Flush by 30?

Bobarella

Hello

Well. Hope the pregnant girl will be ok at her boyfriends. It is amazing you gave her that home, you are a very good person.

Bob

Sun_Addict

Hope all is ok JWP xx

UncannyScot

Popping on to say hope all ok too

JWPopps

Hello everyone,

I vanished for a while there, didn't I? I have 15,000 words of academic stuff to write for my work-based PgDip so I decided to limit my internet time for a week or so. I now have 3 very solid essay plans, including all citations etc I need to get them written, which I plan to do when I have a week off in August. They're not due in until the end of September, but I work for a University so September is a busy month!!

Thank you all for thinking off me while I was away

lotti my £30 survived by the skin of its teeth! Payday was Friday just gone though, so I'm on a more even keel AND I've managed to get my credit card down to £950 (must remember to update my signature)

Bob I hope so too, I do miss her, she was lovely.

I actually have a new placement now - another reason I've been AWOL. This one will be tougher than the young lady I had before I think: Unaccompanied Asylum Seeker, very little English, only been in the UK a few months, and is in the midst of MASSIVE culture shock.

He has friends in a nearby city, but that's a different Local Authority and in that city all their UASs are being housed together in shared houses with support workers popping round. In our Local Authority they're all going into foster care if they're 16 or younger, and into placements with people like me if they're 17 and up. This one's 17, and he really wants to move to one of those shared houses - he misses his own community and a more communal way of living.

All of the above means he doesn't really want to be at my house, although he's very polite and quiet with me. He presents as very independent, but he doesn't know how to use my cooker or microwave, he has never used a washing machine before, he is frankly baffled by the concept of a shower curtain and he doesn't have any idea about the value of British currency. Also, he's religious, and while I am making every effort to accommodate his needs in that regard, he's having to travel to another city for Friday prayers because my sleepy little market town barely even has churches, let alone provision for other religions.

So, there are challenges, but I'm really hoping we can make it work. He's a genuinely sweet lad and I'm sure once his English improves he will thrive but it's going to be a bit of a slog in the meantime!!

JWPopps

Learned a thing about myself this morning:

I like to sleep. I need to sleep. I do not handle it well when I am woken up at 5am (my alarm usually goes off at 10 to 6) because *someone* is having a loud phone call.

I really don't know if I can do this.

Ugh this is the first time I've considered letting the charity down, but I am not handling this placement particularly well at all.

jvr

Hey


It sounds like a really difficult one and perhaps no suitable for either of you. I know it feels like letting down but its also your home and life and to be able to do it you need to be comfortable and rested! Have a think about it, but if its not working out that is absolutely fine and you should say so!
Hope your day improves

JWPopps

Hi JVR,

Thank you... I'm a bit better today, my lodger did not wake me at 5am and it turns out those extra 50 minutes sleep really do make all the difference to my mood!

He has an appointment with the charity today and I've basically told them that he can only stay if he is willing to do so and willingly agrees to the (standard) house rules. If he does, then excellent, we're on to a winner and he can stay. But if he does the thing he usually does, which is say 'no no no I want a flat I will not go back there' and then after an hour of being cajoled reluctantly agrees and behaves in a surly manner about it for 3 days... then I'm afraid I'm not prepared to deal with that when i'm working full time and trying to have a nice weekend with my partner as well.

So, we shall see... I do really want it to work out and I have every sympathy for this young man's terrible situation, however this is supposed to be a 2-way partnership and I feel like he needs foster care rather than a volunteer for a charity if he needs more structured support.

JWPopps

Also, anyone interested in the charity work I do should definitely watch this...

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/would-you-take-in-a-stranger

JWPopps

Quick update!

My lodger has agreed to stay at mine for another week! Hurray this means I can relax a bit, because I can tell him when I need him to do something instead of worrying about upsetting him and him going missing!

I just hope the weekend is a success now with him and my OH

Sun_Addict

I think you are an angel to put up with these lodgers. I don't know how you do it. I wish they'd show you more gratitude, you don't have to do it. Hope this one works out xx