Constant Changes--Week 4

This week I visited one home two times.  On Monday, I went and saw the fifteen year old uncle of the young boy receiving care.  We worked with model magic.  He took his time figuring out what he was going to make, and in the end he decided to make a basketball.  He was very quiet when he was working, and I didn't really try to start any conversations.  He finished up pretty quickly, and I asked if I should bring paint next time.  He said yes, so we scheduled to meet again on Wednesday to finish up the model magic project.

On Wednesday, I brought the paints.  I think he forgot about our meeting, but he was home so we met anyway.  He painted his basketball different colors, and it only took him about fifteen minutes to do it.  He was quiet again while he painted.  Then, because I had a feeling he had done enough craft projects, I brought out a deck of cards.  We played War and Blackjack, which was his idea.  He talked about how he and his dad used to play blackjack.  At the end of our time together, I mentioned that I would not be seeing him until August.

On Tuesday, I went into the office and made a lot of phone calls.  I called almost every family in Fragile Footprints reminding them about our summer camp next week.  I left a lot of messages.  I felt a little like a telemarketer trying to sell the camp to the families.  In the end, though, it gave us a better idea of how many people would be coming on which days.

The camp is every day, Monday through Friday from 12pm-3pm.  The whole family is welcome to come to the camp, and there are activities for all ages.  Next week should be wild.

Later on Tuesday we had our "Tough Stuff" program.  As a warm up activity, we did Laugh Yoga.  I had never done laugh yoga, but I had a rough idea of what it'd be like.  Some of the kids liked it, some wanted nothing to do with it.  Then we made trees out of clay.  The trees were supposed to depict a feeling that the children wanted to feel.  A lot of the kids ended up saying that the tree was "happy."  One child said his tree was "lonely," as in he wanted to feel lonely.  He comes from a home that is very small and I don't think he gets a lot of privacy at home.

On Thursday I had supervision and we had our bi-weekly team meeting.  We talked about some pretty heavy cases at the team meeting; there are a few patients that are declining in health.  We also did some last minute planning for the camp next week.

I have a lot to do next week for the camp, so I will be very busy between that, writing the paper, and working.  And of course, finding time for self-care.