Welcome back, Alternative Breakers!
We hope you had a wonderful trip! For those of you completing the Blog Post requirement for the final, you can post your blogs as a comment on this post. Another option is to generate your own blog posts. Just send me an email at kualbreaks@gmail.com with the email you use for Blogger, and I will add you as an author on this blog.
I cannot wait to read about your trips!
~Ally
Today is Sunday, January 11th and we just arrived into Chicago at 6:30 this morning because we were not aware that the bus time had changed. We double-checked our times with the reservation of the Megabus, the entire group woke up early Saturday to board a bus at noon in KC and it never showed. Apparently the bus time had changed to 3 hours earlier. So we did not end up leaving on a bus until 8:35 last night. We sat on the top deck of the double decker bus and it felt more like a roller coaster than a car ride, we will not be on the upper level on the way back that is for sure. When we arrived at our hostel after a taxi ride the hostel would not let us in their doors until 7am. Then we dragged all of our luggage to the nearest Starbucks and sat and waited. Eventually, we got checked in and half of the group went to the grocery store and the other half went back to bed. We spent $280 on L-train passes, later to find out it would take over an hour to take the L-train to our site and about a mile of walking in the snow. They sure do call it the Windy City for a reason. Today was our day off so we went to the Contemporary Art Museum, the Bean, and Eataly. Figuring out the L-train is definitely not as easy as everyone claimed it to be and we did have one incident with a homeless woman on our first train. I wish the weather was not so brutal so that we could all enjoy exploring the city a bit more. Everyone in the group is extremely easy going and flexible, making the bumps in our trip much easier to deal with.
ReplyDeleteToday is Monday, January 12th and I woke up so excited for our first trip to Misericordia. I woke up at 6:15 in order to leave at 7:30 and arrive at Misericordia by 9am. After some walking, we got on bus 50 and rode that for nearly 50 minutes, we eventually got off and trekked through the snow for another mile and that was rather freezing and slippery considering it snowed all night the night before and there were no sign of any shoveled sidewalks. It was a relief to finally arrive at the campus and wow the campus is way larger than I could have imagined. Sitting in the waiting room I sat next to an adorable autistic man and that was a telling sign that the day was definitely going up hill from there. The woman in charge of volunteers was awesome and gave us in depth information on how the campus operates with an in depth tour following the conversation. It was striking to me that they have a few expectations for their families who house their developmentally disabled family member there; however, there is no set tuition or fee, rather it is funded by the state in combination with donations. I did not realize that it was a Catholic founded organization with mostly Catholic residents, that was interesting to me; however, they are open to other religions. She gave us lots of very interesting information. I truly enjoyed the tour of the therapy sections of the campus and it made me more and more excited to get out into the work force. She mentioned a post-college opportunity where graduates could live on the campus and work for a $250 stipend a month, which is definitely something I want to keep in mind. Eventually, we broke off into groups and I went to the “Heart felt gifts” art room to volunteer by myself. This room was lower functioning adults that are still verbal and wow it was a good time. My favorite thing to do is hangout with individuals with special needs and talk to them and that is exactly what I got to do from 12:00 to 2:30. Then we got a taxi ride back to our hostel because the temperature had dropped and we were not willing to walk that far in the snow again. Eventually we went and got pizza at Giordano’s and it was delicious. Then, we just came back to the hostel and are going to go to bed early to prepare for another day at Misericordia.
