Read –With-Me At HGS

Location: House Of The Good Shepherd

Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2013; 6:30-7:45 pm

It had been several months since I had been to this project, but it had been one that I was meaning to return to.  As mentioned previously, Chicago Cares takes the privacy of this establishment very seriously; owing to it being a shelter for women seeking a haven from domestic violence.  While this is a residence for the women - where they also get counseling and other advice pertaining to rebuilding their lives - our job was to spend an evening with the children.  I arrived to see that there were several volunteers already there, some working with the younger kids, while I would be with the older ones.  I checked-in with our Volunteer leader Jocelyn and then we waited in silence. None of the volunteers were talking with each other and it was almost as if we were waiting to hear back the results of a delicate surgery in progress!  Whatever happened to spending the first 10 minutes learning about the project's mission?  Well, Jocelyn has been leading this for 3 years and is certainly an accomplished leader, and so it is far from it for me to pass any judgment.

Back to school supplies

We went downstairs to the playroom and removed 5 crates of books from the closet, all of them brought in by Chicago Cares.  Well, we were certainly not going to lack for reading material.  Kids came in like a hurricane and ran over to hug the volunteers that they knew, and there were several present. Jocelyn then got all of us in a circle for an icebreaker and this time it was stating what was our favorite thing about school.  Jocelyn started by stating her’s was shopping for the school supplies.  How true.  I remember all those lists from summer’s long ago, when I used to look forward to getting the new books for the school year – and how I used to regret studying them for the rest of the school year – or even getting a simple thing like a new eraser or pen and showing off to my mates the next day.  It is strange how one can remember things from long ago through a minor trigger like this innocuous icebreaker.  Many kids said that their favorite thing about school was the dismissal bell signifying the end of the school day!   Some others started naming subjects and many said “Math” while one even referred to lunch.  I said that my favorite thing was book’s, hoping that it would tie in with our activity for this evening.  But the best response by far was one volunteer stating that their favorite thing about school was “Making Friends”.

Our book

Jocelyn then asked the kids to pick 3 books and an adult to read with.  As usual no one picked me and while others departed, I spotted a little girl struggling to reach the crate because she wasn’t tall enough.  I asked if she wanted to read with me and when she nodded, I helped her get three books and then walked over to the big table and we settled down.  She said that she was here with 2 of her sisters and that she was the youngest of them all.  I could easily spot them because all three were wearing similar trinkets in their hair and resembled each other.  We started reading a book where a pig was the main character and she referred to him as “Porky”.  The book was set in Fall season with beautiful scenery, but she seemed disinterested and so we moved on to the next book.  This one was about a boy with blue skin.  In fact, everything about the book was blue.  She pointed out that the mountains were blue and seemed to lose interest after that.  Perhaps she lost touch with reality when she saw those blue mountains and it was amazing to see that in someone so young.  She was however asking me a lot of questions such as “Are there any adults in the story” and who had gotten the boy his things in the book.  It was great that while she may not have liked the books we had picked so far, she was interested enough to be inquisitive; and I took that as a positive sign. 

Next, we went to pick some other books and she selected a book about a ghost. I asked if she was afraid of ghosts and she emphatically said "No!”  After this she wanted to read a book with cars and we went back to the crates.  While I couldn't see any book with cars, I found one which had a sled and she said that it was okay with her.  It was called “Snow” and she was definitely interested in this one.  I asked if she liked snow and she replied in the affirmative, though she doesn't like getting cold.  Well, she could have spoken for me there.  We looked at pictures of kids playing in snow and waving and once again she was asking questions like “Why are they waving”, meaning I had to respond with creative answers.  The story had a snowman that was melting gradually with the advent of sun and she wanted to turn back the pages so that the sun disappeared and the snowman was whole again.  What a sweet thought and if it hadn't already happened before, at this moment she won me over completely.

Yeah...I was playing with dolls!

Next was game time and while everyone picked either board games or other crafts, she picked out a box of dolls and now wanted me to help her clothe them.  Well, I guess there is a first time for everything! She would give me clothes and ask to put on a doll.  As I struggled to do that, I joked with another volunteer that if anyone took a video of me doing this and then played it in reverse, friends and foes alike would have a field day with my reputation.  In the meanwhile my kid kept feeding me more dolls and clothes, till she eventually got bored and we went to pick out a new game.  We selected ‘Ring Toss’ and I was encouraging her to stand back and throw rings on the sticks.  However, her main goal was to get the rings in by hook or crook and so she would just come near and drop a ring on the stick, followed by giving me a high-five.  Who cares about the game anyways?  This was all about having fun. 

Soon this too lost interest for her and she went to do other things, leaving me to look around at what else was going on.  One group was playing the game ‘Life’ and other was learning about currency through the use of a cash register; while another volunteer and a girl were playing ‘Tic Tac Toe’.  I saw a little girl trying to make the U.S. flag and while she had the stripes down, she was putting spots as the stars.  I said that I could show her a better way and when she looked at me curiously, I cut tiny paper pieces, put glue on the top corner of the flag where stars go, and then sprinkled the paper pieces onto it.  When finished, to the surprise of us both, it looked pretty decent.  I walked over to another volunteer and her kid and they were playing a game of ‘Guess Who’, where through the process of elimination you guess the other person’s card and this one was with a Disney theme.  I watched it for some time till Jocelyn said that the time was up.  The kids formed a line, thanked us and then left as the rest of the volunteers helped put the books back into the closet.  It had been a tough few days and I had been mentally, physically and emotionally drained.  But for a brief time today as I read with that little girl, all the worries of the world had disappeared, just like that poor snowman with the advent of the sun.