so just home now, finished my first full week of work which has been very tiring but very great! mondays and tuesdays it's open to all walk ins so is quite busy and apparently it will get much much busier as it's only the beginning of the new year right now. i've been doing my own screenings of clients and sitting in on assessments which is really great as i really wanted more interactions with clients in this practicum. i work in the psycho-social department with 2 lovely social workers and there's a total of ten staff i think. everyone is great and i am realllllly liking it there!
i also go out on home visits like to the townships which is very cool as it seems that a lot of people feel that the townships are dangerous and you'll get robbed and shot 22x or something but i really do not think its like that and i feel very privileged to be welcomed into people's homes. if you've seen the photos of my flat here in the city u must realize that that is not how the majority of people live but rather most people live in the townships and housing ranges from the most basic shacks to houses. in one block in delft, it was literally rows and rows of what look like garden sheds made out of sheet metal on streets of sand so cape town is most definitely not just fancy flats and beaches. but i like going out on the home visits as i get to see all the different suburbs and areas which i would not really get to do otherwise i don't think. just now we went from driving along the coast where people can fish to next to what apparently is called like the bush of death or death bush or something which is where a teacher killed a bunch of kids and gang members now go to smoke up or something. see, such diversity on a trip out!
other than that let me think.... so turns out as a notorious child-disliker, i obsessively love babies. possibly only specifically refugee babies. like i am so in love that i want to rip my own heart out and give it to them to play with in the waiting room. not much more to be said on THAT. (oh em geeeeeee the babies are so cute. i even played with an actual walking-talking CHILD yesterday, i am quickly slipping to the other side ie. the kiddie loving side).
i also got my first home cooked south african meal at work the other day. aaaaand i didn't like it :S i forget what it's called but there were a lot of beans and something like maize involved and beans kind of repulse me ugggh! i feel so bad, i left it in the fridge for days and today i checked someone finally chucked it out. oh i am a bad person.
as a side note, i really also enjoyed flipping through an informational booklet at work produced by the UNHCR on HIV/AIDS. i dunno why but i am absolutely obsessed with this booklet. some key tid bits that have really stuck with me: the words "sex juices". one of the reasons why people have sex: "because they are lonely". and the suggestion that "if you are feeling sexy: go masturbate and have an orgasm". all so true, and so accessible for all readers i just am obsessed.
so that's about it on the work front! otherwise, have been not getting enough sleep due to mental winds that make me feel like my flat is gonna implode. because my flat faces the oncoming winds if it's bad out the windows, doors and walls literally shake and one night it was so deafeningly loud as well that at like 2 am i dragged my sorry half-asleep ass into my BATHTUB (i know, wtf) to try and sleep as there's no windows in there. surprise surprise, that did not work out. k til next time!