ReplyDeleteToday is Tuesday, January 13th and we spent our second day at Misericordia. The arrival there was much more smooth and less brutal today. Since we did not have any money for a taxi we took the bus as far as it would take us then used Uber to take us the last mile so we did not have to walk. At nine I went to volunteer in the Laundry Room at Misericordia with Elizabeth and Allison. It was a blast, the residents listened to music and danced, they were having so much fun while they were folding laundry! They could extremely impressively fold the fitted sheets and I tried to learn, but I am a slow learner. Any time I had a question about where a towel went or anything I could just ask one of the residents, they were all so helpful and knowledgeable. There were a few individuals that I ran into where there was a slight communication barrier; however, that just made me want to talk to them more. I found that the more time I spent with them, the more comfortable I got, and easier and more natural communication came with that. There was one individual with Cerebral Palsy and I realized that I have not spent much time around individuals with Cerebral Palsy and it definitely made me want to do more looking into the disorder. After, laundry we had a nice lunch with all seven of us and it was nice to hear how positive everyone’s reactions were. I am so thankful for this group!!! Next, I spent the rest of my afternoon in an art room. This teacher is very inspiring she relates to each resident so well and it seems as if they all really enjoy spending time with her and around her. Each resident was working on their own thing at different levels; the title of the art room is “Creative Expressions”. One individual that really impressed me was a non-verbal paraplegic that could communicate by moving his eyeballs. This is something I have heard of, but never witnessed myself and he was a great artist on top of it. I see myself going back to this art room at the end of the week sometime. I am getting the idea that this place is sort of the Ivy League of places for this population to go. In the evening we watched the KU basketball game and I fell asleep pretty early.
ReplyDeleteToday is Thursday, January 14th and it was a long day indeed. We spent 12 hours volunteering today since we took the day off yesterday. We combined the hours we were scheduled to do yesterday with our schedule today. However, I loved every minute of being at Misericordia and I am so thankful that I got to experience some very special things today. Part of me wanted to volunteer in areas that I had been previously in the week, but I felt like I would get a more broad and accurate perception of what the entire campus was like if I continued volunteering in new places. In the morning I went to Lynn’s art room and was amazed by some very impressive work. I was introduced to one woman that I really opened up to and we had some good life talks. Another man was in a wheelchair and I didn’t think he would be able to paint much, but I was wrong. He had multiple extremely impressive works hanging on the walls in the room and now he is working on a tree piece. He seemed nonverbal at first when I was talking to him, but then Lynn explained to me that he is able to communicate by moving his eyes. I asked him yes or no questions and he could answer yes by looking up and no by looking down. This is so impressive and yet another reminder that you do not know anything about a person by simply looking at them. In the afternoon I was in a different art room. This teacher was different, he was a philosophy major and he taught the residents very complex topics about things like religion, punishment, and the Nazi’s. Here I met another resident that I assumed to be nonverbal only to find that I was wrong yet again. After this art room we played basketball with the residents in a game of about 30 on 30. This was a blast and exactly what I love to do in my free time. Later we spent time with the severe and profound residents. This is what I want to be doing for my career; it was amazing to see each of their personalities shine through in a different way through recreational therapy.
ReplyDeleteToday is Friday, January 15th and I am sad today was my last day here at Misericordia. Unfortunately, one member of our group had to fly home last night with a really high fever and the stomach flu. This morning I spent time in the Coffee Packaging work opportunity. The guy in charge of this work opportunity is super cool and I had a blast working with the guys in there. For lunch we got the opportunity to eat lunch in their resturaunt on campus where many of the residents work. It was delicious and so impressive to see their skills. I do no think I would ever be able to be a waitress because it seems like such an overwhelming job, but the empoyees there seemed to be doing their jobs with ease. After lunch I stopped in their gift shop and bought my mom and I a shirt that had a copy of residents art work on it and the same thing in a stationary set. It is really neat because the residents get a portion of the profit that is made off of their artwork. In the afternoon I spent time in another person’s art room that I had never been in before and had a really good time. I spent this time painting and talking with a few of the residents while I reflected on my experience here. It is so refreshing and reassuring to see how much love each of the residents have for the staff at Misericordia, that is something you cannot fake and that is how I can tell they are truly happy at Misericordia. I have been thoroughly impressed with their staff all week. I was sad to leave Misericordia today and I hope I can make it back sometime in the future. In the evening we went ice-skating in Millennium park for our last hurrah as a group. I hope to get together with my group again soon in Lawrence, I had a great time spending time with them.
ReplyDeleteEpworth
ReplyDeleteDay 1
Today was a very interesting day. We woke up early and went to Epworth in time for breakfast. After that, we had our training session. I was expecting more details during this time but mostly they just shared the overall mission of Epworth and showed a video about their outreach programs.
