Read–With-Me At HGS

Location: House Of The Good Shepherd

Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2014; 6:30-7:45 pm

I walked into HGS with Marvin who was the leader for this evening.  Considering that it was a nice day, he said that we may all be able to come outside and play.  Wilson was there as well but seeing as there were more than enough volunteers, he left to deal with a fire.  The rest of us went downstairs and since everyone that was present was a seasoned HGS volunteer, Marvin said that his job was easier.  He said that many of the families had recently left HGS and considering that I had not been here for a few months, almost all of the kids I had known from before were gone.  Well, maybe someone from this new lot would be pick me as a reading partner.

One girl came in and she was as energetic as anyone who has been here before.  She was also quite dramatic in her persona and I knew that it would be an interesting evening with her.  We were waiting for other kids to show up and when none of them did, she went upstairs to recruit them.  She did bring a bunch of kids with her and all of them immediately rushed to pair up with a volunteer…except me of course.  I guess some things don’t change.  The girl from earlier had not picked anyone yet and besides me there was another volunteer who was free.  The girl said that she would read with both of us.  Well, that would work for me.  She picked very short 4-5 books that were way below her reading level and it was clear that there were other things on her mind besides reading. 

I did a reading of this in a "French" accent!

It looked like she has been strongly influenced by Wilson’s “Drama Club” that they have here on Thursday’s, as she wanted to do all of the readings in a “dramatic way”.  She proceeded to do a reading of a book, which in her opinion was dramatic, but was more like a rant of a TV Evangelist.  She them made my fellow volunteer read in a loud way, as if he was shouting.  As he did that, the rest of the kids realized that it was much more fun to watch our group rather than read and basically the entire organized reading structure collapsed.  As the volunteer screamed, she would bang on the table for effect and wanted him to read to the beat of her banging.  I sympathized with the poor fellow but not for too long since I was up next.  I had a book called ‘Ernie And The Twiddlebug Town Fair’ and she wanted me to read it in a French accent with dramatic flair.  Since dramatic in her mind meant loud, she wanted me to scream, at which I pointed out that French were in fact more soft spoken than others.  What followed next was me butchering the French accent, which sounded more British and German by the time I was done with it.  Next she took a book called ‘Rhino Peanut Butter’, which is a story of a Rhino who has misplaced his peanut butter sandwich, and is looking everywhere for it.  She did a performance with a lot of improvisation, as the Rhino searched for the sandwich.  With each passing page, myself - and the rest of the audience - were getting curious on what had happened to the sandwich, which was eventually discovered stuck to the back side of the Rhino, but not before she had hammed through the story.

Next, Marvin had the kids distribute cookies and the girl gave my fellow volunteer 2, saying that he had done a better job than me!  We were now going outside and she was clearly taking charge, saying that while others could play, we should take some books with us and put together an outdoor performance for everyone.  Oh, boy.  We went into what looked like a backyard and while the other kids either played on swings or slides, our girl gathered us 2 volunteers around an Aluminum bench for practice.  She had chosen 5 paged books on Kittens or Dogs or some kids, and wanted us to do the readings in a dramatic way - me in French and the other guy in an evil demonic voice.  This would most certainly be interesting.

Practice was more of her telling us what she wanted and then she went and recruited – or rather dragged – audience of 2 other volunteers and the kids that they were with.  She started with the book on Kittens and in front of a confused audience gave a performance that would make one look at Kittens in a very horrified way.  This included, at times, dragging the kids back into their seats and asking the audience questions.  Next I took to the “stage” for my reading on Dogs in German-French gibberish, leading to one little girl in the audience saying she did not understand me.  At least she wasn’t like another kid who threw dirt at me, a far cry from the flowers that people used to shower on stage performers in order to show their appreciation!  Next, the other volunteer took over and positively scared away everyone through his voice.  The performance was thankfully over, though if the people thought they could leave, they were mistaken.  Our girl then interviewed every audience member on how the performance was and the other little girl once again singled me out for criticism.  Sigh, tough crowd. 

Time was almost up and the girl’s mom was calling her inside.  We all went in and packed up after what had been the most unique ‘Read-With-Me’ project…and I had loved it.  If anyone had told me that we would succeed in making cute Kittens appear scary, I would not have believed them.  But such was our skill.  I hope this girl grows up to become something special.  For what we saw today was someone who would do well for herself.  She has the one thing people need in life - passion for something, no matter the ability.