Early November

The weather continues to amaze me. The first week of November was similar to the month of October: cool, mostly cloudy, and windy with the occasional rain storm. Work has continued to go well and one of the families had a great week. They were able to acquire funding for a deposit on a house rental and they moved out! It was incredible to see how happy and excited the kids and mom were to be moving into their new place and it has inspired me to see the family's successes. The shelter is still crowded with a large number of children which means that we are really busy in the children's program. While it is wonderful that the women and their children have sought safety and advocacy at the shelter it is really tough to continue to see the shelter full and needed for direct services. This became particularly clear to me yesterday while attending a presentation that Katie was giving at her boss' fellowship. She did a wonderful job presenting her reflections on seeing ourselves and beyond ourselves and leading a guided reflection that led to each of us composing a poem about our thoughts on sight. My own personal reflection led me to think about liberation and unity. In the discussion period following her presentation, an older gentleman (in his 80's and a retired doctor) raised his suspicions about the existence of child abuse and domestic violence in the world, because in his experience as a doctor and visiting pediatric wards he had never seen child abuse and thinks it is one of those things that is made up. Another man asked people to raise their hands if they know of a child who has been abused or were themselves (every person) and thankfully Katie's boss ended the discussion right after that because I was not in a great place to be having a discussion with this guy. I was livid for a large part of the afternoon and couldn't believe what I had heard earlier in the day. It really made me take a step back and think about the need for and importance of trainings focused on Domestic Violence and child abuse in communities and for professionals (such as doctors, teachers and police officers) who might not fully comprehend the issues (or choose to ignore them) and will come into contact with victims and other individuals impacted by these abuses in their occupation. Thanks for letting me vent.