Blog Post 18.3.2009

Well, since the last time I posted I have been to zero concerts and zero sporting events; heck, I haven’t even played a rugby game. The past week and a half might have been the least busy since I have been here, yet the most full because I actually started work! When I last posted, my understanding of my position(s) was not quite as clear as it would be become. It turns out that I am not working three days a week as I previously was told, but in reality, five days a week, in three different positions. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I work in the Alternative Learning Center (ALC) with young people (they are not to called kids or children, but young people, ugh) who have been away from a formal school environment for several years and are now trying to get their academic/ vocational lives back on track. On Wednesdays I work at the local high school (Belmont City College or BCC) that the ALC young people would go to if they were not in our program. I am helping to coordinate a community service initiative for BCC’s students; the thinking behind it is interesting since the young people must complete 20 hours of community service or they will not be able to graduate. I don’t have a problem with community service in general, we had to do it at Burroughs and many high school students must do it as a part of their school’s set of beliefs, but here, it is a government requirement. At any rate, because it is such a firmly established fact that by law the students must complete the 20 hours, I hope that such a solid threat will make my work in that capacity fairly easy, but I’ll keep you posted. Finally, on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons I work in the Youth Centre in my most relaxed role by far. The job description for this position is pretty simple; engager of young people. We just play video games, foosball, ping pong, air hockey, pool, and whatever other activities a middle or high schooler might want to do with an older, cooler friend (me). So far my job(s) have been great, there is always a period of feeling out which I am still going through with the young people, at least the ones in the ALC because I actually have to be an authority figure in that role, whereas with the youth centre young people I can just hang out with the kids, be a big brother. As is always the case with young people, they say the darndest things.

Exchange 1; I had been playing table tennis/ interacting with this young man for ten minutes when the following things were said after we had already established that I was in fact American and not Jamaican.

Young Person A: You look Jamaican… But you sound American.
Jordan: I don’t know what to tell you, son.
YPA: Are you sure you aren’t Jamaican? There’s no Jamaicans in your family?
J: Uh, I’m pretty sure but I’ll let you know if I hear otherwise.

Exchange 2; I was walking through the youth centre with my supervisor who was showing me the emergency exits/ fire extinguishers when a young person I had never met engaged me as follows.

Young Person B: Hey! Can I touch your dreadlocks?
Jordan: Um, maybe some other time…
YPB: Well, what if I never see you again?
J: Then I guess you’ll never get to touch them.
YPB: You’re mean.
J: And you are an ignorant little brat.

Haha, oh children. Just for the record, I didn’t actually say that last line, I shrugged and kept it movin’.

But this really is the best case scenario I could have hoped and prayed for; I get to continue doing work that is very similar to what I was doing back at the Boys and Girls Club in St. Louis, but I also get to see many of the same issues present in St. Louis, that I studied at Columbia played out in a completely different social/ cultural context. I do not mean to make my experience here with these young people sound like an anthropological project, but ever since Cate and I started discussing issues with and within the indigenous peoples of Australia years ago, I have wanted to learn and try to do whatever I could to be a part of their lives and show them Christ’s love… and here I am with that opportunity!

Outside of work life has been a little unsettled. I finally moved out of the Mandurah house and into the Nedlands house. The Nedlands house has a pretty central location for Perth as a whole, is right down the street from our church, right down the street from my rugby club, but most importantly just a 15 minute drive from Cate’s house. This all sounds lovely, but because of some miscommunication and waffling on my part, I will only be living in the Nedlands house for the next week and half until the permanent roommate will move in. The other drawback to the Nedlands house is that my room is completely unfurnished and I thought it would be foolish to furnish it for two weeks, so I’m living out of my suitcases/ off the floor; good times. HOWEVER, I have managed to secure yet another living arrangement, this one will be set until August! One of Cate’s family friends and her roommate have been looking for a third roommate for a while because the two of them have been paying the rent that should have been split between three people. This house is also pretty centrally located, but the drive to Cate’s house is less than five minutes and it will certainly cut down on the drive to work, so yay!

Somehow, my little 1989 Ford Laser is still chugging along! I driven a little over 700 kilometers (435ish miles) in it and I haven’t had a single problem. In fact the other day, it was pretty warm, but I was on the highway so I didn’t want to let the windows down. I thought I would see if the car’s AC could at least blow a little air on me; the AC works perfectly and quickly! Honestly, this car has the best AC out of any car I have ever been in, haha, and one morning it was pretty chilly, so I tried out the heat, which also works perfectly. The only drawback is that the radio/cd player shorts out sometimes when I stop at a red light or when I put the car in reverse; the car is also very loosely sealed, meaning that with all of the doors and windows closed, if I drive above 60 or 70 km/h it sounds like the Leave it to Beaver theme song… you know, with all the whistling… Ha. Sometimes a horribly corny joke/metaphor/simile pops into my head and I just have to employ it, sorry.

I think that about covers it. If anyone is thinking about doing some serious travel soon, keep Australia in mind; my new house has two guest beds. Think about it…