October 27th,20007

Today when I went to volunteer at the Sisters of Charity I was able to help out with the Halloween Party. The Halloween Party was for the sisters, and the aid's/volunteer's children. The activity center was decorated very festive. There were carved pumpkins on each table, Halloween posters of spiders, bats, and witches. There was many games for the children to play. For instance, pin the corn on the pumpkin,and pumpkin bean bag toss. Many of the children and sisters came dressed in thier halloween costumes. They all looked adorable! The party was alot of fun because I loved helpping the children play games, and talking with the sisters. Sister Mary was so energetic and made a point to talk with every child, and she had a smile on her face during the entire party. She was making ghosts for the children useing kleenexes and suckers. I really enjoyed volunteering today because I feel like I have really gotten to know some of the sisters personally since I have been helpping at the activity center. At the party I did notice that the sisters who were still in really good health were able to interact with the children easily. But the sisters who could not easily move around, usually just sat at the tables quietly talking with eachother and observing all of the little children. This experience reminded me of when my great grandma was alive and we would have parties. She would usually sit on a couch in the living room, but sometimes she would go unnoticed because of the many activities going on at once. This made me realize that we need to make a point to reach out and talk to those around us, who may be shy or feel out of place. At the Halloween party I did this by making a point to go around to each table and talk with the sisters. Also, this party was a good way to reach out to a larger intermediate community. The sisters were able to meet the family members of their aids.

October 13,2007

When I went to volunteer today I helped set up for the sisters to paint pictures of scarecrows. There were about ten people that came to paint. While the sisters were painting, it was a good time for me to talk with them. When I was talking to Sister Margaret she told me how she came to the BVM’s after she was done with college. Then she had to go through two years of training to become a nun. She said that she went to college to be a teacher and she used to teach kindergarten through eighth grade. Margaret explained how she used to teach in areas where the children were African American and very poor. I thought it was interesting when I asked her if this gave her any challenges and she said it was no different that teaching children that were white. This really surprised me because in my education classes many of my professors have explained that it is harder to teach students from low income areas because they might sleep in class or they may not come to school with all the supplies needed. It was fun listening to the many places that Sister Margaret has traveled to. When she was in college she traveled to many different states around the United States. She told me that I should take as many opportunities as I can to travel during school. This made me realize that I should not always hesitate to go on trips because of the cost. I can really learn from the places that I travel and now is the time to do it because once I get a job it will be a lot harder to travel.

Community Service October 29, 2007

Today I went to the Sisiters of Charity to volunteer. When I arrived I helped set up for Bingo by preparing the snacks and arranging the tables and chairs. Then I helped the other volunteers bring the nuns in wheel chairs down to the activity center. Many of the nuns were very excited to meet me ,and they thought it was great how i was taking time to help with the activites. During bingo I thought it was interesting the reactions from the different nuns. For example, one sister really wanted to win. She would become upset when her numbers were not called. Then towards the end, she called Bingo a couple of times when she didn't really have it. I was surprised by this sister's reaction because I had always percieved nuns as always selfless and not very competitive. I also think that her reaction relates to the way many people act in society today. Because many people are competitve and will take drastic measures for something that is not very important. In contrast, another sister who had won more than once felt bad because the person next her had not won once. I believe this was an act of compasion, and being humble. When I was helpping these sisters with bingo because some of them could not read the small numbers on thier card made me realize how thankful I am for my eye sight. Also, I hope that when I am older, I am able to have good health. After bingo, I helpped pass out the snack, and I socialized with the sisters. When I was talking to Sister Margarite, she said she used to be a chemistry teacher at Clarke for ten years. She said that she really enjoyed teaching, and loved chemisty. Also, she said she will never forget when the building was caught on fire becuase of the roofing problem. When I was listening to this nun talk about teaching and how much she really enjoyed it, made me really excited to have my own classroom to teach in someday. I actually stumpped Sister Margarite when I asked her how she believes teaching is different today than it was when she taught. This made me wonder how much the teaching field will change during the next 10-15 years while I am a teacher....

September 15th,2007 Service Project

Before: I am really excited about my community service project becuase this year my goal was to reach out to the Dubuque Community by competing some service. I am a little nervous because sometimes elderly poeple intimidate me. They do this becuase at times they appear to be really crabby, when you are trying to help them. When I did my service today I was extremely tired, but I was still going to try to be as cheerful as possible.

During: Today when I went to volunteer, Sister Mary Clamensa, gave me a tour of Mount Carmel. She explained that I would be transporting the nuns in wheelchairs from thier floor to the Loyala activity center. She informed me if I had any questions I could ask one of the aids. At first, I followed one of the aids around, as she showed me how to get all of the nuns. We would go foor by foor and knock on doors. Some nuns would say that they did not feel like coming and others, seemed very excited to go listen to the speaker. One sisters was very sweet, she said she did not want to listen to the speaker because she had elevatoritis. She didn't have it yesterday, but she had it today becuase she didn't like how some nuns would push buttons when they weren't suppose to, and some could only stand in a certain place.
The activity for today was a speaker, named Mert. She was someone that all of the sisters looked up to because they have known her for many year. Mert helps the nuns with their health problems, and whatever Mert says the nuns need to do, they follow those directions. Merts speech today was a slide show about her trip to South America. I really enjoyed the speech because I was able to learn about a country that I have never seen before. The pictures of the Alps Mountains, and Eguaso Falls were beautiful. It made me really appreciate the creation that God made, and we were put her to take care of it.
Today I met Sister Ethal. As I was talking to her I found out that she used to be teacher at Clarke College for 11 years. Ethal said she really enjoyed teaching psychology at Clarke. But she left to move to California to help her parents. This just reminded me of how you can be content with your life, but then you will be pulled in a different direction unexpectantly. I really hope to talk with Ethal again and learn more about her teaching experience at Clarke.
After: The most positive part of today was seeing how excited all of the nun were to meet me, and some even wanted to know if I was coming back. The hardest part of today was getting familiar with everything.