up around 9am and after a quick stop at the supermarket we headed off to her house. I settled in and got a tour before heading off on the bus to the city to catch a train to Calvary. While on the got two phone calls, which you can imagine made me feel quite popular. One was from Pina, Jess' boss, who called to ask me to come in and help on Monday as they have a task that she apparently feels I might be able to do better than the temp coming in to work Jess' position. I was quite flattered. The second call was a very exciting one from Helene and Helen, letting me know that there would be a position opening up in Lutheran Community Care's Alternative Care program. They weren't able to tell me much more at this point. After a little more research, I understand that this program is they're foster care program....which actually could fit very well with my experiences. Suddenly things are looking a bit more hopeful. It was so wonderful to catch up with Jared and Janine, who were staff that I had shadowed during my internship. I got the tour and met with Janine. What it came down to was that there is not really a likelihood that a position will open up, but that they would be happy to have me do some volunteering which I am happy to do. I just have to get paperwork filled out first, which of course is at a different office. It was difficult for me to not be able to do much, and I can't wait to have things squared away so that I can. Jared and I went to pick up lunch from KFC and stopped a property that he and Pam have just finished building so that they can rent it out. The rent on the beautiful 3 bedroom house is $300 per week. I told him I wished that I could rent it! We ate lunch together and had some interesting discussion about economical things, especially since Jan Bean was there. Jan is a budgeting counselor that took me along to do a training when I was here last. After lunch Janine took me back to the train station to make my journey home. There were TransAdelaide staff (the public transportation company) on the trains checking tickets and being real jerks too. Of course, this is how I discovered that I'd been using the wrong bus ticket. Thankfully they didn't kick me off and just warned me to use the right one next time. By the time I made it home I had an AWFUL headache and went to lie down. It didn't seem to want to go away, so Hayley offered me this "cooling patch" to put on my forehead, which helped heaps. It also meant I had to wear a hat around the house since Hayley couldn't look at me without laughing otherwise. We made stir fry for supper and watched a bit of TV. 2 1/2 men and that 70's show between checking sports scores. Hayley doesn't have wireless Internet so we figured out where the nearest free wi-fi spot would be. Thus, here I sit at 9:30am at a McDonald's about a 10 minute walk away.
I'm headed back to Hayley's now to get ready to head out on Jess' bachelorette party/bridal shower/hen's night. All I really know about it is that it starts with a DOLPHIN CRUISE! You can imagine I'm very excited... but still have no clue what to wear since its very cool here today. I'm comforted in knowing that Hayley had no idea what to wear either :)
:) :) :)
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