During my second trip to the cancer hospital, I got to actually interact with the kids (doesn't make the first trip sound to good, does it?). A small group of us including Avinash, Ian, and I were in charge of working collaboratively with each other and the children to do finger painting. We had only two colors of paint, green and blue so we had to get a little creative.
This was an interesting challenge for me because, while I'm artistic and basically enjoy any type of art, I prefer much more precise forms of art. For me to do something vague and more impressionistic was much harder then I expected.
As individual children came to our table we would work through basic instruction on what they could do, then really just let them have free rein over their creative talents. We were also in charge of making sure a large scale mess wasn't created. We had to plan around who would help each child and do what at the station, therefore we created a system where I tried to keep the station generally organized and have the papers drying out after they were painted without flying away. Avinash did most of the interaction with the little kids.
One of the sweetest things I saw happened when a small child saw Ian's painting of a crab. The child then proceeded to recreate the picture, in a different color, and write "Crab." Just like Ian's painting. The fact that the little kid noticed the painting was super sweet, and I know that Ian felt complimented.
It was challenging at clean up time because of the need to keep the kids organized while still accomplishing the task at hand. It is important to understand the implications of our actions, and we must be careful how we act around the kids. Therefore, when a little boy ran up and grabbed some paintings I had made, I simply allowed him to do it as he expected a response. After he grew bored, he put them down on a table and walked off. I then proceeded to collect them.
I know for a fact that this Service trip will increase my tolerance and patience levels, as they are both necessary for interaction. I also hope that over the rest of the time I do the project, I can bring hope to the kids lives.
