From Ballet to Cockroaches to Poppies

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the time between blogs. I have been finding it more and more difficult to blog as my time in Perth draws to a close.

I only have 2 weeks left before mom arrives and my placement is officially done.

Swan Lake was beautiful, and I'm looking forward to Sleeping Beauty on Dec 19th with mom at the Sydney Opera House.

My placement has kept me hopping. I've been quelling emergencies, arranging for VISAs, helping with housing and English lessons! I had my mid-term Assessment and Carol (my supervisor) says that I am doing very well! (yippy!)

I've been enjoying the use of the company car when I can get it. (I use it to visit clients, I cannot bring it home nor use it for personal errands). I am getting well practiced in driving on the wrong side of the road! :)

Halloween is not observed here, and so I spent the 31st in relative quietness. I had to get up really early on November 1st to be ready for a 3.5 hour drive down south for an outdoor baptist service recognizing the Burmese community in the small rural town (pop. 4000). I was up at 5am for the long drive, then we arrived back home by about 7:30pm, just in time to unwind and get to bed to start the week the next morning.

Speaking of the next morning, on Mondays, I have been working in a Community Care Centre for aging immigrants. I usually worked with the Italian group (who showed me how to play Briscola and Scopa.. I'll have to teach everyone when I get home) Though Monday Nov 2nd and the previous Monday, I worked at the Indian group. Both are really lovely to work with, the Indian food is just superb!

Then on Tuesday, I accompanied a colleague to a house where they were complaining of two infestations: cockroaches and rats. YUCK! I thought myself rather brave to follow my colleague into the house, though I was very careful not to touch a thing!
Just to show that it can happen to anyone, that same evening, sitting curled up on my chair at home typing away to mom in an email what do I see that decided to crawl out under my legs?.... a cockroach!

needless to say the blood curdling screams that came next and the jumping onto the furniture and the rest of the chaos. All the while, this little disgusting twitchy bug just sat there as happy as can be twiddling its antennae at me. I managed to get to a phone, I believe without stepping on the floor, which is somehow death-defying in itself, and called my landlady's daughter. She informed me of a magical little spray can that they keep under the sink in the kitchen that with a few quick squirts applied directly on the offending creature will promptly make it decide to take a very very long nap lying on its back with all of it's gross and disgusting legs in the air. I followed her instructions as she stayed on the phone with me, though I believe I was quite liberal with the spraying. So much so, that when I went to check on the little magic can's handy work, I nearly slipped TWICE on the wet tile floors (due to the spraying). By this time I was completely mortified, in tears and freaked out beyond the point of being consoled, and my dear saviour on the other end of the phone was laughing so hard at me she had to pass the phone over to her husband. I chose at this point to give up my lifeline and try to brave the circumstances on my own.

I've never witnessed a cockroach in the wild, let alone in a house. Anyone who knows me can attest to my aversion to the creepy crawlies. It was at this point, where I was pacing back and forth on the spot, shaking and my face streaked with tears that a second cockroach decided to arrive near the same place as the first. (thankfully at this point I was standing with my back against the wall facing the menace rather than being within inches of it) So I took the little red magic can and repeated the assault onto the grievous creature. It did not take as long to take it's final resting position.

By this time, I was in a grave panic that the house was being invaded by cockroaches. I was in complete terror. Images of movies filled with bugs, people who had cockroaches and other disgusting creatures pouring out of their mouths and ears and other orifices came to mind. I wanted out of the house. I wanted out of the city I wanted out of the country... I wanted to go home!

So I called a dear friend, Eric. He once had the title of being my bug killer, and thought he would be most understanding of my current situation. He was. He actually managed to calm me to the point of being able to move from the spot where I was frozen and to my room where I barricaded myself and tried to prepare myself to sleep. (by the way.. I didn't sleep that night.. when I did doze for a moment, the images of cockroaches crawling on me and coming out of me came to mind and quickly woke me up). I was still quite shaken the next day. Though it helped that I'd not come across any more since those two made the deadly decision to cross my path.

I will continue to sleep with one eye open clutching the magic red can, though at least now, the terror has at least subsided.

Something tells me I may have a phobia of bugs... hmm.. what do you think?

And now, onto the Poppies. It is quickly approaching November 11th and in Australia they have a specific day when they start selling poppies, which is today, November 6th. Their poppies are gorgeous compared to the awful things we get back home. These actually still look like flowers! They are little silk flower poppies and are quite pleasant. I purchased mine this morning and it is adorning my purse.

Otherwise, at the office, they are already preparing for my departure, making plans for a dinner with the immediate staff I've worked with at MAITRI, and another party on my last day, Friday November 20th to have cake and celebrate my time here with all of the Multicultural Services Centre staff that are able to attend! (I have to remember to bring my camera!)

I will be going home with many memories of the beautiful people I've met while working here.

Fingers crossed that this will not be my last entry, but that I will be able to write again, especially during my visit to New Zealand with mom!