These are a few of my favorite things.....

1. When I go to wake up my youngest boy and I find him so happy to greet the day that he is in a fit of giggles.

2. The structure and routine of the days here.

3. That even with our routines the days never really flow quite as you expect.

4. That work and life blend together.

5. Getting to know new people who are different from me in so many ways, and then finding the commonalities between us.

6. How friendly Scottish people are. This is true! We went for a walk with the children once when it was POURING down rain, this man came out of his house and tried to get us to take his umbrella. He really insisted that we take it.

7. Living in an episode of Children Say the Darndest Things. Anyone remember that show? The children here can be so funny!

8. Being in community and cooking, and eating together.

9. Going on outings with the children.

10. The hills here in Scotland and hiking into them. Even when this means that I end up walking nearly 15 miles more than I expected, literally walking all the way around one such hill and not having a clue where I am in relation to the school. (don't worry, I was following two people who knew where we were going)

11. That everyone here is so inclusive and flexible that we often have to, and do, change our plans so everyone can join.

12. Putting the children to bed with a story, a song and a prayer.

13. That once I told people I was Catholic I actually found 3 people who want to go to church with me when I thought there would be no one.

14. Having an interactive German word-a-day calendar. My German friends here have decided that they are going to teach me a word each day. Would you like to sit at the tisch in the zimmer? Yes, you may turn on the lampe.

15. I love that all of us co-workers want to make plans to travel together on our holiday.

16. Working in the classroom and being creative about how to help the children learn in spite of their difficulties.

Heave Ho!!

All those who wish to explore, should be men with bushy beards
John, Pete, Jack and William, have bushy beards, have bushy beards
John, Pete, Jack and William, have bushy beards, they sail along.......

This is part of a song we were singing in class last week. I haven't quite decided if I should be offended by it or not. In any case in first lesson these last couple of weeks we have been talking about explorers! In particular, Captain Robert Falcon Scott. For those of you who don't know or don't remember, Captain Scott set sail from Scotland for Antarctica. Once in Antarctica he and his men became stuck in the ice and were not able to break free for two years! So to follow in the footsteps of Captain Scott, last week we set sail as explorers on board the Pheonix!


Our supplies including maps, rope, blankets, food, sleeping pads, the sail, binoculars, compass, and of course two doves to send with messages home.
The application of the beard. Yes, before setting sail (leaving the classroom) we all had to make sure that we had our bushiest beards along.
(Because I know you are all wondering I will answer that yes, I had a beard as well but no, there are not any pictures of it)
Stefan with his beard. Smeared (sort of) for effect.
Transporting the supplies to our ship, the trusty Pheonix.
Raising the sail.

Despite a wee bit of wind and rain at sea, our journey was a safe one. We kept our spirits up with hot cocoa and crackers and the blankets and sleeping mats kept us warm while we slept. With a good man at the helm, another reading the map and two more with binoculars, we not only reached our destination but also made it home again. Our doves too returned home and carried our messages of our discovery to those we left in Scotland.

Venturing outside the walls of Ochil

This is just down the street from the school. Looking toward the hills we are about to walk into.
Sheep!!
I love the stone walls here. I took about half a dozen photo of just the walls on this walk but I'll only subject you to this one.
The scenery along the way.
So this is the "castle" which was our destination. You can see it all the way at the school and it catches your eye sitting there on the hillside. When we reached it we discovered that it was not as interesting as we imagined. It is really just someone's house. No castle.
More scenery. I've been told that you can follow this river either all the way or most of the way up the hill. I hear it is a great walk and you may just see some pictures of that walk in the near future.
These signs were all over once we got into the hills.
And there they are.

That clump of trees there in the distance, in the middle of the picture, that is Ochil Tower. Jakob (on the left) wanted find a more interesting means down the hill than the road which we had taken up. This is us trying to decide which way to go now after following Jakob and having left the road far behind us. This is only the first of many such stops. The two on the right are Ester and Stefan.
Ahhh, we found the path. A very nice one too.
And yes, more bulls. These were much closer however.
Okay, at this point the trail signs were actually directing us to climb over this fence (where Jakob is standing) and continue through the field of bulls. Jakob, who is standing only a few yards from the bulls, is trying to convince us all that with that stick in his hand (i don't know if you can see it) he is now intimidating to the bulls and they will not charge us if we too climb over the fence and walk through the field. No thank you. I found another way for us all to continue down the hill and remain on the opposite side of the fence from the bulls.
In the distance again you can see Ochil Tower. That building surrounded by the trees is our main house, Belvedere.

A Day In The Life

I thought I would try to give you all an idea of what my day is like around here. Of course as I was typing this out I thought to myself that while this will give you an idea of the activities that happen here in a day, it is difficult to really tell you all what it is like living and caring for these children. The children are amazing, sweet and so full of life. I would be lying though if I didn't say that working with them is challenging and exhausting, emotionally and physically.

