No Time

Busy. Working 11 days straight (that means being here for 11 days, but I have a few nights off along the way.

No time to update either, or stay in touch, which stinks.

Here's what's up:

Small forest fire. Happens on the same day a watermain breaks and we're all out of water.
More threats. Kids are generally unruly.
More tornado warnings, but without the siren.
Got my SSN which means I can open a bank account the first day I have a weekday off. Which also means I can send people the money I owe (wink, wink)
Can start thinking about a car again.
Lot's of people are quitting work, seems to be an epidemic.
Tired, but not sick (like everyone else).
Got called in on my three day weekend (which means I'm here for 11 days).
Going to Tennessee for Christmas (which means I get to live out that Amy Grant song, cool eh?)

anywho, I'm getting the evil eye from some boss types, so I better get back to work. Sorry for the short update!

I Take it Back

Remember how I said the girls weren't that bad?

I take it all back. And if I had the technology, I'd go back in time and slap myself in the face.

They are not good. They are in fact, very, very bad. I got angry at them this weekend. I slammed a cup down on the table.

The only people I usually get mad at are family, as I am not typically an angry person. But these girls have become so incredibly frustrating. Before I continue, please keep in mind that I'm still happy with my job, but tend job I have comes with certain frustrations.

Since I arrived for my shift last Thursday the group has not been functionning. The two girls who are on a higher stage in the program (meaning they're the "leaders) are the loudest objectors. They fight me on absolutely everything.

As an example, yesterday morning (my last day of the shift, I had been there for 8 days with one night off): a girl in the other group was throwing up because she had a cyst that burst and an infection. We were at the dining hall and the supervisor asked my group to take them their breakfast. The girls refused to do it, adamantly refused.

And I got angry at them. They were just being so ridiculous and it was so frustrating!!!

There's just been tons of negative behavior. The group has been campsited, but since you don't know what that means and I don't have the desire to explain it you'll just have to understand that that's a pretty big consequence. I.e. the biggest one we can give.

They also hate me, and believe that I am there only to bring misery to their lives. I'm thinking of bringing them the pictures I have of the concentration camp I visited to give them an idea of what real misery would be like, but I doubt it'd have much effect.

One problem is the other group is functionning well, which means they get rewards. And when they are up dancing and listening to music and my group has to be in their beds, it is not a pretty picture.

I have been called a lot of things.

Oh yeah, and one girl said I was going to hell because of how I was treating them. Riiiight. And someone else wanted to smash my head in with a rock.

All in a days work my friends! All in a days work...

Other than that, things are going pretty well. I've been here almost two months and haven't really found a group of friends that I click with. You know how they say you can only find love once? I wonder if it's the same thing with finding best friends... cuz so far that's how the chips have fallen.

I'm hoping I'll be getting a new car sometime soon, but I still have to wait for a social security number. That darn bureaucracy, gets you every time!

What time it is?

One of my goals is to teach these girls how to speak properly. What time it is? Where that is? Who that is?

It drives me coo-coo.

That and no one can remember my name. I am now: Ms. Umm. Nice to meet you.

I just finished my first solo shift. They split the group in two, and I was a little disappointed that the other group got all the good leader types and I got the less than cooperative ladies, but so far things have been going quite well.

It's cotton time here in the Tennessee Valley, and the highways were lined with the flyaway cotton balls from the hundreds of trucks passing every by every day.

I've never seen cotton plants before, it's rather pretty. I'd like to get a closer look at the plants but haven't had a chance.

The fall is surprisingly beautiful here. I didn't think the trees would change as much as they have. The colour is different though, a more dusty rusty theme. There is still lots of wildlife around, we see several deer every night.

The girls have to wear an orange vest now so that we don't get confused as deer by the hunters.

I go back to work tomorrow for a four day shift. My co-counsellor will be there this weekend though, so it won't be so much on my shoulders. The weekends are usually the toughest, they have more free time because there's no school. They tend to riot on Sunday's.

