COW

- realizing that most of the houses really do look like this; AWESOME! -

Our first week in St.John's has come and gone in a whirl of colourful clapboard siding and rollercoaster emotions.

My counterpart I live downtown in a purple, three-story house with Alison and Geoff, their six-year-old son, Angus and their massive cat, Big Fella Chief King. Alison is an occupational therapist and Geoff is a film and theatre technician who works on the TV show Republic of Doyle. Our host family has been the highlight of St.John's for me so far; not only are they welcoming and fun, we seem to have avoided that "I'm-living-in-your-house-and-eating-your-food-and-we-don't-even-know-each-other" awkwardness that I was afraid of. The house itself is just as cool as it's inhabitants; it is colourful and quirky, with unexpected artwork, friendly clutter, crooked staircases and giant collections of CDs, magazines, books and records. We mostly hang out in the kitchen... listening to CBC radio, playing music like Mother Mother's Eureka, cooking together, drawing, eating and talking. Tonight Angus had us all play "Telephone". We make a cute little unit if I do say so myself!


I have done two little excursions out of town with Alison, Geoff and Angus. Ethel has somehow missed out on both since she has been out with other people at the opportune moments for us to do these things. Today Beth (a fellow CWY volunteer who lives nearby) and I went with them to Alison's familys farm just outside the city. It was such a gorgeous spot! Slightly overgrown fields of vegetables, herbs and flowers, greenhouses with fruit trees, tomatoes and roses, rows of nursery planters and a lovely pond scattered throughout a wooded area and explored by golf cart on grassy paths. Angus had a great time steering the cart and always insisted that "Dad goes faster than that!" as Alison operated the pedals. Alison showed us some berries that looked (and tasted somewhat) like white Tic-Tacs growing close to the ground in a mossy patch of woods. A short hike away we picked wild blueberries, scarce from previous picking, but all the more satisfying to eat because of it. Back at the house we snacked on something rare... a Newfoundland-grown peach from Alison's brothers greenhouse!


Last Sunday we were sitting out on the sidewalk having lunch and enjoying the sun when Alison proclaimed it a perfect day for "beach swimming". I was not totally convinced about swimming in the Atlantic Ocean on a day when I was wearing jeans with leggings underneath and an alpaca-wool sweater, but was eager to go along and see a bit more of the coast. I brought my bathing suit in case of a suddden lapse in sanity later. It ended up coming in handy. Not because I was feeling particularly insane, but because submersing myself in toe-numbing water turned out to be the logical thing to do. I realized that it would only get colder from here on in, so I took the chance I had to check this thing called "swimming in the Atlantic" of my "list". The list that is neither planned nor recorded. You know that list? Stuff you didn't even know you wanted to do until you had a chance to do it... The water was not as bad as I expected, but I expected it to be hella bad, so that's not saying much. Still, it was a happy moment; A small kind of accomplishment. Once out of the water, I combed through some of the pretty, wave-smoothed, colourful stones, picking out a small green stripey one to keep. Then I put my llama sweater back on.


The time spent with the rest of our group this week was in different sessions for our Community Orientation (the CO in COW). We would meet in the community room of Sobey's to prepare our group contracts on Respect, Health and Safety and Participation, discuss our highlights and low points of the program so far, form committees for different responsibility areas... and so on and so forth.  This is where the whirlwind emotions I mentioned really came into play. Group dynamics, especially in an all-female group, can get screwy pretty quickly. It's... interesting. And by "interesting"  I mean "hugely frustrating". The best way I have been able to sum up what irks me about this group is a lack of maturity and independence... to be frank... actually, no, I'd better not be frank. I had better be diplomatic. We have communication issues. Some are cultural, some are personal, some have to do with the fact that we are just plain sick of each other after almost two weeks of living and classes and discussions together. In one session (on communication, with an awesome facilitator named Chip) we learned about the Tuckman model of group development.

1.Forming
2.Storming
3.Norming
4.Performing.

We are Storming like that hurricane that passed through on Friday.
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In other news: It has been a jam-packed week!

Sunday: Doctors Without Borders "Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City" tour.
Monday: group meeting and get to know St.John's scavenger hunt.
Tuesday: workshops, discussions and work placement presentations.
Wednesday: work placement interviews and Signal Hill hike.
Thursday: de-briefing Signal Hill, focus team meetings, more planning and work placement reveals
Friday: morning errands, Welcome Party postponed due to hurricane
Saturday: first aid course

Today is our first full day off yet and it has done me a world of good. Tomorrow is another free day before the craziness resumes.
Tuesday morning at 8:30 I start my volunteer work at... *drumroll* the Red Cross!
I am excited to start, though I am not sure exactly what I will be doing there yet. Please pray for the Red Cross and that my work counterpart, Gloria, and I will be useful to them and will work well together!

I honestly have been quite overwhelmed this week and didn't even know where to begin to write a post in some way that wouldn't be absolute gibberish to those not around to experience this firsthand. It is much more challenging than I expected. Having my confidence shaken like this is actually rather thrilling; I am now looking forward to the next few months with much excitement and very little idea of what to expect.

With love,
Julia