*I'll use the children's ages in place of their names for privacy and safety reasons*

7:25 Wake 15 year-old

7:30 Wake 11 year-0ld

• Bring clothes, towel and flannel into bathroom for 11
  
• Coax 11 to follow me in
• Change clothes and nappy, try to get him to help
• Wash his face, again try to get him to help

8:00 To sitting room for morning verse and then to kitchen for breakfast

• After breakfast change 11's shirt
• Wash his face again and attempt brushing teeth. Usually this turns into him smearing most or all of the toothpaste on his face and not opening up to actually brush teeth.
  
• Tidy up downstairs passageway with 11

9:00 To school

• Shoes and coat for 11
• Drop 11 off at classroom
• Walk to my classroom

9:30 Class begins. My jobs here change daily

• Help children with reading and writing
• Lead sensory time for one boy
• Collect and sort recycling with another boy
• Cleaning
• Participate in Friday's outing

10:40 Break time for children. I usually go to 11's classroom and help with a few children who spend break time there in the yard.

11:15 Back to class

12:40 Lunch in the houses. When necessary, collect pupils from class and walk them to Sycamore.

• After lunch wash 11's face and change his shirt
• Get him settled for rest hour
  

2:15 Change 11's nappy

2:30 Shoes and coat for 11, walk him to class

• At this time I have a break "hour" that never really seems to be an hour

3:30 End of school. Pick up 11 and go home for juice break.

4:00 Afternoon activities. Walks, library, chip or coffee shop, swimming etc. Often just 15 and I.

5:30 Home. Wash up for supper

6:00 Meet in sitting room and then go in to dinning room together

6:40 Bathtime for 11. He does not like this so it is always a struggle. Lots of coaxing, tricking him, calming him down and so on. It is quiet the process.

• After the bath we read a story, sing a song and say a prayer

7:30 Send 15 into the shower.

8:00 Sit down with 15 and interpret (via gestures and my yes/no questions to him) for him how the day was and write for him in his journal.

• Depending on the time, let 15 read in his room

8:30 Lights out for 15.

Starting this next week, we will also have training courses two or three evenings in the week. Otherwise the evening is mine after about 8:30. This schedule is ideal of course for now, but as you can imagine, the ideal is not always achievable and schedules here are always subject to change.

Edinburgh

This is Edinburgh.

View from the Castle.
Edinburgh Castle

These guys are laughing because my friend Simeon just asked them if it was true that real Scottish men don't wear pants (underwear) under the kilt.
Stopping at a pub for a beer. Of course.
The girls.
Yay! The pipers came back from holiday. I found this guy out on the streets.
Did you get a look at those cheeks?
Don't these guys look great? They were just leaving the Tatoo.

what a week!!

So this was our first official week here at Ochil Tower School and so much has happened already. All week we have had lessons on such topics as Approaches to Child Care, Safe Caring, Health and Safety, First Aid and Ochil Tower: Structures and Responsibilities. In addition to these we have had daily house meetings to discuss the children coming to us and clean from top to bottom in preparation for their arrival. This week we were also assigned to our classes and had a class meeting as well. Of course the week was not void of fun and games. We also had a barbeque and a football game on Thursday as well as trips into Edinburgh and Perth.

Thursday brought a little excitement around here. We had just finished a class and were hanging around the hall when someone came in saying that there had been an accident just outside. When we went out we could see that there were two cars that had collided and a cyclist caught in between. Both cars were practically full with passengers because there were people everywhere. We all jumped in to help, bandaging head wounds, calming those in shock, and performing cpr. After everyone had been attended to and all the fake ketchup blood was cleaned up we talked about how it was to come upon the accident and try and help. The "victims" also shared their perspective on how we helped. If you didn't catch that it was all staged by the other workers here at Ochil and it was all setup for us to put our First Aid skills to the test. :) It was the best First Aid class I've ever taken.

Friday afternoon we made a trip into Edinburgh. The city was having their Fringe festival and the Military Tatoo. It was very busy and very crowded. We didn't end up paying to go to any of the festival shows or the Tatoo but there was lots to see just from the streets. It was like Bumbershoot times 10 took over Edinburgh and there were street performers all over and plenty of interesting people to watch.

Saturday a few of us tagged along with another senior co-worker into Perth to do some shopping. We each had some things on our lists but we were mainly on a mission for a present for a fellow co-worker whose Birthday was Saturday. Perth was not very exciting but we were successful shoppers and managed to find our way back home again. More of an adventure than you might imagine.

