So there we were, living in a house full of teenage girls. Eight of them in fact, and we had no idea what we were doing. Just a sense that we were supposed to help those less fortunate then ourselves, and a need to feel like we were making a contribution. Some sort of payback for the help that we had received over the years. That is not to say that Molly nor I had a carefree childhood or that things came easily for us as young adults, but we never went without.
Not like some of these kids. It is hard to imagine unless you are born into it, or are related to someone who has these difficulties, that there are so many kids these days that are abused. We had all kinds of kids from all kinds of backgrounds in our care. It's also not like they are all from the same neighborhood either. There were poor Hispanic families, affluent white and black families, and a spattering of middle class families all represented in our cottage. We had societal orphans, kids in the Juvenile Justice system, and kids in DSS custody. Those that had been taken from their homes in the middle of the night because of abuse or neglect.
There was one girl who was 13 when we got there and she worked as a prostitute to help support her household. We had another whose family was so filled with strife that she resorted to cutting herself with razors to escape from it. Her self esteem was so low that she had intercourse with three boys that snuck into her room all in the same night.
Kids raped by family members.
There was one girl that was so mean she rallied the other residents against us and went after Molly (who was pregnant at the time) with a studded belt wrapped around her fist.
How is it that one of the richest and arguably the most powerful nations on the planet can't seem to care adequately for their own? I blame us for all this mess and those generations before us, that as time has gone on have seemed to care less and less for the proper raising of their youth. How do we decline so fast as a nation? Think about it, we are not even 250 yrs old! At this rate it will be a wonder if we still exist in another 250 years. Maybe Christ will come back before all of that happens and then we won't have to worry about it anymore.
More to come...
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Child-care work
Ok. Lets talk about what it is that I do. I am a child-care worker. I work for Baptist Children's Homes of NC and have been there for nearly 5 years. I started doing this type of work when my wife decided out of the blue to quit her very good , very high paying job because she wasn't satisfied. We were living in Greenville, NC at the time. I was going to the local community college and working next door at Lowe's Hardware running forklifts and unloading trucks and such. Molly kept running across this child-care worker position at Boys and Girls Homes of NC and she called about it. Well she drove down for and interview with my blessing not really thinking anything was going to come out of it. She didn't know anything about being a houseparent. Nevermind taking care of a house full of rowdy, disadvantaged youth. Well, she never came back. To stay that is. She got the job on the spot. She came back to Greenville to pack her stuff and was headed to Lake Waccamaw. I was hired, sight unseen, to work with her as a couple and when I finished my semester at the community college, I quit Lowe's and moved down there too. Let me tell you, nothing that you can do will prepare you for the job of taking care of a house full of teenagers. Not even raising your own kids.
More to come...
More to come...
Going home
My (lovely) wife is headed out of town today on a trip to Massachusetts. She is bringing Jordan and Jessica, of course, and will be staying with family most of the time she is up there. Her sister was kind enough and in the position where she could pay for a hotel room for them to stay in for a few days as well. I guess I will be a bachelor for the week. I'm not quite sure what that is going to mean for me. I will be working all sorts of hours at the Drive-Thru this week. My boss will be away, as well as the other guy that works most of the hours when I am not there. My friend Scott has asked that I help him move some furniture that belongs to his girlfriend into his house sometime this week. I will surely help out with that. Rich and Caroline have also recruited me to help them do some painting in their home as well. They claim they have never painted before and frankly the thought of those two with paint, rollers, foam brushes, and other various tools unsupervised scares me. JK. Love those two. Anyway, I am sure I will be busy enough this week that it will preclude me from causing or getting into trouble. Unless of course there will be beer somewhere at this painting party and then it's on. Hand me the camel hair cause Michelangelo is back in town!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Blogging: Day 2
Yea, this is pretty cool. I spent the majority of the morning reading my friends Rich and his wife Caroline's respective blogs. Boy, they have a lot to say let me tell you. All very interesting stuff.
It is funny to me that in general conversation it can be hard to guage the intelligence of the person that you are speaking with. But when you read their personal thoughts and how they express themselves on paper or the screen it gives you a better perspective.
Which leads me to my friends Rich and Caroline. Caroline is more verbally articulate than Rich, as are more women than men. Rich sounds more like a good ol' boy. His words can be simple and few, but don't let him fool you. There is depth to Rich than most will not see if you don't get to know him.
I have decided to dedicate a blog about a person per week that is special in my life somehow. It may not have any particular direction to it, but just thoughts, observations, feelings, and experiences surrounding our relationships.
I am excited about this journey I am about to take and I can only pray that I can bring some along with me.
It is funny to me that in general conversation it can be hard to guage the intelligence of the person that you are speaking with. But when you read their personal thoughts and how they express themselves on paper or the screen it gives you a better perspective.
Which leads me to my friends Rich and Caroline. Caroline is more verbally articulate than Rich, as are more women than men. Rich sounds more like a good ol' boy. His words can be simple and few, but don't let him fool you. There is depth to Rich than most will not see if you don't get to know him.
I have decided to dedicate a blog about a person per week that is special in my life somehow. It may not have any particular direction to it, but just thoughts, observations, feelings, and experiences surrounding our relationships.
