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Sunday, 20 July 2008 |

I arrive around 9:00, and head into the room that holds Group 10, the
group I'm working with all summer. As I mentioned before, 12 kids
live in this room. When I arrive, the sanitarka has already prepared
their breakfasts, usually made of kasha and some sort of soup broth,
whether chicken or borsht or something else. Since all of these
children are invalids, I have to feed them all myself. Two of them
have started to learn how to feed themselves with the help of a
developmental specialist, Dasha, but I still have to help Masha
physically hold the spoon and help Ilya actually get the spoon to his
mouth. The process of feeding 12 children takes approximately an
hour, although occaisionally there is another volunteer in the room,
which cuts down on feeding time (and allows for more playing time!)
Around 10:00, or whenever feeding is done, I have 2.5 hours to engage
the kids however I'd like. For maybe a half hour, I walk around the
cribs, talking to everybody and getting all of the kids ready for the
next few hours of free time. Some of them are able to sit strapped in
high chairs, so I generally put Kolya P., Olga, Vasya, and Ilya into
them. These four are able to sit comfortably for a few hours. Many
of the others cannot sit for that long. Either their spines are too
twisted, their back muscles not strong enough, or have other
conditions that leave them lying in their cribs all day. For these
children, I'll string toys across the top of their cribs for them to
look at / bat at. For some, the sight of these toys brings squeals of
delight. Chinghiz, for example, will laugh for 10 minutes after
putting some toys across the bars of the crib. It's definitely
something I look forward to.
After everyone is kind of "situated" for the time being, I'm able to
take a few of them out for a walk in the strollers if the weather is
nice and to the playroom down the hall if it's rainy. We keep track
of who has walked or played everyday, to ensure that everyone is
getting an equal amount of turns getting special attention. Each day,
I'll take 2 kids out walking (or playing) - each one for an hour. On
days when two volunteers are in the room, of course, four kids get to
go out. This in itself shows the importance of volunteers - if
there's only one per room, each child only gets to leave the room once
every 6 days. For 6 days, they're in one room, most of them lying on
their backs. It makes me sad to think that Chinghiz, the oldest in
the room, has had such a life for 16 years. Some of the others, being
10, 12, or 14 years old have also been doing this for over a decade,
perhaps their biggest hope when they awake every morning is that maybe
today they'll get to go outside. It's tragic.
So after walking or playing, it's around 12:30, and the volunteers
have a half hour break for lunch. After that, I return to the room to
see 12 bowls prepared with the children's lunch. I set out to do the
tasks of feeding everyone (with the help of the sanitarka) and then
brushing everyone's teeth (which I do myself). The whole process
generally takes between an hour to 1.5 hours.
After being fed and having their teeth brushed, the kids are generally
in a pretty mellow state. Some begin to drift off to sleep, while
others watch me patrol the room. I generally take this time to stop
at each crib, while having one child in my lap and give everyone some
individual attention. However, I have discovered a few ways to hold
everyone's attention at once. Even though I'm sure to an adult I'd
look like a total fool, a sure-fire way to get at least 8 kids
laughing at once is to bound down the middle aisle of the room in a
zig-zag type fashion. How I came up with that, I don't even
remember...but the sheer unexpectedness of it gets an uproar of
laughter and definitely stops any tears that may of come up from
anyone.
I continue visiting/zig-zagging until it's time for the volunteers to
go home at 3:00. Other times, there are various tasks that I need to
help out with afterwards, such as cleaning dishes, vaccuming the
playroom, etc. Of course, I'd love to stay longer, but this is
naptime for the kids, so they don't really need me around. Sometimes
I leave exhausted, sometimes not, but I always leave looking forward
to the next day.
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Thursday, 21 February 2008 |
ANDORC volunteers and Tower Relations are in the process of planning Roctoberfest Live 2008. The line-up has not yet been finalized. We are still searching for a headlining band, so if anyone is interested, please contact us today. We hope to have the confirmed line-up no later than July 15th, so we can spread the word to the media.
In October 2007, ANDORC volunteers and Havilah Tower (Havilah Tower & the Seekers and Tower Relations) worked diligently together to create the first annual Rocktoberfest.Rocktoberfest included amazing music performances by Graham Wilkinson and the Underground Township, Shelley King, Herman the German, Tribal Nation, Havilah Tower & the Seekers, Repa (Russian Turnip), Rogue River String Band, Anna Dubina Pitts, Bowl of Influence, and Blueprint Rebellion. Also, a special thanks to our sponsors: Harkins Engineering, Espey Consultants, Austin Chronicle, Budweiser, Miller, Dripping Springs Vodka, Austin’s Park & Pizza, Hill Country Environmental, Ridgway, Tower Relations, SemiPrecious.com, and GoGirlsMusic.com. |
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