After orientation we were sent into our assigned classrooms, some in pairs and some flying solo. I was assigned to a 4th-7th-grade classroom. In my classroom, there were 11 students, 1 teacher, and 2 assistants to help the teacher. As we walked over to pick up the students from breakfast my teacher asked me what all I had been told about her students. When I replied casually that they were students with emotional and behavioral challenges, she gave me a look that made it clear that I had no idea what I was getting into. At first I thought she was wrong; they just seemed like your normal rowdy bunch of kids. However, as the day progressed the outbursts became louder and more violent. There was one student in particular that seemed to struggle the most. When he had outbursts they were almost always violent in nature. He would either grab or hit the other students that he was upset with. Eventually he had to be restrained and forcibly removed from the classroom. My teacher was right, I was not at all ready for that. I had never been in a situation like that and it was especially difficult because there was nothing I could do to help. As we piled back into the van at the end of the day everyone was talking about how great their classes were and how much they loved their students already and I was sitting there is utter disbelief. I can’t imagine dealing with this for a week let alone as a job.
We had the evening off tonight which meant plenty of time to cook supper and discuss more thoroughly how our days went. I’m so excited because we are all going to hang out and play games as a group tonight. I’m still nervous for tomorrow but having the support of my group makes me feel so much better. We might switch classrooms on our third day so that we can all experience new dynamics. I think I would like that.
Epworth
ReplyDeleteDay 2
Today was so much better than yesterday. I’ve decided yesterday was just a learning curve kind of day. Today I felt like I was beginning to really have a presence in the classroom and the kids were becoming more comfortable with me. Overall, the classroom had much better behavior, there weren’t any many big outbursts today and although students had to leave the room for breaks (time to cool down away from the situation) no one needs to be forcibly removed. There were still moments though when it was hard to calm students down. Also, I have to admit that the student that was causing most of the big problems yesterday was gone today which might have made big difference.
After class, we went to the drop-in center for homeless teens. When we got there they had just finished preparing a hot meal. The center is an amazing place. It offers clothes and a pantry, a TV with gaming systems, a foosball table, a Ping-Pong table, computers, showers, cooking lessons in their kitchen, and staff support. I really appreciated the tour of their facilities but when we stayed to hang out I felt in the way for most of the time. They were only a few teens that were comfortable talking with us. They were all so gracious though. Even with everything they were going through they would offer to move so we could sit and give us the controls so that we could play the games. For those that we did talk with, it was like chatting with one of my friends, which made it hard to remember that they might not have anywhere to sleep tonight, or food for the next day.
I’m excited for tomorrow but at the same point a little nervous that if that student is back tomorrow it might be a bad day again. We will just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.
Epworth
ReplyDeleteDay 3
He’s here! He is having a much better day today though. He needed a few breaks but overall his temper was significantly better. When I talked to the teachers about it they said that although each student has their ups and downs, a lot of their behavior depends on if they took their medication that day or not. It is interesting how much medicine could calm someone down if that’s the case. I still wonder if there is more to it than I know.
The students are becoming more comfortable with me. They go through a set schedule just like any school the only difference is that for math they switch classrooms to be with their appropriate achievement level. I like this time because I get to see a wider range of ages at work on the same material. You can definitely tell it bothers the older students to be put in the same class as younger students and they shut down more because they don’t want to be embarrassed for misunderstanding. After math they all go back to their original classrooms. In my class we have a girl who commonly acts out to get attention. Today she was laying across her chair ignoring her work when I came up to talk to her. I asked her about why she wasn’t working and her response shocked me. She said it didn’t matter if she worked or not because they were all in there to deal with being crazy not to really learn. This really hurt to hear because the teachers care so much about teaching them to handle their frustrations better while teaching them new content and she just wasn’t seeing that at all.
Tonight we went to YES. It is another center for homeless teens but this center is residential. They have a mixture of boys and girls and we all grouped up to play games and get to know each other. This experience was much better than the other because the teens were overall more willing to talk and interested in learning more about our lives as well as share their own.
Epworth
ReplyDeleteDay 4
Today was both the best and the worst day of this trip.
