Today was really enjoyable, it was my second last day on placement and the last day of the weekly women's group the organisation has been facilitating. It is so rewarding to see how far they've all come since the first day 12 weeks ago, it's so lovely seeing how much more confident and assertive they all are now- and the mutual support and warmth between them all. The banter between them all is also hilarious! They are also so thankful towards those of us who have run the group. A few in particular are always so lovely, always giving compliments to others like, 'you have beautiful eyes', or 'you look lovely today' or 'you're a wonderful person'. Genuine compliments too, not just the small talk bs that you sometimes get with some people. They'd even do it in front of the whole group and the facilitators, and giving us those compliments too! It's so heartwarming and makes me not care at all about how I haven't been paid for this work.

I just hope that when I move I'll be able to get a job with an organisation near as good as this one. My supervisor was actually the Australian representative for the recent international social work conference overseas so she's pretty high up- and she spent about a year negotiating with an interstate organisation about being able to do a pilot of the women's group in QLD. So the group I helped run was actually the first one ever in QLD- a pretty impressive thing to put on my resume as part of my placement experience :D

Anyway that is my ramble about how today rocked. I wrote out a big long entry the other day about my thoughts on organised religion, mostly referencing Christianity- but it's private because, well, it's a big ramble and I can't be bothered possibly offending anyone especially a valued favourite of mine. I'd just like to note that I and many other people enter the field of human services without religion as motivation or inspiration. Perhaps religion influences some people to be better, but for many I think it's the existing underlying morals that affect the way they live. People might be drawn towards Christianity because of their existing belief that they should help others/be a good person... just as other people might be drawn towards Christianity or other organised religion because they can use it to justify their hatred of homosexuals/maltreatment of women/killing off anyone 'different'. Basically the way I perceive organised religion is that it is often used as a tool to justify or perpetrate people's existing values- both good and evil.

Anyway- I've had a couple of drinks so am going to enjoy being pleasantly tipsy without having to type intelligent sounding things :D