CSL SoS - Week 4

I can't believe I'm currently on my fifth week here. It has gone by SO fast.

During week four, I spent most of my time going out into the community to interview our partners. We averaged about four or five appointments per day, which meant our days were insanely busy. I'm thoroughly enjoying this part, mainly because it has been giving me an opportunity to reconnect with some of the partners I haven't seen in a while due to my British expeditions (Brenda at the Neighborhood Center gave me a big hug!!).

Every time I leave an interview, I want to change my service site to that partner. There are so many amazing things going on in this community to support and improve itself. At the same time, there is so much NEED ... it's almost overwhelming. I'm trying to figure out which site I want to work with in the fall, because I feel like I'm yet to find my niche. There are so many great options, but I haven't seen one that screams ME. Which is kind of frustrating. Perhaps with the CBR and with this database project, I'll find that place and get started making a difference.

Little progress was made last week with my CBR project due to our jam-packed schedule. Dr. Schorr looked over the questions I want to use to interview various food assistance agencies and approved them, which was an awesome step. Starting tomorrow, I'll start setting up appointments to meet with those agencies, a step I'm excited/semi-nervous about.

In the evenings, I've been preparing for the upcoming Civil Rights trip by reading dreadfully dull books and making futile attempts at writing the required essays. To be honest, I'm really excited to get this reading over with so I can relax and finally read some books for pleasure. I also can't wait for the trip itself - we get to go so many historically significant places and meet some incredibly influential people from the Civil Rights Movement. That starts Friday, so combine that with the holiday yesterday, and I've got a very short week this week!

Until next week!

lightning and thoughts.

Ahh, Memorial Day: the perfect time to hang out with family and reflect on a busy week (and in this case, also a prime time to sit on a porch and watch a lightning storm). This past week has brought me through orthopedics, cardiology, family medicine, and gastroenterology, and they all offered more insight into health care than I ever anticipated. I experienced grumpy doctors, grumpy patients, flawed insurance systems, and dramatic nursing staffs, but was also exposed to some truly great physicians who deeply care for their patients and seek to do more than eradicate disease.

Often times, there is a big difference between simply treating an illness and truly caring for a patient. I’m learning that it’s not all about pharmaceuticals, but so many doctors just hear the symptoms and rip off a page of their prescription pad without sincerely attempting to comfort the patient. Patients are people; along with medical care, they seek compassion and encouragement from their doctor, but not all physicians offer this kind of deeper healing; they make it through the exam, give the scientific answer, document all the necessary notes for reimbursement, and call in the next patient.
I am realizing that— with or without our approval— time passes and we all get older. Every day I am getting closer to having to make a decision about what my chosen career will be, and it’s a little bit scary. If I do end up following this M.D. track, I still have no idea what I will to specialize in, but I’m not totally worried yet. What I do know is that I want to be a doctor that patients brag about, one that looks at an undergraduate shadow and says, “You’re learning from a great Doc.” That is how I’ve been able to determine which days I need to pay more attention—when a patient looks at me and says how great their doctor is. Obviously, they’re doing something right, and I want to learn what it is.

Picture 1

This past week and a half was awesome, rewarding and tiring all at the same time. I can't remember the last time I've wanted to nap so much in my life (other than after pulling all-nighters, of course). So far, I've only fiven in twice! Last week, we went on a field trip to a Daytona Cubs game and I was one of the chaperones. It was and education event day so there for students from many elementary schools there. I had my own group of eight fifth graders and we ventured off on our own. While they were a well-behaved group, I never fully grasped all the responsivility invovled until that day. Now only that, I must have counted heads a thousand times within the couple of hours we were there. We enjoyed each other's company, but it wasn't really enjoyable for any of us because it was so hot outside. The bus ride back was pretty miserable...haha...we were sandwhiched together in groups of three to a seat with minimal air conditioning and lots of body heat.

Other than the field trip, it has just been a normal week. Well, as normal as school gets. I graded papers, gave a test ...you know, the usual. There was one day, the fifth grade teacher was out at a meeting so I helped the fourth grade teach who I aided for during the year. She was behind on her grading (this is a total understatement! She was three weeks behind. See for yourself picture 1). Thank goodness I had my cup of gingseng tea. I graded for seven hours and I still had a pile left. Granted, I put everything in alphabetical order.To give you an idea of how much papers there were, imagine four full sized textbooks stacked together. Nonetheless, I was glad I could help her out. There is so much that teachers need to do for the students now that it is towards the end of the year in order for them to go on to the next grade level. You know how stress we get during finals? That's how if feels like for them. Never, a dull moment, that's for sure.

