Social worker returns from abroad

Senior Staff Writer

A Williston social worker recently visited Indonesia and may aid her future husband in missionary work there after they marry.

“My fiance is there now. He is doing a 16-month internship, said Mandie Haase. “He is just finishing out his first eight months. We’ll get married and be here for a year. The plan is we will go back there and finish out his second eight months.”

The Wolf Point native has been a case worker and social worker at the Eckert Youth Home in Williston for three years, where she has about six clients. Haase said early experiences drew her to her work.

“When I was in the fifth grade, my parents moved to Wolf Point,” she said. “We were there for seven years. We had 30 some girls and got a feel for what they went through - whether that was because the social workers did things very well or because the social workers didn’t do things well. It got me interested in it.”

She earned a degree in social work from Minot State College, lived in St. Louis and then moved to Philadelphia for a year before coming to Williston. Haase is the daughter of Norm and Ginger Haase.

“We split the case load between boys and girls,” she said of the Eckert Youth Home.

She spent two weeks in Indonesia, where she assisted fiance Chris Salmon in prison ministry and working at a transition home.

“A transition home is a big center, a place for kids to come to. They have activities and feed them. They either come from poverty or they are homeless,” she said.

The children work, sell newspapers and do shoe shining and go to the home in the off-time, she said.

“There in Indonesia, the kids have to pay for school. They aren’t set up like we are for the public schools. I’m assuming some of the kids aren’t schooled,” Haase said.

She said some of the working children were as young as 11 and 12 years old.

“You would see them on the street corners and the median in the middle of the crazy traffic,” said Haase.

She said the center would see about 125 children who would come and go.

“There are some they were able to get connected with. There was one little boy, Chris didn’t know his story, but he looked like he wore the same clothes every day,” Haase said. “It didn’t look like he really had anybody taking care of him.”

She added the language barrier is a challenge in meeting the children’s needs.

“(Chris) and his teammates took them to the beach one day. They went swimming and flying kites. They just do different activities with them at the center,” Haase said.

Salmon is doing the work through Bethany College of Missions of Minneapolis.

“If we go back there, I will be affiliated with them too,” she said. “He will get his cross-cultural degree. They spend a lot of time studying the culture, studying the religion, learning the language.”

She said Salmon also spent some of his time in Indonesia giving various lessons.

“He taught second graders science and English. They went to a Sunday school and taught there every Friday. He is kind of there as a teacher/student,” Haase said. “Then, he worked wherever he could like the transition home.”

She said the transition home helps the kids get a snack and have some fun activities during the day, but does not board them.

“The hardest thing for me to grasp was that it was heavily populated. There were people everywhere. Our culture is ‘Give me my space’ culture. They are very friendly, very helpful and they would be right there to give you a taxi...They would be in your face,” Haase said.

She said there were big contrasts in living conditions.

“You would see big, beautiful homes and then just down the street, you’d see a shack,” she said. “Some people actually have a lot of money and they’ll rent out these homes they own and live in the shack. Because it’s cheaper and the climate was where they could stay outside all year round.”

Haase said there is potential for her to help when the couple returns to Indonesia.

“Just down the street where he is working, there is an orphanage down there. I would like to maybe get into volunteering with them. They’re system is set up a little different than ours. Those in the orphanage are not necessarily without parents. Sometimes it means the family cannot take care of them. The families will drop them off and make sure they get taken care of. The family can come and visit them and take care of them any time they want.”