Note to self: Compromise and graciousness is weakness. Now that there's two groups we've had to share and compromise a bit. They hate that.

I'm going to show them some veggietales and see how they react to that. Ha!

Tomorrow is payday. As soon as I get a social security number I can start seriously looking for a car. And je suis excited!

Old Hallow's Eve

Hi guys! Hi!

Not much going on in the land of coton these days. I've finally finished training, and have now graduated to Counsellor 1. There's a pay raise when you get to Counsellor 2, so I'm going to do everything in my power to qualify for that once my 90 day probation period is over.

My first solo shift is on Tuesday, the day when we split the now functionning group of girls into two groups. DYS (department of youth services) isn't sending us enough kids at once to start a new group from scratch, but because they're sending us one kid which would put our group up to 14, we're splitting them up.

It is going to suck.

But at least I get to go in with a bang!

Tonight I'll be going to a little Three Springs Halloween party. I unfortunately didn't hear about it until today, and I couldn't get anywhere to find a costume. So, I'll be carrying a squirt gun and going as A Chance of Rain.

Give me a break, it's all I could think of.

Dad was supposed to be coming through Hunstville today, but his truck broke down in Knoxville, TN. He'll be through sometime tomorrow or monday, which will be lovely, because I'm hungry and he'll get me some food.

I saw my first Black Widow spider... It was kind of scary, especially since I had just watched Arachnaphobia the night before. Squishing it with a big rock was very theraputic.

And if I haven't mentionned it already, it's getting pretty chilly here. In the mornings at 5 am it's usually somewhere around 38 degrees. It's a different kind of cold too, because of the humidity. I'm going to invest in some long john's next weekend...

I hope everyone is having a splendiforous holiday weekend, let me know how y'all are!!

Alabama Church Adventure Part IV and Etcetera

Let's see, what have we been up to lately?

Well, there was that time when I was the primary counsellor and I kicked arse and the kids noticed. To clarify, I didn't actually kick anything, but I did keep the group well ahead of schedule.

In all honesty what I'm able to do with the group really counts for very little. If they want to "act the fool" as they say round here, then they are going to do everything in their power to do so. I just happened to get lucky and have them on a good day. I don't care, we got to bed at 7 pm. And yes, that is a reward.

I can't remember if I've already blogged that... and I don't want to check. But anywho.

So on Friday I had to find a cheque cashing place to cash my pay cheque because I haven't been able to open a bank account yet and Walmart doesn't cash hand written cheques. After trying a few places to no avail we were finally directed to a place conveniently designed for immigrants like myself. Here's how the conversation went (approximately). Try to see if you can pinpoint the moment when I started wigging out.

Me - "Hi, I'd like to cash this cheque."
Guy behind counter - "Sure, do you have any ID?"
Me - "Yup."
Guy - "Nova Scotia, wo, why the heck did you move here?"
Me - "For the job."
Guy - something about Alabama being the last place anyone would want to go
Guy - "So, do you have a boyfriend?" (if you guessed right now, you're about right)
Me in my head - "say yes, say yes, say yes, say yes"
Me out loud - "No."
Guy - "Well why not?"
Me - "I just moved here..."
Guy - "So, what would you say if I asked you out to dinner?"
Me in my head - "Holy crap. Where on earth am I???"
Me out loud - "Ummm, errrr, uhhh, no? I work a lot"
Guy - "Oh..."

Yes, this is a true story. No, that has never happened to me before. The most unfortunate part was that this happened at the beginning of my business transaction so the rest of the exchange was shrouded in an impenetrable cloud of awkwardness.

And as I'm walking to the car I realize that I just handed the guy a piece of paper with most of my vital information on it. Fortunately I don't know my own phone number yet, or else he probably would have tried to call...

This situation was so sketchy on so many levels. The business was located beside an adult video store, for one. The carpet smelled of urine and heaven knows what else and the guy was wearing a shirt akin to that of the comic book store owner on the Simpsons. That and any time someone asks you out on the other side of a plexiglass bullet proof window I'd be wary.