I spent more time today observing the student with violent temper issues and talking with him. He is teaching me so much about teaching and how important it is to understand your students. At breakfast today he was upset at a student for inappropriate behavior and when I asked him what was bugging him, he explained that it was other students disrespecting the teachers. As I watched him throughout the rest of the day, I realized he was exactly right. He knew his trigger and it was people not listening to the teachers. This gave me so much respect for him. He knew what set him off and it was something that I completely understood because it frustrates me as well. He also was identifying ways that he could deal with this frustration, such as talking to another teacher about it and just ignoring the situation entirely. The only thing that made me sad while talking to him was when I asked him about wanting to leave Epworth and go back to public school, he had absolutely no desire to do it. He said that the teachers here understood him and helped and that the public school teachers didn’t do that so he didn’t want to go back. I’m glad he loves Epworth but I also think he should strive toward public school.
This entire week students have been more and more comfortable and forth coming with me and I absolutely love this. I love that they feel they can trust me and that they know I am here to help them. Today, however, I had a student reveal something to me that was absolutely terrifying and I was utterly shocked. What she told me was about the home life of another student. I was conflicted because I needed to act on this information but didn’t want the other student to feel like her confidence with me had been broken. In the end, I convinced the student to approach one of their main teachers about the issue. This was such a hard thing for me to hear because throughout the week I was becoming so close with the students and it was crazy to me that she was dealing with it and I would have had no idea if the other student hadn’t told me first. It just makes me nervous that if something like that is occurring in my classroom in the future, I won’t even realize it.
Tonight we went back to the first drop-in center we went to. This time it was much better because we were helping out in classrooms. There was a little mix up on which sessions we were helping with but we ending up all attending the communication session and then splitting up between the anger management classroom and the eating disorder classroom. I think these topics are extremely important in helping those teens and it was great to hear about the rewards program the center set up for teens that are committed to bettering their lives.
Epworth
ReplyDeleteDay 5
Today is going to be a sad day. I can already tell. I love working with my students this week and I feel so bad leaving. They keep asking when I’ll be back next and it breaks my heart to tell them that I have no idea. Even if I could come back there is no guarantee they will be here. I hope they won’t be here, that means that they have improved enough to transition back to a public school.
Morning class was the same as usual. I can tell the kids are ready for this afternoon though. On Friday afternoons they get to have ‘Fun Friday’, from noon to two they get different rewards based upon how well they behaved during the day. For students with the highest score, they can travel to other classrooms, for the next bracket they get to have iPads to play games on, and everyone can watch the movie and play with puzzles and games. Since the entire class was pretty good this week they earned an extra recess in the gym today. When we got to the gym things started going downhill quickly. There was a lot of arguing about the kickball game and it ended in one very upset student. This shocked us all because we had never seen her behave this way before. When one of the teachers tried to approach her she begin kicking, punching, and screaming at the top of her lungs. It ended up taking 4 teachers to restrain her and take her to the other building into a resource room where she could calm down.
Although this disappointed me especially after her behavior the rest of the week, I think it was a good reminder that everyone has good days and bad days. These kids are just kids. They are coping with issues that I couldn’t cope with now let alone at their age. School is their release and some days are going to be good and some are going to be not so good. I wish they were closer so that I could stop by every now and then to check up on them. I am going to miss them so much.
Slocum - Epworth
ReplyDeleteDay 1
Today, I felt kind of useless. Epworth is a school that has “provided the St. Louis community with essential youth development services that have helped thousands of children overcome severe emotional and behavioral challenges caused by abuse or neglect.” I was still trying to learn the ropes of what was going on in the class, in terms of the kids’ knowledge, and also getting to know the teachers and students. It was very difficult from the start. I got to work with kids from 7-9 years old and it was difficult to get a handle on each of the kids and work with them, since I still had no knowledge of who the kids were and what behaviors they were struggling with. I worked with one of the students for most of the day. He didn’t have a wide vocabulary at all and was at a very low level (below pre-school). We worked on the letters of the alphabet, both upper and lower cases, for a lot of the day. Even through just today, I could see an improvement of his knowledge of the letters. We had to work on not only letters, but putting words together that he knew to work on some spelling. He wasn’t on the same level as any of the other students, so he had a lot of free time when we ran out of things to do. I think my favorite part of today was getting to know my teacher and TAs. They were a lot of fun and super helpful but also very personable. They helped me get confortable and gave me a little background on each of the students to help me understand them. Today was one of the most stressful ones, but at the same time, it was one of the easiest days I’ve had in a school.
