Ireland: Day 8
Today was a placement day, where we all were to work by 9:00 AM. Again, I hopped on the 8:00 AM bus to Downpatrick. About 7:54 AM I heard the doorbell ring and someone knock at the door...I knew it was the girls of the group all ready to go, waiting on the untimely gentlemen of the group. None of the guys came down to open the door because we were all hurryingn to get our acts together so we didn't miss the bus. Go figure, the women are prepared and the men scurry at the last minute to get ready...replicate real life at all???
Regardless, we caught up with the young ladies at the bus stop and rode our daily bus to Downpatrick. Those of us that didn't need to get to a placement right away had breakfast at the Oakley Fayre...a small bakery downtown. One will notice that this is one of the few places that is open before 9:00 AM downtown. The windows on all the shops are protected by large metal garage doors that are raised and lowered accordingly when the shop opens and closes.
Around 9:00, I headed over to Margaret Ritchie's office where I met up with Maria..the only staffer working today. Maria talked with me a "wee" bit about how the weekend was and what we had planned for the rest of the week...and then the phones began to ring. Maria said, "Well Kyle, do you feel comfortable answering the phones for me?"...and I said, "Yeah that shouldn't be a problem"...even though I had absolutely no clue on what I was doing!
Answering the phones made for some very interesting conversations and experiences. I must say that I was very nervous about looking like an idiot when talking on the phone with these people, but I should've learned already that those that are afraid of failure become complacent and rarely rise to greater heights. I ended up truly enjoying the experience and the time flew by! Here is a picture of my desk...a little smaller than the one in Madison, but it'll do for another week.
The most memorable phone call was a woman who had a question regarding her inspection from the housing executive. Because many of the individuals that the office works with use government run and subsidized housing, the individuals renting from the government need to get approval before any repairs are made to the property. Also, the government will provide repair and "redecoration" grants to these rentors in order to make the changes themselves.
Ms. Fitzgerald was such a pleasant woman. She could tell that I was struggling a bit with spelling her street name as well as getting the correct number of numerals in her home phone number. As she begins to tell me the city she says, "You know...why don't I just spell it...that accent seems to tell me that you're not too familiar" I said, "Yes mam, I'm sorry I do have a little bit of a hard time," "Oh no problem at'tall," commented Ms. Fitzgerald, "Are you from Boston? Because..." and the conversation just sprouted from there. As I would have a hard time identifying the difference between Northern and Republic Irish accents...so did Ms. Fitzgerald judging a Boston and Midwestern American accent. She was such a pleasant woman.
Then Patsy, a local Councillor from the Down District Council stopped in to see Margaret. We got a chance to talk a little about America and his experiences. It seems every Irishman knows Chicago or more commonly around here, "Oh...you mean the Windy City"...and so did Patsy.
After Patsy came in I had the chance to go to lunch with Councillor Chairman Colin McGrath. Chairman McGrath works full time for the Patrician Youth Centre as a full time youth worker in educational, sporting and fine arts programming. Colin took us to Denvirs Restaurant just a short walk from the SDLP office. We had some great discussions revolving around local politics, education and career paths. Joining us were Meghan, Jim and Bobby. We had some great conversationsn about journalism and the political scene...who truly holds ther power...just ponder it ;-)
We left the restaurant around 2:30 PM and I returned to the office as Maria was meeting with a constituent and pulling double duty answering the phones. Sometimes, I don't know how those ladies can work so hard. It's an intense job and they are working with so many lives in the community.
For instance, we had a young girl come into the office who was looking for housing because her mother kicked her out of the house. Remember how I talked about the housing system and how one accesses government housing. They need to accumulate points to put themselves higher on the list to acquire government housing. Apparently, someone in the department had made a mistake and hadn't given this young girl her points for being homeless. This consists of 70 of the 100 points that one would need to get housing...so this was a fairly significant mistake.
Some of the other things that Maria deals with are what the Irish call DLA appeals or Disability Living Allowances. These allowances are determined by the courts and are intended to only sustain living while someone is under disability. Basically, Maria represents her constituent in a court like setting that represents the appeals board for the DLA process. She develops a case with the constituent and then presents the case to the board. I was truly amazed on how much responsbility is put on her shoulders...but she certainly can handle it. I think if you met this young woman you would say the exact same thing!
Maria started to tell me some of the stories though about individuals trying to cheat the system. She said that for the housing allowancnes, individuals don't need to prove that they spent the money, therefore at times people were taking advantage of the system and using the money for other purposes.
One of Maria's most memorable moments was when someone was living on government housing and called looking for her repair grant through the state to fix something in the house. The women called Maria complaining that her grant check had not come in the mail yet, and her comment was, "I'm going on holiday (vacation) and that money would be very useful"...Maria couldn't help but think how someone could be living in government housing while heading off to vacation using the money intended to remodel the home.
I felt bad for Maria because I kept asking her questions regarding the political process, political culture and her career path that I don't think she had the opportuninty to get much work done. Sorry Maria, but I truly ennjoyed the great conversation!
