Last Friday (4/11) I volunteered again. The first activity we did involved showing the residents flash cards of random items and they had to tell us what it was and what it was used for. I showed the first card to an older lady and I asked her what it was. She looked at it and shouted out "A brush!?" and gave me a somewhat confused looked. It was a look of "are you seriously asking me what that is?". This really bugged me. She looked at me as though I was treating her like a child and like I was almost questioning her intelligence. But my first day at the health care facility the activity director told us that many of the residents have trouble comprehending what’s going on and understanding what you’re saying, almost as if they have regressed to when they were children. But the more time I spend with these people I just do not think that’s true. Maybe they can't tell us in words that they understand because they’re basically trapped in their own heads, but i think they know exactly what's going on, at least for the most part.
Well after the first 20 minutes it was very clear that all the residents were bored out of their minds, because most of them had fallen asleep at this point. That day, me and the other people I volunteer with were left alone and in charge of what we did for that hour. We all looked at each other and decided that this was not in any way helping to better these people. So we decided to turn on some music. This seemed to wake a few of them up. One of the residents (who happens to be someone I enjoy talking to and spending time with very much, not that I'm choosing favorites or anything :]), gave me an awful odd look when I started dancing and rocking out to 'Sweet Home Alabama'. I saw him staring at me and asked if he wanted to dance with me. When I grabbed his hand I felt him hold on real tight, and he gave me a big smile. After the song ended I got a beach ball and asked him if he wanted to hit it back and forth. He really seemed to like this idea. I'd throw it to him and he'd spike it right back. I told him that he could probably have started on my volleyball team in high school and he seemed to get a kick out of that.
The next activity we did was playing with the big ball again. This week I took some pictures so that you guys could get an idea of what exactly we do with them.
This particular activity seems to be pretty popular with the residents. They enjoy getting to kick the ball as hard as they can. At the same time this really helps them to get some blood flowing because as you can see from the pictures every single one of the residents is confined to a wheel chair.
It’s really starting to become clear to me that these people just want someone to spend time with them. They all seem so lonely and want someone to show them some form of love. One lady in particular always reaches for my hand whenever I’m near her. She just wants to feel that closeness to someone and feel the kindness from something as simple as me holding her hand. Doing this service learning project has really been an eye opening experience. It’s almost been like a slap in the face about how fortune we all have it and how precious life really is.
Well after the first 20 minutes it was very clear that all the residents were bored out of their minds, because most of them had fallen asleep at this point. That day, me and the other people I volunteer with were left alone and in charge of what we did for that hour. We all looked at each other and decided that this was not in any way helping to better these people. So we decided to turn on some music. This seemed to wake a few of them up. One of the residents (who happens to be someone I enjoy talking to and spending time with very much, not that I'm choosing favorites or anything :]), gave me an awful odd look when I started dancing and rocking out to 'Sweet Home Alabama'. I saw him staring at me and asked if he wanted to dance with me. When I grabbed his hand I felt him hold on real tight, and he gave me a big smile. After the song ended I got a beach ball and asked him if he wanted to hit it back and forth. He really seemed to like this idea. I'd throw it to him and he'd spike it right back. I told him that he could probably have started on my volleyball team in high school and he seemed to get a kick out of that.
The next activity we did was playing with the big ball again. This week I took some pictures so that you guys could get an idea of what exactly we do with them.
This particular activity seems to be pretty popular with the residents. They enjoy getting to kick the ball as hard as they can. At the same time this really helps them to get some blood flowing because as you can see from the pictures every single one of the residents is confined to a wheel chair.
It’s really starting to become clear to me that these people just want someone to spend time with them. They all seem so lonely and want someone to show them some form of love. One lady in particular always reaches for my hand whenever I’m near her. She just wants to feel that closeness to someone and feel the kindness from something as simple as me holding her hand. Doing this service learning project has really been an eye opening experience. It’s almost been like a slap in the face about how fortune we all have it and how precious life really is.
1 comment:
Its really awesome what you are doing with these elderly folks. I really wish that there were opportunities like that available for my grandmother who had the same illness.
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