Movers

Yesterday the whole family here got involved in the house move for the family of the lad who spends so much time out here.  They aren't the best organized bunch and started the day with nothing packed. They have been living in emergency accommodation for several weeks now, with the bulk of their possessions in one of our sheds. That at least was packed. Bro and nephew put half of it on the big tandem trailer and we all waited for a call from SiL to say they were in the new place and the doors were open.

1700 came and went....

In the end we drove to the new place, where nephew and I unloaded furniture onto the patio whole Bro went and fetched the keys. The moving family had decided they needed to stop packing and make and eat a formal meal. SiL was with them tearing her hair out trying to get their 'emergency' belongings into my van and get them out of the motel before they incurred another night charge.

Bro came back in my loaded van with the lad on board. Bro and nephew went away to get a second trailer load from the farm shed while 10 year old lad and I carried the first load indoors and emptied the (full to the gunnels) van into the new house. To give him his dues, that kid works like a Trojan and continued to do so until a box of his toys turned up on the second trailer load. Then he lost focus, but I guess that's allowed.

His Mum and 2 teenage sisters eventually turned up with SiL and the 14 year old sister helped carry beds into the house. Mum and the 18 year old just stood around looking shell-shocked.  All they seemed concerned about was that they had no WiFi.

Seriously? Their fridge hadn't been cleaned before it went into storage (yuck), their bedding was in big bundles on the living room floor, there were boxes 'all over the shop', the kitchen was buried under a landslide of food and small appliances and they had time to complain that wifi hadn't been connected for them.

It is brand new, never before used, social housing. 4 bedrooms, private garden, decent shed, off-street parking, fresh as fresh inside and all they could find to say about it were negative things - like they didn't like the gates, or the sliding door was a bit heavy....and the WiFi wasn't connected. There is simply no pleasing some people. In the position they had got themselves into I would have been ecstatic to have been so well provided for by the State. (They lost their previous private rental because of damage done, lost their bond and will have a bad tenant reference following them around.)

We hope their chaotic lives will begin to stabilise and that they will begin to see some benefits of trying to connect with their local community.

Social housing tenants here are encouraged to have a pet of some sort and the whole family has decided they want a rabbit. It's all stuff that helps settle disrupted kids and we hope they do settle at last. 

I have arranged for the 14 year old to this weekend interview the manageress of a local doggie daycare and boarding kennels with a view to volunteering there a couple of hours per weekend until she has improved her confidence around dogs. She wants to love them (helps me walk Fergus from time to time and nearly wet herself with excitement when we went to the dog park and there were about a dozen small dogs tearing about).  However she is more focused on cuteness than the reality and responsibilities of dog ownership. Cleaning a few water bowls, changing bedding, and cleaning up some of the less savory expulsions of our k9 friends might caste cuteness in a completely different light. She needs to learn to be less tentative around dogs. They read her lack of confidence.

More than anything I hope it might give her an anchor in the community; something that none of them has managed to achieve in the 20 or so months they have been here. (The lad has an extra life here on the farm but even that is not connecting him to kids his own age, or sports teams, or neighbourhood activities.)

Fergus - the emergency anchor.