Week Two

This past week has flown by. I am starting to feel more and more comfortable at work. I shadowed a lot of the advocates this past week because my forty hours of domestic violence advocacy training does not start until September. On Monday and Tuesday I attended two different support groups. Support groups are led by the staff members of UNICA and all women who are receiving services from UNICA are encouraged to attend a weekly meeting. At these meetings women learn about forming healthy and non violent relationships but it is also a safe place to share about their experiences with domestic violence. The one I attended on Monday was very informal; the women were very chatty and laughing even as we were discussing very somber topics such as the cycle of violence. My experience on Tuesday was very different; the women were much more open and serious. I felt somewhat awkward sitting in a circle of women listening to them open up about the abusive relationships that they had been/ are in. I felt like I had nothing to offer, as I am 22, unmarried, white and barely speak their language. On Wednesday I traveled to Hillsboro with one of the other advocates and a client to obtain a restraining order. This was an interesting process as it involved a lot of paperwork and a lot of sitting around. Because we arrived late in the day, the client was only able to fill out the paperwork so I did not actually get to see the entire process of obtaining the restraining order. Helping clients receive restraining orders will be a significant part of my job after I am finally trained. This was my first full day of speaking entirely in Spanish and at the end of the day I stopped comprehending even the simplest questions. My Spanish still has a long way to go.
My community has been wonderful. It is so nice to leave work and come home to seven people who want to hang out and hear about my day. It is really great to move to a city that has a built in support system. However living in intentional community has its ups and downs. People have strong opinions about things I do not really have interests in like various ways to compost. Actually I think that most of our house conflict has revolved around composting which is hilarious because I like composting but have no strong feelings of if we should could compost meat or not. But for the most part my community gets along and we have a blast exploring the city, playing board games, and enjoying our incredible porch!