Rollin, Rollin, Rollin

   Finally things have started rollin along!  This week has finally felt like a real work week!! I can't tell you how excited that makes me.  I had my meeting with both my supervisors on Monday and I expressed my frustrations with how I felt that I did not have enough work to do.  They sympathized and said this is usually the case in the first month while everything is getting started up.   I still have to meet with my other supervisor at the health center to figure out what exactly I am doing there.  So far she has not been there the days I have been there so I have not done anything but twiddle my thumbs.  Seeing as how I am not sure what I can and cannot do, more rather what I am supposed to be working on.  Especially at a health center where a lot of things are confidential between patient and doctor, there is not a whole lot of self starting abilities at a health center.

   Mitzi (my co-worker at the Family Resource Center, where I primarily work at the Elementary School) and I just had our Nutrition class with about 8 women from the community and it went smashingly!!  It was so great!! I taught the whole class while Mitzi sort of elaborated on things and was there as kind of a comfort blanket for me haha as well as for the women since they know her really well.
  Today's lesson was an overview of what the class is going to be like.  Which will be as follows:  first half hour will be sort of a lecture/discussion and then the second half will be making healthy foods and snacks.  Each month will be focused on a particular vegetable or fruit.  October is Squash month!!
   Also on today's lesson I went over the dangers of processed foods, why sugar and salt are bad, and healthier alternatives for snacks for their kids.  Then ended with giving them two recipes they can take home and make.  Each class I will give them a few recipes to take home.  Today I gave them the recipes for Apple Chips and Homemade Lara Bars. 

   I am also now counseling 4 kids at the elementary school helping them to figure out better choices instead of outbursts at home, bullying, impulsive behaviors, as well as helping them to lessen anxiety or gain better social behaviors.   This has been a bit of a stretch for me, but I find I kind of am settling into it rather well.  I've taken to doing art therapy with them.  For example yesterday I had the little girl I am counseling and had her start by just drawing whatever she wanted, asking her about what she was drawing (she likes art a lot) then I had her draw a picture of her family, and as she was drawing I asked her about why she put her family members in that particular order, who she is closer to etc... The reason she is doing the counseling is for outbursts at home.  I found it rather helpful to do it like that as she opened up a bit more then our previous session.  So I am slowly navigating my way through all of this.  But more importantly, I am super happy that things are finally picking up as the classes are getting started now.

   Woohoo!!

  This weekend is going to be a busy one as well.  Another healthcorps member and I will be heading to LA to do the Beachpalooza 5k race which is on the beach (oh dear god) but it also has all kinds of things on the beach that we have either go through, climb up, jump off of etc... Then Sunday morning we will get up extra early and start driving back, but will stop in San Francisco for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival!! It's a free concert and her brothers band is playing in it!
  I'll probably be wiped out on Monday, but it'll be totally worth it for a weekend of awesomeness!

That's all for now :-)

Living In A Small Town Part II

   So to continue with my observations of living in a small town here we go:

1) No one locks there doors.  Its so comforting to just leave my cottage and not worry about locking the door, same with my car when I'm in town! It's an odd feeling, but I rather enjoy it.

2) Everything closes early.  This is something that's been hard to get used to.  Since I don't have a whole lot to do on weekends or the evenings, I miss having coffee shops to go to or something like that.  So I've taken to having dinner, then going on an evening walk, which I do enjoy and its healthy!

3) There are no cops, anywhere...ever!  I only just saw my first "highway patrol" this evening on my nightly walk.  So strange.

4) There are no daily services, such as trash/recycling pick up, or daily mail service.  Most everyone has PO Boxes.  I have yet to figure out where to take the trash and recycling that is building up outside my cottage, I shall so figure that out though.

I found this amusing, because its true!

  That's all I got for now,  but I'm sure there will be more to come as I continue this journey of living in a teeny tiny dollhouse of a town!

Challenge Day

   Wow.  Today was by far the most amazing day I've had in a long time.  I was literally blown away, brought to tears, and just amazed by how strong these kids are!
    Challenge Day is a day where 100 kids are brought to the assembly room and there are enough adults to be facilitators to groups of 4 kids.  During the day we did exercises that basically break down the  barriers.  We danced, we did lots of hugging, played games to cheer each other on, and did some really in depth work which brought lots of tears, we went through lots of tissues for sure.  There was one exercise called "Cross the line" where everyone stands on one side of a line and the person leading reads out things like "cross the line if you or anyone you know has had an addiction to drugs, alcohol, eating disorder etc.." and you cross the line if you or someone you know has had that.  Thats the one that got me and I totally broke down, but there were lots of hugs to support me which was awesome.  Then she went through all kinds of ones like "cross the line if you or someone you know has been in a gang" or "been arrested" or "been abused" etc..... everyone was crying by the end basically.  It was so moving to see how much these kids have been through already at only 16 or 17!!
   We broke into groups as well and went around the circle finishing the sentence "if you knew me then you'd know that...." the kids in my group were apprehensive at first but I helped them along and finally they opened up.  It was truly incredible.
  All in all, today really solidified my desire to further my psychology part of my degree in addition to my nutrition certification.  I LOVED working with these kids!
  At the end of the day we did this one on one thing where we sat facing another person and said what we are great at.  I ended up going first, then when we were done the other person had to get up and "celebrate" by dancing, cheering and hollering the other person.  The girl I was with was clearly the teenager shy and kinda shuffled around me, so when it was my turn to celebrate her I jumped up was dancing around her, screaming out, stood up on my chair and was pointing at her haha it was awesome and it was something that I could tell she'd never had happen to her before, which made me feel even better that I could do that for her.

   At the very end of the day I was totally blown away, because quite a few of the kids got up at the front of the room and apologized to either specific people or the whole room for bullying or making fun of someone, then that person got brought up and they had a moment of apologizing to each other, then hugged it out and sat down.  Other people got up and said that they really wanted to make a change and start including people that they ignored because they were scared to go sit with the "weird" kid that sat alone.  Absolutely blown away I tell you!

  Sooooo today was an incredible day!!
Here is the website for what we did today    http://www.challengeday.org/

 

First Week

   I have now had my first full week.  Although to be honest it wasn't quite full... I had lots of meetings but that was about it.  I can't wait to get totally into it all!  I'm needing to keep myself busy so I don't get bored.
  I have to say I have found it so incredibly bizarre to be back in schools only this time I'm meeting with teachers and the principle like a grown up!  Very strange feeling for me....

   So two days a week I will be working in the Anderson Valley Clinic doing a bit of this and that (TBD) then on Wednesdays at noon I will be teaching (along with another woman, Mitzy) a nutrition class to the women of the community.  Mitzy and I did a lesson plan and this month the topic is going to be health benefits of Apples along with dangers of processed foods.
   Then once a week I'll be doing a health fitness class with kids and teenagers, 2 classes split into various age groups.  I believe i'll even be teaching Tennis!! I've never played but Donna, my supervisor, seems to have lots of faith in me that I can do this with them haha

   There are more things to be brewing up soon, in fact I went out with my friend Nate last night and we got to talking about what we want to do in life.  He had started a non profit farm out in Willits but got totally burned out by it all which is how he ended up here.  He also had started a bakery in Berkley.  In any case, he loves to cook and work with kids so I said "hey maybe I could bring you in once a week for a cooking class!! and this could incorporate foods picked from the school garden!"  He was very excited about this idea so I am going to talk to Donna about it.  I have no doubt that she will be thrilled by this idea.

   Oh and I will also be doing a mental health program with little kids teaching them about anger management and how to deal with bullies etc... So lots to do! I am ready to get started!!!