Day 2
ReplyDeleteThis morning, it was tough to get out of bed. I am really mentally and physically tired. The students were just as fun as they were yesterday and we got to play dodge ball. My fellow trip mates got pretty confortable with they classes too. I was asked to play dodge ball with some of the upper junior high kids, and this helped me to get some knowledge of what they other kids in the school were up to and how to handle some of their behaviors. Not only did I get to work with my kids again but we also went to Epworth’s Drop In Center. Here, students who meet certain criteria (no money, in school, don’t have a safe place to stay, etc.) can hang out with other students and play games, have a hot meal, access to computers to apply for jobs, and many other things. We (the alt breaks group) came to learn about the place and hang out and talk with the students. I played foosball with some of the kids here and I got to know them and their story. I felt bad for the young men and women here because a lot of them seemed very genuine and shouldn’t be in these situations. They talked just like I did when I was their age and did a lot of the same things. They just made some wrong choices a long the way and couldn’t recover. I learned a lot here. More than what I would learn doing the same things in Lawrence. I’m glad that I was put out of my comfort zone to learn more about what it means to be a teacher. You can be a teacher outside of a school to anyone that you meant. You make an impression by the things you say and the things you do.
Day 3
ReplyDeleteToday, I was excited to get out of bed. I had a great day yesterday and I was excited to do it again. I have a lot more knowledge of my kids and was able to help a lot more. Today was the middle of the week and I think they knew it. There were a lot of outburst today and about half the kids had to be separated or taken to a different room to calm down. I worked with each of the kids today, separately and I saw that they all learn differently, which of course I already knew. All of my teaching classes have taught me a lot about behaviors and how each person learns and remembers things in different ways. I saw a lot of this today. A LOT. Considering a lot of what we were doing today was simple math phonics sounds, I had to teach them differently when they asked me questions. By the time I was helping the last few, I was coming up with some very creative way to do so. Today, we also went to Epworth’s Drop In Housing. Here, there was similar criteria, and was apartments that student lived in from 2-4 weeks. Our volunteer coordinator wanted us to come in and talk to them and just give the kids a little bit of hope. We did some ice breaker games to get to know each other so we could understand where the kids have been. After playing some games with them, we talked about their lives and what they’ve been doing. They were given time to ask us about our lives as well and what we do. They did ask us about college and what it means to be a student in a college. I think we helped more here than we did yesterday at the drop in center.
Day 4
ReplyDeleteI love my kids! Today, we were going to switch classrooms with each other but we all loved our classes so much that we didn’t want to. Today again, was a stressful one with a lot of outburst but I had a wider knowledge of what to do and didn’t feel as useless. Even some of the kids, after having their outburst, would come talk to me about they issue and would ask me how to solve it or how to make it better. I played some sports with some of the other classes again and got to know them even more. Today we also went back to the Drop In center where we did some activities with the classes that were being taught that evening (Anger Management, Communication, etc.) to some of the older kids that were just out of school. We weren’t as prepared as I wish we were but nonetheless, I think we did a great job. Even though the kids in these classes were about the same age as some of the people in our group, I think we got through to some of them though. They seem to really enjoy our games and fun activities that helped to teach them in a different way. We got some personal time with them that helped to teach us new ways to get through to kids of this age. It can be hard when you’ve never worked with kids of this age, when they are done with school and when we are about their age. Today, I think, was one of the most stressful days that we had that week. We had to teach the kids all day and then teach more that night after we were all mentally exhausted. Overall, it was a great day and I am sad that tomorrow is our last day working with them.