As I left work around 4:30 PM I stopped at the post office to pick up an international calling card and some postage stamps. Left the bus depot around 5:00 PM and got home around 5:20 PM. After getting home it was work time again...kitchen needed cleaninng, clothes needed a wash and I was hoping to get the chance to write out some postcards for family.
One load of laundry made it into the wash before we were all summoned by Dr. Campbell to talk a walk around Dundrum Bay. Adam, our good friend from Downpatrick joined us and continually humored us throughout the walk.
As we were walking along a Nantional Trust nature trail we came up to a cattle yard. The trail ran right through a pasture in which we walked right past grazing cattle. The trail took us all the way out to the beach on the coast. It was just like the golf course at Whistling Straits...tall grass lining a gorgeous coast.
It was a fairly low tide still so we were able to actually walk on out onto the beach. As we walked, Kate noticed a sign posted on the beach...it said, "Caution: Britsh Army Firing Range...Leave Premises when Warning Flags Appear". We were in the middle of a firing range on the beach! That was quite random, but I think they had the day off because we had no warning flags go up. We walked along the beach and then went back to the apartments.
After our walk, Dr. Campbell left and we went to the Mourne Seafood Bar in Dundrum. I had Seafood Chowder; Trout with Advocado and White Beans and a Coke. It was a fantastic dinner and was made from local seafood...it cost about 25 pounds ($40), but it was a great treat for all of us to experience some of the local seafood on the coast.
Another sidenote...Coca Cola in Northern Ireland is bottled with real sugar, America uses High Fructose Corn Syrup. Apparently, there are large tariffs on sugar in America so it is more expensive to bottle with sugar instead of the corn syrup. Random fact of the day!
After leaving the Mourne Seafood Bar, some of us headed home to catch up on work and sleep while others headed to the pub for a couple drinks. I got the chance to talk with mom and dad as well as some other friends from home last night. The first time I've been able to talk to themn in over a week...it was great to hear their voices...yes, even you Ms. Laura Barquest! Ireland has been beautiful, but I'm not going to lie I miss long, straight roadways and six cylindner vehicles!
It was again another great day and I'm looking forward to our trip to Belfast and Stormont tomorrow...apparently some laughter therapy is on the agenda as well for tomorrow evening...I don't known how that's going to go but you'll be sure to hear more in tomorrow's post.
Thanks and have a great evening America!
- Kyle
P.S. So you remember that golfer we saw in the middle of the bay a couple days ago during low tide, so Bridget today said "Guys there's a tractor in the middle of the bay". Sure as all heck, some tractor was tooling along in nthe middle of the bay. Again, I had to get a picture of this because it was unbelieveable...
Regardless, we caught up with the young ladies at the bus stop and rode our daily bus to Downpatrick. Those of us that didn't need to get to a placement right away had breakfast at the Oakley Fayre...a small bakery downtown. One will notice that this is one of the few places that is open before 9:00 AM downtown. The windows on all the shops are protected by large metal garage doors that are raised and lowered accordingly when the shop opens and closes.
Around 9:00, I headed over to Margaret Ritchie's office where I met up with Maria..the only staffer working today. Maria talked with me a "wee" bit about how the weekend was and what we had planned for the rest of the week...and then the phones began to ring. Maria said, "Well Kyle, do you feel comfortable answering the phones for me?"...and I said, "Yeah that shouldn't be a problem"...even though I had absolutely no clue on what I was doing!
Answering the phones made for some very interesting conversations and experiences. I must say that I was very nervous about looking like an idiot when talking on the phone with these people, but I should've learned already that those that are afraid of failure become complacent and rarely rise to greater heights. I ended up truly enjoying the experience and the time flew by! Here is a picture of my desk...a little smaller than the one in Madison, but it'll do for another week.
The most memorable phone call was a woman who had a question regarding her inspection from the housing executive. Because many of the individuals that the office works with use government run and subsidized housing, the individuals renting from the government need to get approval before any repairs are made to the property. Also, the government will provide repair and "redecoration" grants to these rentors in order to make the changes themselves.
Ms. Fitzgerald was such a pleasant woman. She could tell that I was struggling a bit with spelling her street name as well as getting the correct number of numerals in her home phone number. As she begins to tell me the city she says, "You know...why don't I just spell it...that accent seems to tell me that you're not too familiar" I said, "Yes mam, I'm sorry I do have a little bit of a hard time," "Oh no problem at'tall," commented Ms. Fitzgerald, "Are you from Boston? Because..." and the conversation just sprouted from there. As I would have a hard time identifying the difference between Northern and Republic Irish accents...so did Ms. Fitzgerald judging a Boston and Midwestern American accent. She was such a pleasant woman.
Then Patsy, a local Councillor from the Down District Council stopped in to see Margaret. We got a chance to talk a little about America and his experiences. It seems every Irishman knows Chicago or more commonly around here, "Oh...you mean the Windy City"...and so did Patsy.
