Trapped in the floods.

Struggling a bit financially (what’s new?), so I’ve decided to go back to my caring job and have been doing some shifts at a children’s home out in the sticks I’ve never worked before.  They are mostly boys there, and when the manager explained that they were somewhat challenging I sort of knew what to expect.  Sure enough within half an hour of being there, I was pulling two lads apart as a fight broke out, and throughout the day things were kicking off almost every hour.  But later on I went out with them and another carer and we all played snooker together, and gradually I got to know them, and they me I suppose.  By the end of a long, long day they were laughing and joking and I was showing them some riffs on a guitar one of them had.  Yeah, they’re challenging and boy it was one of the most difficult shifts I had worked for a long time, but essentially these kids are hurting inside, and have been let down by the adults in their lives, so unfortunately we carers sometimes have to take the brunt of their disappointments and anger full on.  I went back to do a double shift this weekend gone, and as the weather turned bad, one of the carers rang in and asked me to do his sleep for him as he would struggle to get in.  The kids were kicking off and it took us ages to get them settled, but eventually I got to bed just before midnight; although they did get us up a few times during the night.  The next morning however, the manager told me I couldn’t go home as it had rained so heavily overnight, the home was completely surrounded by flood water and no other carers could make it in.  Food stocks were also running low and the kids were expecting to be taken to a skate park for the day, so somehow we had to keep them occupied and compensate for the loss of their day out. So I baked cakes with them, played chess, monopoly, guitar, pool, watched as one kid showed of his casting techniques with his fishing rod into the lake that had overnight appeared in the garden, played drama games (mostly Cinderella) with the only girl there, cooked a sort of dinner with the remnants of food I could find in the freezer, and then at the end of the day one of them pelted me with tomatoes and fruit, while another spat full in my face.  It took ages for the floods to recede enough for me to get away, and on the way home I stopped at a garage and bought a bottle of wine!  Strangely I somehow find this work somehow fulfilling… but I think I’ll wait a few days before booking another shift.