Day 5
ReplyDeleteToday is the last day. I am already sad and we just left the school. I love my students and I don’t want to leave them yet. They have been asking us when we will be back because they loved us. It breaks my heart that we had to tell them that we wouldn’t be back. I think I would like to volunteer there again, and maybe I could do that this summer. Today was pretty normal despite all of the kids waiting for Friday Fun Day. Fridays are always a little more relaxing because they know all the kids have been working really hard this whole week. My students knew it was Friday so they worked very hard in the morning so they could have the iPads in the afternoon. That’s really all that happened with the students. I did get a little more time to talk to the TAs and they talked to me about each of the kids and their stories a little more in depth. I am sad to be leaving, not only for the kids but because the two TAs have been amazing and I am going to miss them very much! They staff was gracious enough to give us gifts for working so hard this week and I cried a little bit as we left the school. I hate goodbyes. These kids have been amazing both as kids and friends! I am going to miss them so much!
Sunday
ReplyDeleteWhen we finally arrived in Atlanta last night, the city greeted us with twinkling lights and astounding architecture. I’ve experienced large cities before, but the scene was beautiful and the sheer height of the city left an impression nonetheless. On the way to and from activities today, I was able to see the stately homes and detailed building in the light. Traffic was a little crazy, but there was no shortage of things to quietly observe from the passenger window. I caught myself thinking that everything in Atlanta must have this quality of beauty, this purpose in design and openness to art- that people seem to be thriving here and that even on a day like this when the weather leaves a little to be desired, everything is well cared for and thriving (even, if not especially the aging homes and buildings). I thought on this and realized I knew better than that. That despite the temptation to take a tourist’s view of my surroundings similar to what I might see on a postcard or visitor’s brochure, there had to be more to the city than that. There were too many people here for it to be that ideal and though I had been told that Atlanta stands apart from much of the south in many ways, its context must nonetheless be a component of its identity. I just needed to look a little closer, listen a little more intently; I needed to give a little more time and attention to the details of my surroundings. There was a homeless man with a sign standing near the highway on-ramp. Most of the people we passed during our short visit to Centennial Park did not seem to be from here- they were tourists taking pictures or they were rushing to get to the big game we had not been aware of until our arrival. We visited the CNN Center, the CNN world headquarters and within its expansive interior, next to the protruding tower of prestigious Omni Hotel rooms, a woman in torn clothing gripping several bulging plastic bags sat on a bench and stared at the passing throng of people, occasionally pointing and speaking incoherently at one of them. On the way back to the housing site, I saw that some of the homes I had earlier thought to be in a state of charming disrepair were in fact in dire need of care and some of the businesses I thought to be small but surviving were actually closed permanently, not just for the day. I’ve learned in some of my classes this semester that its simply not possible to have 100% of the information in any given situation, but that it is possible to make an effort to see things ‘from the balcony instead of the dancefloor’. I’ve been trying to do that more often, and in a small way I think that’s what I practiced today. I think I like Atlanta better this way though, it’s more real now.
Monday
ReplyDeleteToday was our first day at Project Open Hand and though I had an idea of what we would be doing, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect the environment to be when we got there or what it would be like to work with my group. We’re definitely really close already- I guess 13 hours in van and some shared awkward moments in front of strangers will do that. Everyone has been so welcoming to us though that those moments have been fleeting and I think that the people we’ve encountered have found it so natural to be kind to us that we already feel at home here and comfortable with each other. We keep saying to each other that it is hard to believe that it’s only Monday and its true! Our experiences of the church service, lunch with Rhonda, Centennial Park, and especially dinner at Jo & Connie’s home were each so valuable and unique. We’re only 2 nights and 1 day in, but the cohesiveness we already feel was put to work right away this morning and only strengthened over the course of the day. We had to work together to pack meals correctly and quickly and had to communicate to each other in the same way. We easily found a groove and were able to adapt what the shift leader had set up to what worked best for us. Early on we found ourselves stepping in for each other when we saw someone’s work stacking up or that they needed something refilled or moved, etc. It’s kind of weird, but we all just adapted to each new task naturally and were able to work in a comfortable silence as easily as we did while swapping stories. The shift leader was direct, but very nice to us. We learned his style of communicating pretty quickly and everything was really accessible after that. We all agree we really like this guy- he seems to know where everyone fits the best and I’m pretty sure he could do this all with his eyes closed.