After Patsy came in I had the chance to go to lunch with Councillor Chairman Colin McGrath. Chairman McGrath works full time for the Patrician Youth Centre as a full time youth worker in educational, sporting and fine arts programming. Colin took us to Denvirs Restaurant just a short walk from the SDLP office. We had some great discussions revolving around local politics, education and career paths. Joining us were Meghan, Jim and Bobby. We had some great conversationsn about journalism and the political scene...who truly holds ther power...just ponder it ;-)
We left the restaurant around 2:30 PM and I returned to the office as Maria was meeting with a constituent and pulling double duty answering the phones. Sometimes, I don't know how those ladies can work so hard. It's an intense job and they are working with so many lives in the community.
For instance, we had a young girl come into the office who was looking for housing because her mother kicked her out of the house. Remember how I talked about the housing system and how one accesses government housing. They need to accumulate points to put themselves higher on the list to acquire government housing. Apparently, someone in the department had made a mistake and hadn't given this young girl her points for being homeless. This consists of 70 of the 100 points that one would need to get housing...so this was a fairly significant mistake.
Some of the other things that Maria deals with are what the Irish call DLA appeals or Disability Living Allowances. These allowances are determined by the courts and are intended to only sustain living while someone is under disability. Basically, Maria represents her constituent in a court like setting that represents the appeals board for the DLA process. She develops a case with the constituent and then presents the case to the board. I was truly amazed on how much responsbility is put on her shoulders...but she certainly can handle it. I think if you met this young woman you would say the exact same thing!
Maria started to tell me some of the stories though about individuals trying to cheat the system. She said that for the housing allowancnes, individuals don't need to prove that they spent the money, therefore at times people were taking advantage of the system and using the money for other purposes.
One of Maria's most memorable moments was when someone was living on government housing and called looking for her repair grant through the state to fix something in the house. The women called Maria complaining that her grant check had not come in the mail yet, and her comment was, "I'm going on holiday (vacation) and that money would be very useful"...Maria couldn't help but think how someone could be living in government housing while heading off to vacation using the money intended to remodel the home.
I felt bad for Maria because I kept asking her questions regarding the political process, political culture and her career path that I don't think she had the opportuninty to get much work done. Sorry Maria, but I truly ennjoyed the great conversation!
As I left work around 4:30 PM I stopped at the post office to pick up an international calling card and some postage stamps. Left the bus depot around 5:00 PM and got home around 5:20 PM. After getting home it was work time again...kitchen needed cleaninng, clothes needed a wash and I was hoping to get the chance to write out some postcards for family.
One load of laundry made it into the wash before we were all summoned by Dr. Campbell to talk a walk around Dundrum Bay. Adam, our good friend from Downpatrick joined us and continually humored us throughout the walk.
As we were walking along a Nantional Trust nature trail we came up to a cattle yard. The trail ran right through a pasture in which we walked right past grazing cattle. The trail took us all the way out to the beach on the coast. It was just like the golf course at Whistling Straits...tall grass lining a gorgeous coast.
It was a fairly low tide still so we were able to actually walk on out onto the beach. As we walked, Kate noticed a sign posted on the beach...it said, "Caution: Britsh Army Firing Range...Leave Premises when Warning Flags Appear". We were in the middle of a firing range on the beach! That was quite random, but I think they had the day off because we had no warning flags go up. We walked along the beach and then went back to the apartments.
After our walk, Dr. Campbell left and we went to the Mourne Seafood Bar in Dundrum. I had Seafood Chowder; Trout with Advocado and White Beans and a Coke. It was a fantastic dinner and was made from local seafood...it cost about 25 pounds ($40), but it was a great treat for all of us to experience some of the local seafood on the coast.
Another sidenote...Coca Cola in Northern Ireland is bottled with real sugar, America uses High Fructose Corn Syrup. Apparently, there are large tariffs on sugar in America so it is more expensive to bottle with sugar instead of the corn syrup. Random fact of the day!
After leaving the Mourne Seafood Bar, some of us headed home to catch up on work and sleep while others headed to the pub for a couple drinks. I got the chance to talk with mom and dad as well as some other friends from home last night. The first time I've been able to talk to themn in over a week...it was great to hear their voices...yes, even you Ms. Laura Barquest! Ireland has been beautiful, but I'm not going to lie I miss long, straight roadways and six cylindner vehicles!
It was again another great day and I'm looking forward to our trip to Belfast and Stormont tomorrow...apparently some laughter therapy is on the agenda as well for tomorrow evening...I don't known how that's going to go but you'll be sure to hear more in tomorrow's post.
Thanks and have a great evening America!
- Kyle
P.S. So you remember that golfer we saw in the middle of the bay a couple days ago during low tide, so Bridget today said "Guys there's a tractor in the middle of the bay". Sure as all heck, some tractor was tooling along in nthe middle of the bay. Again, I had to get a picture of this because it was unbelieveable...
posted by Kyle T. O'Brien @ 10:55 AM
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