So, church this morning.

I went with a couple of co-workers to a place called Hope Community Church. There were three white people in the service. Me and my two co-workers.

Despite the obvious differences I didn't feel all that out of place. Of the three or four churches I've been to, I'd be most likely to return to that one. It just seemed more honest and less showy. The preacher was still a screacher, but he had more interesting things to say. Bascially the whole thing felt like the closing scene of "The Preacher's Wife". It was very energetic, very loud, and pretty fun.

I noted that the male to female ration was about 1 guy for every ten women, and there were far fewer SUV's in the parking lot.

I still need to find something else though... between the church with the full orchestra, the church with the crazy preacher and healings, the church with the rock star attitude, and the church with a groove I could never emulate, I'm kind of at a loss. Who knows where I'll end up next week!

It's been a slice, but I gotta get some laundry done. This is my last week of training. After this I have to at least fake that I know what I'm doing.

Wish me luck!

You don't know me for real

So today the true colours come out. More or less.

I'm not so big on their respect list. That's ok with me, I'll just take away their points. The thing that gets my goat the most is when they do the mocking Canadian accent thing... gawt dawg.

Anywho, it looks like I missed all the fun this weekend on my off shift. Apparently the girls went ape and there was a bit of a riot.

Today I realized that I've been waiting for all this craziness to pass over. Then I realized that it's crazy like this all the time. It'll take some getting used to, but as long as I can find a way to release this excess adrenaline, things should be fine.

That, and I get paid this week.

I heard some tough stories tonight. A child scared to go home. She'd rather be in a detention centre then face going home. And there's nothing I can do about it.

Prayer requests: I don't like asking cuz it feels selfish, but here's the issues du jour.

- My role is going to increase, and I'll be primary counsellor more and more. I need patience and intestinal fortitude.
- I need a car.
- Pray for the girls especially. They're so young and have so much to deal with. It blows my mind.

Alabama Church Adventure Part III

This morning my new roomie and I headed to "The Rock Family Worship Centre (sorry, Center...)".

They had me at hello... and lost me at the healings.

This place was a bit of a production. I found the crane video cameras a little distracting, that and the 4 plasma video screens. I would guesstimate that they're morning worship services would cost about $10 000 to produce. Lot's of fancy lights, lots of cheesy music. I was half expecting the Gaither's to join them for a good old fashioned homecoming.

OK, it wasn't that cheesy. But it was big and showy and emotional. No one really cared that we were there, and I really felt no need to go back. There was a portion for healings, but no one did the fall down flailing about thing.

My roomate doesn't like Baptist churches, or any church of with any kind of traditional flair. The only solution is for me to get a car so I can start visiting churches that are less likely to have anyone being slain by the spirit (as fun as that may be).

This was a very long week. We were off R and O (routine and order) every day by a couple of hours. Which meant not getting to bed until 9 or 10. And when the girls get to bed late the consequence is getting up at 4:30am. It stinks.

The things that delay our scheduling is refusals (kid sits down in the middle of the road and refuses to go forward), kid one starts cussing at kid two. They throw their water bottles. I get to stand in front of whichever kid I think I can handle and try to calm them down.

Speaking of kids I can handle, we have a new resident that some have nicknamed "The Linebacker". For those of you non-football types that means she's big. Not chubby big, muscle big. Taller than I am. One evening her and another resident (who is crazy and leaving on Monday) exchange words and I find myself standing in front of a girl who could remove my head in one fell swoop. I couldn't understand much of what she said, but I once she gets out of custody she could probably have a go at being a rapper.

In short, she didn't hit me.

Another incident happened moment after the lights had been turned out. It was pretty scary. The crazy girl who has gone through things that no 14 year-old should ever have to went off the wall. She threw a bunk over on the floor. A bunk that I can only move if I put every ounce of energy into it. She threw it like plastic. There were lots of scared girls, anxious counsellors, and a frantic call for help on the radio... It was scary.

