Goodbye

Today is the final day of my internship! It is with sadness and joy for which I write this final blog. I have learned so much during the past 400 hours over the past 4 months. I have learned how to fake drinking pop, to love Arabic coffee (albeit extremely strong), how to be a better hostess (Iraqis are the best host and hostess), how to smile yet sternly tell someone they had to change a behavior, how to navigate S.S. and IDHS, and how to simply laugh sometimes because their is really no other good course of action to take. I also have learned so much about being a Social Worker. I found that I may have a tendency to not leave work and leave the problems of work at work. I found that communication is truly crucial among an agency and I have seen how politics can play out in the work place. I have also learned the importance of good documentation and timely note taking. Personally, I have developed a whole new respect for vulnerable populations within our society.

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve this population and to work with the amazing people working within the agency. The staff work diligently to serve refugees and immigrants and often their work goes unnoticed. The pay is not that great yet this group continues to come to work and give it their best. The workers here truly have giving hearts. The clients are truly their focus. The story was related to me of an employment counselor who had a client come from Burma. Often times the Burmese refugees have been living in refugee camps in Thailand and they are really beaten down. The client spoke no English and had a new job which he needed to take two buses and a train to get to. He worked the night shift at the chicken factory. It was important for the client to be able to navigate getting to and from work on his own as that workers were not always available to take them. The counselor showed the client how to come and go. It was the first time for the Burmese client to go on his own. The counselor went at midnight when the client got off work and sat in his car on the street near the bus stop. He waited for the client to come out of work and get on the bus. He followed the bus to the next bus stop to ensure the client was able to navigate getting on the bus. He then drove to the train station to ensure the client got on the train and then drove to the stop point to ensure he got off and was able to walk home. He was not payed for this time he was simply doing it because he cared about his client and his well being. You might think that this was a bit excessive but when working with the population you understand. If the client missed one of these points he would have no way of getting help since that he had no phone and spoke no English.

I believe the skill I have most improved in this semester is my ability to navigate difficult situations. I really had to learn how to confront people. Confrontation is not my strong point. I am actually someone who will go out of my way to avoid confrontation but this semester I had to confront clients and co-workers. Can you say awkward? I feel that this is an area I really improved in though.

The hardest part for me was the goodbye with the kids I work with on Wednesday in the afternoon program. I told them I would be leaving two weeks ago but last Wednesday was spring break and we did not get together. As with kids, it had slipped their minds that I would not be back after this Wednesday. I told the kids at the beginning of the time and then I left a few minutes before the program ended to avoid a dramatic ending. The girl I work one on one with became very upset and kept asking me to come to various events to see her at or attend with her. I simply gave her a hug and encouraged her that she would do good in school. I also encouraged her to do well in school because she wants to be a teacher and then I ensured her that someone else would be coming to take my place and she would get have fun with a new aid. Such a hard thing! It made me want to cry but I knew I could not make promises to her that I could not keep.

So I end by saying, "Thank you Lord for this great opportunity!" I learned so much.

Another Day!

I woke up this morning to the alarm, rolled over and promptly turned the alarm off. An hour later, I woke up to the alarm again and decided it would not hurt to sleep another 30 minutes. It will only cause for crazy rushing around before time to go to work. Thirty minutes later, I wake up and lay in bed and desperately try to come up with a reason to not go to my internship today! Ugh, calling in sick won't work because it would be a flat out lie. Mental health day? Who ever heard of that? No, I can't call in and say I need a mental health day. Personal issue? Hum, now that could work! Sigh, if I don't go today then I have to add a day onto the end of my internship. I get out of bed and start slamming stuff around trying to get ready. I rush into Rayana's room and attempt to wake her up. She wakes up and starts laughing at me. I roll my eyes. This girl is one and laughing at her Mother pitch a fit because she has to go to work. If only she understood I am not trying to funny right this minute. I am frustrated. She continues to laugh. I mean really who wakes up on a gloom Thursday in a such a good mood.  Sigh for yet a third time. Begin talking to self. Why do you not want to go today? I am so over it! I have worked seven days a week for the past three months with only two days off. I'm tired of this. Anyway, I don't want to go transport clients back and forth and spend my day in the car. Ugh, the new summer interns are starting and the new girl is really rude. It's raining I don't want to be outside in the rain. The lady over interns is passive aggressive and rude. Heidi is writing a grant and she has not passed along my readings for the past two weeks nor has she set up the work for me she promised. Finally, we are ready to walk out the door. We get in the car and we drive to the first red light. I stop and sit waiting for the light to change. Sitting, sitting, sitting. The car behind me lays on the horn. Who is this dumb, dumb honking at? Oh my, this dumb-dumb is honking at me. I am sitting at a green light. Start driving. I look at my phone and I see a message. I open it and it is a video clip. I start listening and it is talking about God opening the eyes of your heart to be able to see things as he does. Oh Lord, I feel convicted. "Lord,  help me today and remind me I am helping people. I am bringing light into the darkness of some tormented lives! I am the light in their worlds. These people need my assistance." Ok, better now. Today will be a good day because I will make this day a good day. I will put a smile on my face and keep going.

All that said, I enjoy my internship but this agency I feel has a high level of burn out. An intern started and went through training with me. She was supposed to finish at the same time as me. By the end of January she was coming to work everyday a complete grump. By mid Feb she quit. I had lunch with the social worker on staff and we were discussing the same thing. The agency does nothing to encourage staff or to deal with staff stress. She works as a social worker at another agency and they do a lot to work with employees on dealing with there stress level. The social worker has asked on several occasions if someone could come and speak to staff about stress and techniques to reduce stress. Her attempts have been shot down. I actually feel bad for the employees. They are under paid and overworked. I understand that they are doing much to serve others and help the community but I do not feel this a job I could do long term. I think that burn out level would reach its peak and I would not make it a full year.

I am happy that I have my social work friends to talk to and to keep me going on my journey!