Hello...!
It's been quite an interesting week...and by interesting I mean: fun, scary, boring, exciting, funny, weird, uncomfortable. All in all, I think it went well. We arrived to Marycrest (only 9 miles from campus) Monday morning. We got our stuff settled into our "house", which is really an old abandoned office building on the Marycrest property. Everyone has their own room except Caroline and I share. I really don't mind at all though...it's like having a sleepover with one of your best friends every night! :) Anyways, after we got settled in we went and had lunch in the cafeteria in the Serenity building. There are two parts of Marycrest Assisted Living: the Serenity building is for senior citizens, and the Harmony building is for adults with disabilities or traumatic brain injuries (TBI's). Monday afternoon they didnt have anything for us planned except for "teambuilding" so Steve (my new TL!) took us to Jumpstreet! Which is a place filled with rows and rows of big trampolines! It was soooooo much fun! Then we went out for ice cream..Monday was a fantastic day.
On Tuesday we started in with our orientation. It was long, but necessary. We learned the different things that they wanted us to work on. We're going to develop 3 internship positions for Marycrest, which is pretty neat. They also talked to us about common diagnoses for the residents who live at Marycrest. They range from diabetes, to schizophrenia, to dementia, to epilepsy. They talked about how important it was for us to be aware of the disabilities and things, but they also challenged us to get past those things so we could really get to know the person. Wednesdays was still orientation stuff, and by Thursday afternoon they had us "out on the floor". We didn't have a specific schedule, but it was more just interacting with residents and just getting to know them. It was a little uncomfortable, but really exciting once we started getting to know the residents. They're a lot of fun! Each on of them is so interesting and has such good stories, it's all about taking the time to listen to the stories. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience..many of the Harmony residents are hard to understand, especially if they've had a TBI or stroke...there is even one man who is mentally brilliant, but is not so brilliant physically. He communicates with a computer that he types on (very very verrrry slowly) and then it speaks for him! This project is definitely about what we make of it. I feel extremely lucky that I have an AMAZING team leader this round. On Friday morning he started playing hte piano while we all sang, we had residents coming out of their rooms and out singing with us and one lady was even dancing!! I think as long as we have a good attitude and keep remembering to have fun, this project will be wonderful!
Now for the scary part of my week. On Friday evening Caroline and I were driving back from Walmart..and as we're cruising along about 3 or 4 blocks to go left in our trip we get hit from behind by a car in a high speed car chase!! He rammed into us and kept going, and then like 8 cops flew by him and continued chasing him. Luckily, one of the cops turned around for us. Caroline and I started freaking out, I called Steve (TL), and he came and helped us with everything we had to fill out. Besides the police report, we also have to fill out lots of other stuff because it's a government vehicle. It was EXTREMELY scary when it happened, but now that it's over and everything was fine we thinks its sorta neat that we were involved in a "high speed car chase"! hahahaha
So, there's still a few things on the weekends that Marycrest has requested help with. We're not techincally required to do it all but a few extra hours each weekend is appreciated. It kind of stinks cuz you totally feel bad if you don't go, but that's ok. Today (Sunday) we went and played bingo with them for awhile, it's nothing too hard. Some of my other teammates helped out yesterday with serving breakfast, lunch, and helped out with the St. Patty's day party. But, I went to downtown Denver to celebrate the holiday! Talk about crazy! Denver really goes all out for it. They have a HUGE parade. Supposedly it's the biggest St. Patty's parade west of the mississippi river. I thought that was pretty cool. The bars had lots of specials, and it was BEAUTIFUL outside. I'm glad I got to experience it all!
This week, things are going to be a little more structured. For example, tomorrow I am scheduled to work on the "volunteer programming" all day, but of course I can participate in resident activities as well. Tuesday I am scheduled to work with maintenance, which might mean painting, or working on a zen garden, or whatever. Wednesday I think I'm in charge of doing all the activities for the residents. With that being said, there's still going to be weird, awkward down time that you really don't know what to do with yourself. But really all you have to do is find a resident sitting somewhere and just chat with them. Or ask a staff if they need help with something. It's really laidback, and I really like it! Once again, I feel like my TL is who really helps me get motivated about this project. It's definitely stuff I'm interested in anyways, but he helps out a lot too. The team has a couple of downers on it, but every team does honestly. So you just learn to roll with it! :)
Oh yea, another thing...Steve had us start on Insanity this week! It's a workout video that is INSANE. It literally kicks our asses every night. Of course it's not mandatory, but Caroline and I have been doing it each night with him anyways because we've been talking about needing to get in shape! Aaaaand Steve is going to start getting up early and making either fruit or vegetables smoothies for us each morning. I'm getting so healthy (minus my candy addiction). Hopefully I can keep up with a semi-healthy lifestyle from now on...we'll see!
Well I think that can be the end of my rambling. We dont have WiFi in our housing, so Mcdonald's is the closest place to get it. I'll try hard to keep posting at least once a week though!! Hope all is well for everyone at home.
xoxo
Abby :)
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