2ndish week of Young Life: I played condiment twister and got stuck on a mulch pile.

Ok, so the week before last I was on vacation with my family in Cocoa Beach. Totally awesome by the way. Anyway, that's why I didn't blog that week.

So, this past week we had our last club on Monday. This club is particularly crazy. We call is "messiest club" because it is basically a full on food fight. This is the first time I was able to attend since I was here. Just to give you an idea, here is a list of things I was covered in:

eggs
ketchup
mustard
relish
mayonnaise
flour
dirt
spaghetti
corn
string beans
pickled eggs

It was pretty exciting and pretty smelly. I would put a picture or two up here, but I don't have them yet. Hopefully they will be up soon for you guys.
Of course, the rest of the week was spent cleaning up the aftermath of the club. We got some kids to help with this and in turn they received some money for camp. Also, we now have about 15 girls signed up for camp. This is really exciting and also a little nerve racking. There are only two girl leaders, including myself. Hopefully, together we will be able to get to know all of them well during our camp week. I'm hoping that next week I will be able to work with more of the girls who are planning on coming to camp. I already know most of them, but now it's my job to get know the girls I don't know before we go to camp. I'm also getting ready for my month at the Young Life camp in Georgia. I feel like that is when my true summer of service starts. Most likely, I will be working about 12 hours a day there. It's going to be hard work, but I am extremely excited.

Oh yea, my area director decided to try and go over the pile of mulch we just acquired at the Young Life house. :

Maria (W!) SoS - Weeks 2 and 3 - combined!

So I've realized that my blog titles are just so ... NOT interesting. But, that's OK. Maybe I'll come up with something more entertaining.

Working a 9-5 job is a lot different than I expected. Actually no, it's exactly what I expected. Very tiring. I don't know how on Earth I'll manage doing this in the future with kids and a family and managing to have a social life. I just want to go home at the end of the day and stare mindlessly at the television until it becomes a socially acceptable time to go to bed. I love my apartment, and being able to cook all my own meals, something I got used to while abroad. I'm very excited for the lovely Scarlett to move in with me next week!

Anyway, I have to back up a ways, because this blog is overdue. We're going to go back in time to the week of May 9-14. Alex Sanchez and I worked LONG hours on the Bonner videos, viewable on Youtube at the following links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vJtJjDiMTk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nFdXX3g3Y

We spent three days straight in the computer lab at media services, editing the videos, picking the music, writing out the blurbs, running out to get more footage, taking pictures, decided to scrap one of our videos and frantically trying to come up with another video, which we pulled together rather quickly. As I said in my last post, these videos were submitted for the SLI Bonner Video Project, so we'll find out next week if we won anything. I know at least three or four of our incoming Bonners have watched the videos to get more information about the program, so it's already starting to serve its purpose. Score :)

Week 3 ... What happened last week? This is a problem - early dementia!! I can't remember. Oh yes! We started working on our Community Partner Database project, which I'm very excited about. Last week, we cleaned out the filing cabinets where the old files for our partners were stored, created new folders, finalized and re-finalized the interview form, and printed copies for each community partner. We then proceeded to call all 45 of our partners in one day (split between myself, Mary [our new Americorps VISTA], and Tyce [who will be the Environmental Issue Area chair person thing]) to begin setting up appointments. This is where the years of working in a chiropractor's office came in handy - I've had far too much practice calling people to set up appointments. Far too much. But that's OK.

When we weren't making phone calls and organizing files, I was surfing the Internet. I'll admit it. I went from webpage to webpage to webpage ... to research local food assistance programs (and you thought I was looking at Facebook :D) for a pseudo-Community Based Research project. I've found SO much information. It's slightly ridiculous how many programs (both federal and non-profit) are available to people who need help getting their next meal or meals, and yet so much need is going unmet. I saw some statistics (by the way, we are the county with the highest level of poverty in Central Florida - 13.1%!) that completely shocked me. Florida spent over $350,000,000 in food stamps (called SNAP: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - they sure like their acronyms) last month, just last month alone. I don't have the numbers in front of me, otherwise I'd list stuff off for your reading pleasure. This is up almost $100,000,000 from this time last year. Um, that's a LOT of cash. And people are still hungry. I researched several other programs that offer food assistance from the government, the local food bank (different from a food pantry! They distribute food to organizations that distribute food to people), and then REALLY local soup kitchens and food pantries. I'll write about what I'm doing next at the end of this week, when I know what I'm doing next with that.