I'm now SAMA, CPR, and first aid certified. SAMA is Satori Alternative to Managing aggressive behaviour. We learned how to verbally de-escalate potentially explosive situations (it actually works, I've had to use it a few times), and how to do physical containments. I haven't done a physical thingy yet, though there were a few times when I could have.

I'm hoping that the group will be back on focus this week. As fun as violent adrenaline rushes are, I could really do without.

I'm back to work tomorrow, and this is our last week of training. I'm getting better at doing the whole enforce the rules counsellor stuff. Although the group doesn't really like to listen to me. I can get them to do the norms stuff individually, but when I try to get the whole group to stop talking I run into some difficulty.

Anywho, I have to run to do laundry and pack things up. I bought a new pair of North Face sneakers to replace my Zellers shoes. After three weeks of frequent walking I could put my finger through the soles...

That's it. Good night. Before I think of something else to say.

Alabama Church Adventure Part II

So I have a new roomate. She's from Oregon. She talks a lot.

A lot of people here talk a lot, come to think of it. And most of them laugh at their own jokes. For a quiet, non-laugher of one's own jokes this has been a bit of a struggle for me. I have never wanted to get out of conversations as passionately as I do now. I find myself taking mental retreats with greater frequency...

I'm sure there's a kindred spirit out there somewhere for me. I can't possibly only get along with maritimers... can I???

Anywho, on to bigger and more entertaining things.

I went to church this morning with aforementionned new roomate. She had mentionned earlier that she didn't want to go to a Baptist church because she hadn't had much luck with them in the past. Ruth, I totally get what it must have been like to be a Presby among the Baptists, even if just for that brief moment.

We went to a place called Valley Fellowship.

I knew I was in trouble when I walked into the church and they handed us a welcome packet which predominately featured a magazine entitled, "Charisma".

It was an interdenominational, charismatic church. I thought these places only existed on TV.

Things began fairly normally, they sang some chorus I didn't know. Then they sang it again. And again. And to top it all off they sang it again. One verse, one chorus. The service lasted 2 hours and I think we covered three songs.

Then an older lady came up to the front, she ended up being the pastor. We watched a brief clip of a crusade in Uganda. Why did we watch it? Because it showed a vortex that opened up to heaven. Yes, a vortex. I thought it was a cloud... but it was indeed a vortex... a vortex to heaven.

This was followed by a time of healing. Unfortunately I didn't qualify because my hips and legs were fine. But anyone else who had leg and hip issues got to go on stage where someone knocked them down and they would start shaking.

I was giggling the whole time (it was getting kind of hard to hide that near the end, but I think they just thought I was drunk in the spirit or something).

I noticed a lady using a cane. I'm not sure if they ignored her or what, but she didn't get any of these miraculous healing the others got... But I just figured that since they were able to walk up to the front without too much effort that they were going to be just fine.

After the healing stuff the pastor yelled at us for a little while about the Holy Spirit. They seem to like him a lot more than the other two guys. I don't think they mentionned the Father and the Son more than twice.

And then the pastor started falling around a bit and acting drunk. But don't worry! It was the Holy Spirit.

I didn't ask, but I get the impression that I'm not really a Christian because I haven't spoken in tongues. It doesn't matter though, because I don't think I'm going to go back...

Somewhere out there in Huntsville, there must be something between a church with a full orchestra and whatever the heck it is I went to this morning. I really missed home this morning... It was uncomfortable. I'm all about stepping out of the box, I have no issue with going to new congregations. But this morning I just wanted something to seem familiar.

No such luck. Except for the temperature... it was nice and cool.

Don't get me wrong! I still love being here and I still love my job. But I have three days off and absolutely nothing to do. No friends to call and hang out with (most of the people I do know are at work), no money and no way to get anywhere. I can't wait to get back to work, and I'm sure that sentiment will change once I get further into this.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I don't think I'll be having a meal this year. The other Canadians are away.

Stay tuned for the next Alabama church adventure!!