I am so tired and sleepy today. I went late to bed yesterday because I was writing my diary. Anyway today we started at 10a.m. We waited half an hour, so we started 10.30. We prepared the boardgames and buzzles for the residents. As I said before we are working in the activities room. We played with the residents when they came. It was really funny, but I was easy to be annoyed. They couldn’t play at all. Just some of them. One of the residents, Lilian, who I told you about yesterday, she who was saying that she is stupid and helpless……………..
Today she put the “dishgames”(can’t explain it by words, will explain it to you when we are back to college) in her teacup and just fell asleep. Really funny. I and Desiree were looking at each other and laughing. Good experience.
We get our lunch break at 12. I went to the college and met my friends and went to the canteen. At 1 o’clock I went to the bus stop, which is very close to Nazareth House and waited for Oksana there. I saw Oksana just for 10 mins. She was happy and told me much about her work. Later Desiree came and we went to Nazareth House together. I said to Desiree please never be sick these two weeks :). We attended 10 mins late but they didn’t care about that. We helped Raquel with tidying the dishes and cups. She asked us about if we have worked in caring home before and we said no. So she explained more about it and took us around to the floors. It’s a big nursing home with old history and it is very organized. We saw the living rooms there residents were sitting after lunch. The have a main kitchen in the ground floor. There are 4 or 5 floors, I think. We spoke to the residents we already know. And I spoke to an old man which I don’t know and he can’t hear well. I said hello to him. He answered:” do you want to talk to me for some reasons”. I said no I just want to say hello to you. Then I looked at Desiree and laughed.
We finished at about 14.30. And now I’m at college and writing my diary. C ya.
I agreed with Desiree in advance to meet at 8.30a.m. at Hammersmith station and then we went together to Nazareth house. We attended 5 minutes earlier. They told us in the reception to wait. I don’t know why they insist that we are studying social and health care. We met Sister Celine, our employer and the person who is responsible for us. She was very nice. She asked us about where we are from and what we are studying. She sent us to a woman who we are going to work with during the next two weeks. Her name is Raquel. She is really nice and understanding person. We introduced ourselves to each other. She said to us to wait and she will come soon…..
We didn’t really get how long “soon” would take?!! I and Desiree waited in the activities room, there we are supposed to be working throughout the two weeks. We waited for about 1 and half an hour until Raquel appeared again. She explained that we are going to start working everyday at 10 a.m. and finish at 3 p.m. We will have Wedenesdays off. And the lunch break is from 12 a.m.- 13.30, she said that we can change it if we like. She informed us that they have birthday party for one of the residents so we had to prepare the tables with cover, dishes, cups, spoons…..etc. We prepared the cake, cookies, drinks, sweets, chips…….etc. While we were preparing we opened the windows and they told us that it is against the law because residents can jump out of the window and run away. They told us that it happened before!!
We are going to work in the activities room, there residents paint, play, dance or do other activities which have not been told to us yet. At about 11 a.m. Raquel brought 5 residents, sitting in wheelchairs, to paint until 12 a.m. We had already prepared the colours, brushes and papers which we drew different shapes on as heart, star, tree, circle…..etc. The residents were nice and smiling at us. The residents have mental problemes, so they couldn’t paint the simple shapes we had drawn. We helped them with painting and encouraged them a lot to continue painting. We served them biscuits, tea and milk. One of the residents was sad. She was the only one who painted the shape correct. She painted the heart shape. When we asked her where she is from., because she looked like philipines. She said that her heart is sad like her. Her sister died and that has a big impact on her. She is from Mexico. Other residents, who without reason I was helping her a lot maybe because she was saying all the time that she is stupid and helpless. She said that we are wasting our time with her and she wants to do something useful. I didn’t understand what she means with useful. Maybe she is not interested in what they do in Nazareth House. We took the break at 12 a.m. I and Desiree went to Hammersmith College to meet our friends. I saw Nicci and she sked me about what I am doing at college. I said that I have break 1 and half an hour. I said to her that the work is really boring and that we didn’t expect it to be like that because they weren’t ready for us and they haven’t plan anything to us to do. It is like up to us to decide when and what to do. They don’t matter/care.
Oksana called me at 12.45 and I met her near the college. We walked to Hammersmith station while we were talking to each other about our day. She told me that she has counted money all the time! We met Viola and Kneil at McDonald’s by accident and had a little chat. We all were so happy to meet each other. I and Desiree went back to work at 13.40. The party had already started. They were eating and listening to music. We talked to the residents and danced with some of them. It was so funny. At about 14.15, the party finished. We had to tidy everything. We were listening to music while we were tidying. Me and Desiree were dancing while sweeping the floor. We pretended to be Cinderellas.
We finished at 14.50.
I will work at Nazareth House. The work involves taking care of elder people. I’m looking forward that.