Tuesday
ReplyDeleteLast night we were invited to sit in with a group organized by the church called Get Morphed! It’s a support group for individuals of non-conforming gender identities. Some of the members present were transgender (male to female as well as female to male) and others identified as non-binary, other, and androgynous. I think they expected us to be completely unfamiliar with the trans community or glbt identities in general. They were so inviting and careful to create an environment which was a safe space for questions and open discussion. Though the members of our group come from a range of backgrounds, none of us really needed an introduction- most of us have experience from our day-to-day lives and/or academically. We were excited to engage in with the group members and once everyone in the room had together built a foundation for discussion, there was a really refreshing exchange of ideas. Today at Project Open Hand, they asked for a couple members of our group to help with catering prep and for someone in the office and the rest in meal packing and delivery prep. I had made sure to address possible area assignments the night before, so that went pretty smoothly and everyone ended up where they wanted to be. No one had seemed particularly excited to hang out in the office, so that’s where I decided to help out- and I really liked it. Sometimes the boring stuff is my jam- I’m not even embarrassed by that these days. It was cool to work my way through stuff to an end point and also to know that some of the details that would make a difference to someone who needed it were taken care of. I felt super isolated from my group though and was not a fan of that at all.
Wednesday
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, we were all kind of tired near the end of our volunteer shift today and I think Mark (the shift leader) saw it, even though we didn’t say anything out loud about it. At some point in the day, he was asking us different questions while we worked- standard stuff about our majors and that kind of thing (we’ve got a system down now of going through our names and year in school and major, much akin to the old-timey Mickey Mouse Club introductions) and he asked us when we were leaving. When we told him Friday was our last day, he shook his head and said, “Man, just when you get used to people, they leave”. I remembered what we had talked about in class about how our experience at our housing and work sites was temporary whereas the experience of the people there was not. I think it motivated us to try to work harder while we were there and was sharp reminder that we would be leaving sooner than we realized. Most people we encountered were really impressed for some reason that we are volunteering for both the morning and afternoon shifts and are here all week. Apparently, most groups just stop in for a morning or a weekend as a part of some bigger project or as a company exercise of some kind. There aren’t many all that many people there overall and once you get to observing people and talking to them, you can easily tell who works here, who volunteers their individual time a few days a week every week, and who’s a part of a group. I think I like talking to the folks here who regularly volunteer a few days of the week. I’m sure that they all have their own reasons- some of them are middle-aged and some are young, some of them are here to complete service hours for a DUI and some are here simply because they want to be whether they know someone enrolled in the program or because they came in one day and then just kept coming in after that.
Friday
ReplyDeleteToday all of us delivered meals from the Panther (as we’ve come to call our trusted van). It was kind of funny because we each fit into the process in much the same way as we did back at the site when packing the meals or preparing them for delivery. Also, it was really satisfying to see the same food be made into a meal, pack it, prep it, and then deliver it. Most of the people we delivered to were happy to see us, though not all of them were particularly- and that’s okay. We drove into different areas; some neighborhoods seemed really nice and well kept up while others seemed to have been that way at some time in the past but had since fallen into disrepair. A few of the deliveries were to homes in a big loop of independent living houses where people were taking morning walks and seemed to know their neighbors well enough to stop and chat with them. Some deliveries were made to residents of large homes in expensive neighborhoods. I know that this is representative of the many different types of clients that Project Open Hand serves. Some of them are people who cannot afford healthy meals and most are currently experiencing illness (such as aids, cancer, diabetes), at risk of serious illness, or recovering from treatment. Due to this, some are unable to provide for their families the way they normally would and some have no families at all. Other clients can afford to pay for meals as a way of becoming healthy, losing weight, or simply to support the organization with funds that would otherwise pay for frozen dinners or fast food. It’s interesting to me that Project Open Hand has been able to find ways to adapt as they’ve grown to meet both the evolving needs of the surrounding community and the financial needs of the organization.