I am excited about this journey I am about to take and I can only pray that I can bring some along with me.
Friday, June 22, 2007
My Inaugural Rant
Inaugural. Why use such a big word? Does it make me sound smarter? Sometimes I don't feel very smart. Maybe possessing a large vocabulary and coupling that with proper use of the Enlish language is the only leg up I have on most people. It is how I feel sometimes.
I have been at work for the majority of the day and am feeling supremely taken advantage of. The part-time job that I have is a good one. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that I have someone willing to employ me part-time every other week while pretty much allowing me to set my own schedule. I work at a drive-through convenience store and I have made the place very much my own. I was hired originally three years ago by different owners. They were on their way out and I filled the hours they needed to secure new ownership and see themselves out the door. I have been there for nearly three years now. A year longer than the current owner. It was an awful transition and a lot of the customer base left when the store changed hands. I won't get into all of the reasons why, but I know that I am probably the reason that he was able to even keep the store open after the first year. I knew all of the customers. I helped the new guy reorganize the entire store. I told him the kind of products that we needed to get in the store and keep in the store to attract new customers (i.e. expanded wine selection, assorted micro-brews, high gravity beer, etc...). I painted the interior myself and re-arranged the signage while I was working a 15-hour shift one Saturday and my boss was in the Bahamas. Needless to say I am invested. Customers come in just to see me. But I am considering quitting.
I don't really want to, but none else seems to give a rip about the place but me. I come in for a shift and the place always looks like a trailer park after a tornado hits. Noone cleans up after themselves. Every trash can is always fill. I swear the floor did not see a broom since the last shift I worked. The boss employs his significant other's son to work the morning hours. I am being as tactful as possible by saying the kid is an idiot. He can't count so the register is always off. He refuses to clean anything let alone re-stock anything. He tells customers that we are out of things that we aren't rather than take a couple of minutes and walk to the storage cooler and see what we have. Sometimes the have come in later in the day when I am here and asked for the same item and I have had it to give to them. The customers tell me this. That's not even all. I just don't have all of the words necessary to tell all that he does and doesn't do. How does the owner not see that this kid is driving the customers away.
The owner is never here. He will leave the store for days and come in just to pick up the money from previous days business. He doesn't get orders in on time. We have a regular customer base that come in every day and expect for us to have what they have been buying from us each time they come in. It is inexcusable for me to have to tell someone that we don't have their wine or beer because the ones responsible for ordering those items neglected to do so. All I can do is shrug my shoulders and say I will do my best to see that we have it next time and watch them drive off to Walmart or the store across the street. I can't ask for a raise because the store doesn't make enough. He doesn't work the store himself he would rather pay out his earnings in labor.
Well I need to start getting the store ready to close. I need so set myself up for success (imagine that!) since I am going to open up tomorrow.
Sweet.
I have been at work for the majority of the day and am feeling supremely taken advantage of. The part-time job that I have is a good one. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that I have someone willing to employ me part-time every other week while pretty much allowing me to set my own schedule. I work at a drive-through convenience store and I have made the place very much my own. I was hired originally three years ago by different owners. They were on their way out and I filled the hours they needed to secure new ownership and see themselves out the door. I have been there for nearly three years now. A year longer than the current owner. It was an awful transition and a lot of the customer base left when the store changed hands. I won't get into all of the reasons why, but I know that I am probably the reason that he was able to even keep the store open after the first year. I knew all of the customers. I helped the new guy reorganize the entire store. I told him the kind of products that we needed to get in the store and keep in the store to attract new customers (i.e. expanded wine selection, assorted micro-brews, high gravity beer, etc...). I painted the interior myself and re-arranged the signage while I was working a 15-hour shift one Saturday and my boss was in the Bahamas. Needless to say I am invested. Customers come in just to see me. But I am considering quitting.
I don't really want to, but none else seems to give a rip about the place but me. I come in for a shift and the place always looks like a trailer park after a tornado hits. Noone cleans up after themselves. Every trash can is always fill. I swear the floor did not see a broom since the last shift I worked. The boss employs his significant other's son to work the morning hours. I am being as tactful as possible by saying the kid is an idiot. He can't count so the register is always off. He refuses to clean anything let alone re-stock anything. He tells customers that we are out of things that we aren't rather than take a couple of minutes and walk to the storage cooler and see what we have. Sometimes the have come in later in the day when I am here and asked for the same item and I have had it to give to them. The customers tell me this. That's not even all. I just don't have all of the words necessary to tell all that he does and doesn't do. How does the owner not see that this kid is driving the customers away.
The owner is never here. He will leave the store for days and come in just to pick up the money from previous days business. He doesn't get orders in on time. We have a regular customer base that come in every day and expect for us to have what they have been buying from us each time they come in. It is inexcusable for me to have to tell someone that we don't have their wine or beer because the ones responsible for ordering those items neglected to do so. All I can do is shrug my shoulders and say I will do my best to see that we have it next time and watch them drive off to Walmart or the store across the street. I can't ask for a raise because the store doesn't make enough. He doesn't work the store himself he would rather pay out his earnings in labor.
Well I need to start getting the store ready to close. I need so set myself up for success (imagine that!) since I am going to open up tomorrow.
Sweet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