Well the children will all be returning this morning. I am both anxious and excited to meet them all. In my house I am responsible for two boys. Beginning this week I will be waking them in the morning, helping them get ready for school and take them to class. While they are in class I will be working in another class with another boy whom I am responsible for during class time. In between classes I will collect my house boys and bring them home for breaks, lunch and supper. Then again in the evening I'll help them with bath time and bed. All at the same time I feel unprepared and also that there is nothing more anyone can tell me that would prepare me.

As you can imagine this week is going to be busy and exhausting so if you don't hear from me much in the next few days just be patient. All of our resident children will be going home for the weekend so I will try to make up for any lack of correspondence next weekend. I'm sure I will have loads to tell you.

Kaija

Pics from our first week!

Esther and Steven playing Kupp on the lawn in front of Belvidier, the castle.

Jakob, Veit, Fabian and Esther getting ready to venture into town.
Fabian, Jens, and Valerie hangin' out in town.
Jens and David playing Kupp.....again.
Playing some FOOTball!!

At last....

At last I have free time to sit down and write about these past few days.
At long last the internet is working (so frustrating).
AND, at last the other co-workers have arrived and our training week has begun.

Some of you know that I was the only co-worker here for two or three days which was very nice for settling in and adjusting but it became quite boring, actually, pretty quickly. On the weekend the others began to arrive and I met the two co-workers living in my house who are both male and both from Germany (A theme I soon discovered).

By Sunday most everyone was here but I had still only met my house mates and the two co-workers from another house, Elmtree. Sunday evening everyone was invited to a barbeque at Rowan House. I thought "Great, I'll get to meet everyone and I have been waiting so long. This will be good." Uh, can you say AWKWARD? Oh my goodness. First let me tell you that of 11 co-workers only two of us are not from Germany and only four of us are female. Secondly, in Germany it is required for guys who are 19 years-old to do a year of service either in the army or in the community which is the reason why all these guys are here at Ochil Tower (Did you catch that? 7 guys around 19 years-old). That being stated all of these guys had been to a training session prior to coming to Scotland where three of them had roomed together so they all knew each other, and pretty well I think you could say. Now, two of the other girls are from Germany as well and I'm not quite sure what the connection is but they also knew some of the guys prior to arriving here. Needless to say, I was the odd one out in a HUGE way. Did you all say awkward? One time with me......

Okay, so despite being awkward I think I managed pretty well and I did meet lots of new people and I did talk with my fellow co-workers. A couple I discovered have been to the U.S., both to California. That was something we could talk about for a bit. One of these guys spent a year studying in Cali and speaks English very well and that was a bit of a relief. Now, they are all getting quite good and really want to learn. I have become a language coach or something, "how do you say.......?" or "what is it when......?" In the last couple of days I have really gotten to know them well and we are having a great time of it.

Yesterday we had our first day of lessons and getting-to-know-you games. Some of you may relate to this, when I heard that we were going to have games to get to know each other I wanted to groan until I realized that they weren't going to be all the same ones from retreats etc. Yay! We are having First Aid training, lessons on the structure and organization of Ochil Tower, of course talking about the children and how to care for them, specifically and generally. This morning we had a singing lesson as well. :)

We have an afternoon break in the day and yesterday we walked through Auchterarder. Up and down the street. That was great fun. Last night we all (the co-workers) went to the pub for a bit. Yeah, there is only one pub in town. Today on our break we played Kupps on the lawn (I'll have to post these pics later). It is a Swedish game involving a row of five blocks opposite each other on a "field" with a block in the middle, the king. Using six or so sticks, dowels, you try to knock down your opponents' blocks and then lastly the king. It is a bit more complicated and much more fun. I wasn't sure about the fun part at first but you'll all have to give a shot sometime.

This evening I was invited to go dancing!! Salsa! Oh, it was so much fun. I was invited by a girl who was co-worker here five years ago and who is studying here now. She invited myself and another co-worker Esther to go dancing with the house mother of Rowan house as well. We drove through the mountains about 20 min. (beautiful) to another little town and danced in a hotel there. We had brief lessons and then just jumped in!

So now it is late here and I really should have been in bed by now so I hope this will hold you over until I have time to post again. Don't worry, I'm still working on responding to those emails as well.

Love,
K

Sycamore House

This is Sycamore House, my home for the year. Myself and three other co-workers live here with six children who will be coming in about a week. Our house parent and her husband have their own apartment off to the right.

The children all sleep downstairs while we co-workers have rooms on the second floor. Everyone has their own room and we share bathrooms in the hall. There is a sitting room, dinning room kitchen and children's play room as well.



This is the view from my window. Here you can see.....chickens. They didn't like when it was raining today and they all tried to hide under the coop, clucking and squawking at each other.














Here is a beautiful pond hanging out beside our house. Very calming.









And of course, the gardens out of the kitchen window.