Blog – Monday March 25
Today's authors: Lindsey Clark and Carl Tunink
a.k.a The Dynamic Duo
Hey Y'all,
Last night we encountered our first road bump on our odyssey towards combating childhood obesity. Our glorious site leaders, Brian and Chris, decided to go for a midnight stroll around the church (to check the cars) and ended up locking themselves out. After frantically calling each member of our group, even though we were all in bed, they were finally rescued by the maidens Lindsey and Jaime to the delight of all.
We started our day bright and early at 7:30 am (8:10 for those of us who aren't morning people) with delicious chocolate chip pancakes made by Chris and Eric. Then, around 8:45 we headed to the Arkansas Children's Hospital for our orientation. Upon arriving, we were greeted by Melissa Wolfe and Emily English who took us on a tour of one of the coolest hospitals we have ever seen. There were playgrounds on the roof and in each wing of the hospital, and beautiful murals depicting each season covered the walls. A special play area for the children promoted creativity through crafts and provided an escape back into a relatively normal life. The hospital was very children and family friendly, which we all loved! We also got to take a tour of the PULSE (Pediatric Understanding and Learning through Simulated Education) center, which is unique to the Arkansas Children's Hospital because it was the first simulation center developed for a Pediatric hospital. Essentially, the program makes use of sophisticated manikins to simulate real life situations for residents and medical students. Afterwards, we met the hospital employees for a gourmet lunch consisting of baked potatoes, chili, broccoli, dessert and tea.
After our delicious lunch, we drove to our site for the rest of the week, Cloverdale Middle School. Our guide and new mentor Ryan Norman met us. Ryan took us on a brief tour of the school, garden, and greenhouse. He explained the significance of having the Delta Garden Project at that school and the impact he hopes it will have on the children. So far the program has had problems with vandalism and lack of interest in colder weather, but the kids get excited to be outside and working in the warmer weather. Overall our experience at the school has been extremely humbling. Being at the school only reiterated the lesson Austin shared with us last night. We then split up into a few different groups to help out around the school. The main group worked out in the field reclaiming some of the rows to be used for planting. This involved a lot of heavy weeding and we determined that we would need gardening gloves in the future. Others in our group got to go work in the classroom with some of the teachers. It was great to go see where we will be working and the students that we will be helping.
After returning from our exhausting first day many of us promptly took a very refreshing nap while others went to the store to complete some of our shopping for the next few days. Nappers awoke to the wonderful culinary experience that was Jamie and Chris. Filled up on chicken parmesan and leftover broccoli and chili from lunch, we all headed to the recreation areas. The ASB basketball series continued with the series tied up 1-1. Finally, we reflected and ended the night with some best Mafia playing of all time. We have excellent storytellers on our trip with Eric Hucker being a fable master.
We can't wait to get to work with these students throughout the week!!
Good Night Y'all
No comments:
Post a Comment