Location: Young (Ella Flagg) Elementary School
Date: Saturday, February 09, 2013; 10:00 am-12:00 pm
Epilogue As Prologue
Once again, I had not only had an
enriching experience spending time doing science activities with children, I had also learned a valuable
lesson on having faith in the inherent goodness of people.
Saturday Morning
Having been to this neighborhood
the previous weekend, I had realized that train was not the most convenient way
for me to get there. Hence I decided to
sit through a really long bus ride, that still left me with a bit of a
walk. Now, while the sidewalks had been
wet and slushy the previous Saturday, today they were icy and almost impossible
to walk upon. I decided to talk a less
busy road and walk on the street, rather than the sidewalks and after some time, found
myself at the school.
 |
| Art in the basketball court |
I was directed towards the
basketball court where all the kids and volunteers were eventually going to assemble. Besides the science project, there was also a
reading session, a cooking class, as well as sports activity. I found my volunteer leader Ajith and joined
him, just as other volunteers Mark, Hari and Janice arrived. I had met Mark at a project at the HGS and we
caught up. I also saw Marika, whom I had
met during the Celebration of Service project and was not surprised to learn
that she was participating in the sports program. The kids started arriving with their breakfast trays and one boy offered me his cupcake.
Although I did not take him up on his offer, he still wanted to
converse. He asked me my heritage, and said that he detected an accent. I asked him his name and he pointed to his
name tag which read Jake. There was
another little girl hovering around and she was his younger sister Laurie. He told me that they had 5 other sisters and one
brother, with Jake and Laurie being the youngest. Soon all of our party had assembled and Ajith
led us to a second floor playroom.
We pulled some tables together
and Jake insisted that Hari and I sit on either side of him. Amongst the other kids was a chirpy girl
Carmen and a boy Arthur, along with three other kids. Before Ajith could get the session started,
Laurie had a tantrum and would not listen to anyone. A teacher from the school heard this and came
in to escort her outside the classroom. Saturday
or not, discipline is always going to be important. Ajith called the session to order and said
that the first thing was for all of us to introduce ourselves and as a game, we were to say two things which were true and one lie about us. The group would then guess which amongst the
three things was a lie. This was a fantastic
ice breaker and all the kids were on board. Carmen was sitting next to me and
kept repeating that she did not want to tell a lie. Almost all the kids said that they liked ‘Math’
as a lie. Carmen said she likes to
sing, play violin and has a pink one – all of which we learnt were true. Carmen was one of those who played by her
own rules, while still being respectful.
When my turn came, I said I was a doctor, had gotten a ride to the
school and I was a doctor. It was
obvious that one of the doctor comments was a lie and Carmen said so. I asked which one and she said the first. I asked how could she be so sure and then she
said it was the second one. Once again I
challenged her and after some good natured ribbing, I said that while I have a
PhD, I was not a medical doctor. Ajith
explained that a PhD meant that I was studying for a really long time. Boy, don’t I know that!
 |
| Jake's house with me and Hari mounted on the top |
For our first activity, we were
going to be using gummy candy, marshmallows and toothpicks to make
structures. Ajith challenged everyone to
make the tallest standing structure and all the kids dove right into it. All except Carmen, who started thinking
about what she wanted to make. Carmen is one of those people who will always be the life of the party. She and I got along very well and chatted
non-stop. She said that she was going to
see ‘Disney On Ice’ that evening; and
I asked who her favorite Disney princess was. She thought about this for some time and said ‘Sleeping Beauty’. I said that mine was not exactly a princess, but would always be ‘Belle’ from “Beauty And The Beast’. Next she said that she was in girl scouts
and asked me to buy some cookies; after all she was saving for college. I said that I had already placed an order for
four through one of my colleagues and she pouted. Then she said that I should buy her a
birthday present, since it was coming up in March. I said that what would she get me for mine
and she said that while she wouldn’t, I should, since I was older. Man, she was a handful!
 |
| Laurie's tower with roses on top |
While Carmen was unsure about
her design, others had done a great job.
Jake had made a house and put two human figures on top - me and
Hari! Laurie, who had calmed down and was
now participating, had made a tall structure with roses on top. Arthur had also made a house and even
though she had changed her mind several times, Carmen had now settled on a
flat structure which she called a house with bouncy balls, represented by
marshmallows and gummy bears as people. She had done so while singing throughout, proving that she was truthful about that. While many were structures were creative, the best part was watching the
kids share supplies. Many were lending
gummy bears and toothpicks to each other and that was heartening to see. Amongst all of this, the thing that made me
laugh the most was a structure that one girl called ‘Peter Griffin’. I told her
that she could possibly display that in The
Museum Of Contemporary Art and make a lot of money.
Next experiment was everyone’s
favorite, 'Slime'. While Ajith and others
had never done this before, I had considerable experience with this one. While they worked with the kids, I made a
batch solution of Borax and went about adding it to everyone’s cup. As soon as the magic of Chemistry happened,
there was a lot of yelling screaming and the different colors only added to
their experience. After several minutes
of playing with their slime, it was time to clean up and leave. All the children collected their slime and
Carmen asked me if I would come back the next time, in two weeks. I have another project lined up, but did not
have the heart to tell her that. I said I would be seeing her soon and while I
do not know when, it is a promise that I intend to keep.
 |
| Peter Griffin: Abstract thinking |
Prologue As Epilogue
As I arrived for the project by
the bus, to avoid the icy sidewalks I had taken to the smaller streets and was
walking on them, looking over my shoulder to avoid oncoming cars. At one of the intersections I was making my
way around the icy conditions when a car driver got impatient and honked a few
times to get my out of the way. Through some difficulty I did manage to let
them through, but at that instance a selfish thought went through my head. “I am here on a freezing Saturday morning to
help your children and this community. The
least you can do is show me some courtesy”, said the voice in my head. Barely had I finished that thought when a
truck pulled up next to me and an elderly gentleman asked if I was from Chicago
Cares and going to Ella Flagg School. I
nodded and he asked me to hop in. He was
going there to drop of his grand-daughter and while it was just a couple of
blocks, this gesture was a resounding slap on my face for doubting what this
entire thing was about. It’s not that we
are here to help a community, but as a society we are helping each other in small ways, though it may not always be obvious. We would all do well to never lose sight of that.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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