Wearing many hats

At CAJ we're known as the Australians who wear hats. Apparently most other Westerners in the world don't routinely wear hats to keep the sun off them? The sun is strong in Australia and our skin is fair, so hat wearing during the summer months is a compulsory thing (although I suspect the boys don't do a great job of this at school since it makes them "stick out").

While camping in July, we did a ropes course
with the boys — with our hats on!

But this post isn't about physical hats.

Yesterday afternoon I found myself switching "hats" at a speed that was challenging.

We were called into a meeting after school about one of our boys and his classroom behaviour that has been less than respectful. On the way to that I stopped by the library to return some books, especially some books that I'd been asked to review for them. (First hat: book reviewer.) In the library I saw a friend whom I'm talking with about helping out with the magazine I edit. (Second and third hats: friend and editor.)

The bell rang and I proceeded upstairs to meet the teacher with my husband. On my way I saw another teacher who asked me about a student in her class this year that I did an Occupational Therapy assessment on last year. (Fourth hat: Occupational Therapist.)

We sat down and had our little meeting. It's never nice to hear your children have behaved in ways that you don't condone, but we're on his case now! (Fifth hat: parent.)

After our discussion petered out, the teacher invited me to come and teach the kids a bit about writing one day. (Sixth hat: writer/teacher.)

Then, this teacher, who hasn't just taught two of my kids, she's also a friend of mine, offered again to help me find an Orthopaedic Surgeon to consult about my knee, which has been causing me some concerns (her husband is a specialist in a respected hospital in Tokyo). (Seventh hat: needy foreigner/friend.)

All of that in the space of an hour was quite something, even for me, who is used to switching hats.

So, what does being a missionary look like? It's really hard to say, don't you think?

Trying on my old career

Once upon a time I studied at university for four years. At the end I graduated as an Occupational Therapist (OT) and went on to work for a few years in my profession. After a couple of years I got married and headed with my husband down the path of mission and having babies. Both of these took over my world and OT got pushed to the rear crevices of my brain (except while raising my kids - it might be just a fluke that all my kids are good at cutting, colouring, writing etc.). Today, almost ten years after I gave up my OT registration I headed back to what felt like uni. I sat in a workshop with one of my former lecturers teaching us about OT intervention with kids with coordination difficulties. I was scared. Yesterday I started to feel uncomfortable and this morning I woke an hour early (nearly unheard of). This was worse than going to a class reunion. Not only did I fear seeing people I'd trained with, I felt like I'd be pretending to be an OT. How easily could I stuff up? Well I made it through, without any major embarrassments. It even inspired me, brought back some of that old passion, if you like. I didn't anticipate not knowing some of the lingo, though. Abbreviations like DCD, COPM, PACS etc would stump me. Other words like scaffolding, daily log and four quadrant model induced puzzlement. New terms have dared to enter the field while my back was bent over Japanese textbooks. Now I have my challenge all laid out before me. How to achieve my goal? More reading and aquisition of resources. I hope to be able to offer a small service to the younger expat. kids attending the school where my husband works in Tokyo. We'll see if I manage it. It was all so much easier when I was a new grad. I could put all my energy into one task - being an OT. Now I have numerous important things to attend to. Being a mum, a wife, a missionary on home assignment, an aspiring writer and editorial assistant...and now an OT too. Getting a balance is not easy!

Work - yes, I'm doing it.

I worked today! Yes, got up in front of people and did the speaking bit missionaries are famous for during their home assignments. I don't think I did a spectacular job, but we did communicate and people prayed. Actually it was a great blessing to be at our mission's Ekka Prayer Day (Ekka is Brisbane's annual show and today is the public holiday associated with it). We were almost the youngest ones there and many were twice our age. But can they pray? AND, despite their age they often can remember amazing details from long ago prayer letters. They read them every month and pray over them in detail. I love to spend time with these dear folk. I felt very loved and like I was truly home. A tiny taste of heaven, for sure. We have a lot more speaking to do in the coming months. Inbetween times we're preparing and doing the administration necessary to ensure that other speaking opportunities are properly organised. The hidden work of a public speaker. What other work have I been doing?

• Writing an article for our denomination's magazine (deadline Saturday).
• Critiquing devotions for my internet writing group partners.
• I did some volunteer OT-type work yesterday for a home schooling friend with children who have learning difficulties.
• Ironing! Yes, more of my clothes have finally arrived from Japan (we posted stuff we couldn't fit into our 100kg-for-the-family limit). Now I have to iron it all again.
• On Monday I made a little photo album as a farewell gift for our exchange student.
• Finding photos to print out for our deputation display board.
• Cooking for the family. Made mousse yesterday - no children liked it. Decided I'll never do it again. If they want to learn to like mousse as an adult, they can buy it themselves. I also made my first meal with the slow cooker. Semi-successful.

Which reminds me, it is time to heat up some left-overs for the hungry hoards tonight...

Handwriting

It has been a long time, but in another life I spent a lot of time being an Occupational Therapist. When I became pregnant with our first child, I gave up my registration as we had plans to go to Japan and no opportunities for me to practise. In fact I wasn't sure I would ever get to do it again. It was the end of an era, I thought. Little did I know that 10 years down the track my skills would come in handy again. We've been confronted with the lack of resources available to English-speaking residents in Japan who have children with therapy needs. Particularly Speech Therapy, but also Occupational Therapy. Last year I was called upon to assess and write a report on a fellow missionary's child. Now I am giving advice about the handwriting problem of another missionary kid. The future? Last week I mailed off my application to rejoin our professional association: OT Australia. 12 months in Australia will give me the chance to upgrade my skills. I will not pursue re-registration at this time, so I won't be able to work in Oz (just to be clear on that). However, hopefully as a volunteer at CAJ I'll be able to help that handful of kids who struggle to get their words clearly onto paper and who knows what else God might have in store for me? I'm beginning to learn that in God's economy nothing is wasted.