Anyway, I think that's all I have to write about for now. You'll be hearing from me again at the end of the week!

B-love!

i'm tired...

okay, so this is over a week old, but for some reason when I went to post it, it wasn't working...here it is. better late than never, right?

Classes have ended, seniors have graduated, grades have been released, and the Florida sun is scorching and bright. Yep, it’s summer. And yet, somehow my days do not have the same lackadaisical feel that I’m used to. Oh wait, I guess it’s due to my waking up at 6:45 every morning to work long days at the hospital…Yeah, that’s probably it.

I don’t have any cool pictures—since it would probably be weird to take a snapshot in a hospital ward—but my words will have to do…

An orientation last week kicked off the experience, with myself and the eleven other people who are completing this same project being given a tour of the hospital. Let me tell you, even as small as Florida Hospital DeLand is, it was a tiring day going through every department and learning what they do.

On Thursday, I started my interactions with the doctors and patients, and it’s just been a whirlwind tour since then. Already I’ve worked in the emergency department, the operating room, radiology, physical therapy, internal medicine, and with a family doctor. I’ve visited with a total of 72 patients already, and it has been a real learning experience to observe how the different kinds of people react to treatment, to doctors, and to the general healthcare setting.

Three days ago we had to tell an already depressed man that he had colon cancer. Yesterday, we helped someone walk again (after knee replacement surgery). Today, we told a woman she was cancer free. The emotions have been up and down, and this experience—only halfway through—is unlike anything I’ve ever taken on. Here’s hoping I have enough energy to make it two more weeks!

As a side note, if anyone reading this so desires, please pray that the political turmoil in Thailand settles down so that the other half of this Summer of Service can come to fruition…Thank you!

Week 1: Mission Accomplished

My first week on the job was quite the adventure. My first day out I was sent off on my own by Matt Hinton, the 2nd-in-command in the Outreach Department. I registered a few people to vote and helped some other request absentee ballots. All week I visited nursing homes and assisted living centers so that we could bring our services, such as voter registration and answering questions about elections procedure, right to their rooms/cafterias. It was really inspiring to know that I was providing a vital service to the men and women in those places of care, because they can't do it on their own: they are truly grateful for the dedication put in by the members of the outreach department.



I was surprised at how quickly I assimilated into the office atmosphere. The one thing I can safely say I never want to do is sit behind a desk for more then 4 hours at a time. I am so lucky because I am working with the "face" of the elections department. Therefore, we have to be seen!



There was a challenging part to last weeks visits. Although some of the persons re-registering, requesting absentee ballots, or what have you, were quite intelligible and lucid, there were a few that had trouble remembering things like the last 4 digits of their social security numbers or their birth years. It makes you thankful for your health, visiting places like those.



Besides registering people to vote, I was contacting community businesses/service providers/organizations to confirm addresses that the outreach department had on file for each of them. Basically, I was attempting to confirm as many addresses as possible in order

to avoid high quanities of returned mail from a community letter mailing we will be doing in the next week or so. Returned mail can put some departmental budgets in the red! :(



The assisted living communities were new environments for me to experience. Believe it or not, not a single one we visited was remotely similar in any way. There are so many differing approaches to assisted living facilities. Some are very impersonal and smell like hospitals. Others are like resort living! The one thing that struck me was that I could sense the comfort/happiness of the inhabitants of theses places by the attitudes of the staff/nurses. The most organized places had the happiest staff members and the most communal feeling. It was nice connecting with some of the residents; some of them have survived their children's lives and really don't have family; so, no visitors for them. Just handing a wheelchair confined veteran a flag-lapel pin can change his entire demeanor and open him up to a casual conversation about civic duty. These elderly folks have a lot to say if someone would just listen.

I am loving the work I am doing. I know that I'm planting the seed for many people to make conscientious decisions at the polls.

Have a great day! :D