So, I have now worked for four days at the women's shelter. I absolutely love it! My mornings are mostly spent cleaning and preparing lunch. After lunch, I do a little more cleaning and then I just do whatever. I usually do some reading (the local newspaper or one of the books I got from the library last week) and talk with the residents. They all seemed quite intimidating when we did the tours of the work placements, but they all seem very nice now. There are often scheduled activities in the afternoons and next week I'll be running my own little drawing/imagination workshop. I'm really excited to do it and I hope they enjoy it.
There is a lot of cleaning to do at the shelter, but it is all done very regularly, so it's not gross or even hard work. Imagine a world in which cleaning a toilet feels no different from cleaning a mirror. It's actually quite enjoyable! I've never considered myself a neat freak at all. In fact, I was actually very messy up until the week before I left for Katimavik - I was able to throw out more than 3 garbage bags worth of junk (when I say "more than three" I really mean "I'm too embarassed to say the real number") during The Great Room Purge Of 2012. In my defense (and I may have said this before), I was messy but not dirty. There was nothing gross about the things all over my floor, no food or cat turds, it was all just papers and books, and often clothes and art supplies. I'm starting to get off topic...
I really, really enjoy all the cleaning I've been doing. It feels so good to be in such a clean environment. There isn't even dust in all the places dust usually lurks! It's just absolutely wonderful and I can't say that enough. I fully intend to run my own place that way when I come back. I also fully intend to move out of my parents' house for good when I get back, because I could not stand going back to that level of dependancy (not to mention, I don't want to feel the need to clean my parents' house because it is, put nicely, not pristine). So, anyone looking for a roommate around August? Haha. I don't mean that to sound confusing, I get back in June. I just need to work for a few weeks first so I can actually do that whole rent-paying thing that people seem to require from their roommates. Haha.
I don't know if my writing is reflecting it, but I am in a fantastic mood right now. I didn't oversleep this morning (I kind of did yesterday. And Friday...) and there was cake after lunch because two of the women at the shelter have their birthdays today, and the absolute best part was that in the hour before I left, two women and I discussed some of my favourite topics: marriage and kids. They shared with me the milestones they had passed, and at what age, and told me about their birth stories, and I shared with them my goals, hopes, and fears for the future. Our language barrier is easily ignored with the aid of weird phrases like "that person who isn't the mother or the aunt or not even necessarily related but kind of like a guardian sometimes?" (answer = godmother) and lots of miming. So much miming.
Loving this adventure! But still missing everyone at home, of course <3
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