The rest of the week

Here is an overview of what I did for the rest of the week. Sorry I don't have any pictures.

Wednesday September 8
We each had quick meetings at Kids Kabin this morning to sign a contract thingy and to go over some policy stuff and set up future meetings to go over more important info. We were supposed to go to St. Anthony’s senior center but they were out on a trip so we had a flat meeting instead to talk about chores, visitors, trips, food, etc. We went back over to Kids Kabin for a staff meeting before the normal afternoon session. Abby, Melissa and I also watched James and Colin work on the bikes we will get to use. They were having some troubles but ended up getting most things sorted out before the kids came. I was in cooking again. Gary was there and there were 2 kids, Connor and Jack. Jack made mash and gravy and Connor made meatballs.Melissa was in dance and Abby was in Art.

After Kids Kabin we got ready to go to mass across the street to celebrate the 150 years of the church across the street. The Bishop came and the church was full. We didn’t stay for the refreshments after mass because we all wanted dinner. We made a lovely chicken pesto pasta type dish and ate it while watching “Baby Mama”. We are tired and needed a chill night. It was a fairly simple day. I really need to get a planner because I now have appointments that are written on random pieces of paper. Oh well, shopping on Friday. So excited! Helen and Carolyn leave tomorrow (Carolyn in the morning and Helen in the evening).

Thursday September 9
We had another busy day! This morning we walked down to St. Vincent’s primary school because it is another option for volunteer sites. We got a tour of the building and stepped into several classrooms. Some of the kids were very excited to hear we came from America! A couple classes sang songs for us and one girl in about first grade showed us her work from earlier in the day. They were really cute and well behaved. St. Vincent’s is a Catholic primary school but unlike the United States, most of the Catholic primary schools are free just like the normal public schools. Everyone there seems really nice and they are flexible with scheduling which is nice as well.

After visiting St. Vincent’s we visited the care center across the street at St. Anthony’s. It is no longer restricted to just seniors but other community members who want to come. They have a wide age range of adults who mostly are either seniors or have learning difficulties or other challenges. They are also flexible with scheduling.

We went back to Kids Kabin at about 1. Melissa and I completely took apart a bike! One of the activities they run is bike repairs and in order to get a better idea of how a bike works we had to take apart a bike and put it back together. Abby has an arts background and will be running the pottery room so she spent time there getting things organized. For the actual session I was in wood working today and had a lot more fun than I expected. I was helping a girl who wanted to make a model of Big Ben. Someone else had done this in the past and their project was still in the woodwork room which is where she got the idea. She was focused for most of the time but needed direction because she got distracted and discouraged fairly easily.

After the normal session there was a street session where the staff goes out to a street/neighborhood area and has activities. They have special trailers to pull behind bikes that carry all the supplies. Today they took cookery and pottery on the street session. Abby went with to help with the pottery while Melissa and I kept working on our bikes with the help of one of the staff members. He is very nice and was very helpful. By the end we both had mostly functioning bikes, just a few more changes and they will be good to go! I definitely learned a lot about bikes but I would need to do it all over again to really feel comfortable with what I was doing.

Friday September 10
I slept in until about 10 this morning and it was wonderful! Unfortunately we had a meeting at 2pm at Kids Kabin so we had less time than we were originally thinking to go shopping. We walked to Morrison’s which took about 30 or 35 minutes and took the bus back. The store was SUPER crowded!! We definitely need to try shopping at other times because it was just horrible! We made it through the store, have a fridge and freezer full of food with some money left over too so it was a successful trip.

The meeting was quick and then we had extra time and they wanted us to stay for bike repair session to learn some more about bikes. We learned that the normal activites are Monday- Thursday and they only have bike repairs on Friday afternoon. We helped Abby in the pottery room with our extra time. We unscrewed the top of a table and flipped it over and re-screwed it. One side was really dirty and the other side made the table look brand new. She needed to make another plaster block to dry out renewed clay on so we helped her make the mold. We tried to mix up some plaster for the mold but it was a major fail! Everything was going fine and then it all of a sudden it just set up! It was hard as a rock with the stir stick stuck in it! We found out plaster can expire and it had a use by date of September 2007. Oh well, just need to get some new plaster and we will be good to go.

A lot of kids came to the bike repair session. Some had easy problems to fix and others had lots of problems and ended up leaving their bikes there because they were not fixed. Melissa and I helped with several punctured tires and some brakes. Melissa is getting good a working on breaks because she had to work on her brakes for a long time yesterday!

Melissa did her laundry tonight. As a result we learned that certain setting take a really really long time! Like 2.5 hours to wash. I think I will be choosing the quick wash setting! Melissa found an online manuel for the washer and sent it to Abby and me so we can look up specific option times and not have to want 2.5 hours for our clothes to wash!

Saturday September 11
I got to sleep in again today and it was glorious! We had a lazy start to the day and then went to a community event at the Monkchester Community Center. Sr. Josepha was there and introduced us to some people. Some of the kids there recognized us from Kids Kabin and our visit to St. Vincent’s primary school. We talked to Sr. Josepha about the retreat she had mentioned because we all want to go and it sounds like we can. It is at the end of September and all expenses paid. The retreat is on Holy Island about 100 km north. I'm excited!!

Next we went into Byker and did some necessary shopping. We stopped in the charity shops and other cheap stores. I stocked up on essentials like an extension cord, envelopes, a loofah, an alarm clock (pink to match my room), bike lock, calendar/planner, face soap, etc. I am excited about many of my purchases! We were all tired by the end of our shopping excursion and glad to get home!

One of the stores we stopped in is called TKMaxx, basically exactly the same as TJMaxx in the states it just has a slightly different name for some reason. We ran into someone we met last week during our shopping trip. It is nice to be walking around the shops and start recognizing people and have people recognize us!

After dinner we rearranged all the cupboards in our kitchen and dining room. All the plates, bowls, cups, silverware were in an cupboard on the far side of the dining room and their location was driving us all crazy! So we relocated some kitchen items we won’t use much or at all to the dining room cupboard and put the plates, bowls, etc. in the kitchen cupboards. We also organized and rearranged our food. We are all very happy with the rearranging!

We then planned our day tomorrow. We are going to go to mass in the city centre tomorrow at St. Andrew’s. There is a youth group/youth mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral but it has been under construction and will be opening soon (possibly this weekend). We are going to try to go to some of the free Heritage Weekend events in town as well.

I hope you are all having a great September!