Week #4

Monday, March 16, 2009

I worked from 8:30 am to 3:30pm for a total of 7 hours.

Total hours so far: 24hrs 40min

This week I was lucky that I got to volunteer on a Monday instead of a Wednesday. Besides my usual newspaper delivery, patient visiting, (Oh!, And I got to deliver a gift to a couple who just had a baby! She was so cute!), and other various things, I got to be a part of something pretty fun. At the Volunteer Office, around a holiday, the volunteers participate in an activity called Holiday Hugs. It was created by a former volunteer who thought it would good for volunteers to go around visiting patients on holidays and giving them treats and goodies, maybe some toys and trinkets. The volunteers would visit each floor, dressed according to the holiday. Since the next day was St. Patrick's day, obviously everything was green. There were leprechaun hats and pins that said "I am fluent in Blarney!" and other fun Irish things. Unfortunately, I didn't get to participate in the actual Holiday Hugs, but I set up for it, making sure everything would be ready for the other volunteers to visit the patients.

Afterwards, I spent the usual time with the kids, playing with them, eating lunch, naptime, etc. During naptime, I had to get this little girl to sleep. She's about 2 1/2 and the cutest thing in the world. She was really restless, so I told her I would do this trick for her, but she had to lie on her stomach. On her back, I started doing the little rhyme, "Dot, dot. Line, line. Spider's crawling up your spine. Crack an egg, on your head. Let it drool all over your bed. Cool breeze. Tight squeeze, Now you got the shiveries." She liked it so much that everytime I stopped she would tell me to do it again. Eventually she fell asleep, and now I have a little trick to get the litte munchkins to sleep during naptime.

Overall, I am enjoying my WLE. It's a great way to get to know UCSF and some workings of a hospital. I love the kids I am with. I've started to think about what exactly my WLE project will be. Maybe it can be some addition to the Holiday Hugs, or an art project with the kids. It's kind of tricky seeing how there's already so much there.