SUPER – Thank You

Message For the Day: Children, Paper Chains, and Being Truly Grateful

Ugendran with his paper chains

Being a team of one has its disadvantages, like not having the time to blog everyday. I’ll do my best to get as much in here as I can in the time that I have.

My mornings at the hospital have been very rewarding so far this week. I seem to be drawn to the same three or four children and the language barrier, though still a problem at times, seems to work itself out either through another mother helping out with interpreting or just through a smile and hand gestures. I have continued working with my dear Shandar. He’s 10 and autistic and we’ve been working on his letters and his coloring. Today it was coloring and he remembered the side-to-side that Kathi taught us last week. I was so proud of him. He has a great mom too who is so much patience. She speaks some English and today asked where in the U.S. that I live.

Seam Children’s Home was been an absolute pleasure to be working at yesterday and today. Last night while two of the girls were coloring pictures, I had time to take the paper plate project and think about how to display it. I punched a hole in each plate and looped a large rubber band through it. Then I started hanging them from the many pieces of doweling that cross the windows in the library. Different heights, different colors. Beautiful! What these children had created really were works of art and I could see the belief starting to show in their eyes as each child came and went as the story spread of the display.

Senthil and Sakthivel

Tonight we completed work on the hundreds of paper loops, made into chains that the children started late last week. Each and every child that worked on this project loved it, but none more so than Senthil. This boy has always greeted me with a smile and a handshake, he has always approached every project with great enthusiasm, and tonight he was one of two boys, the other being Ugendran, to help complete the paper chain project. While we were in the library quietly working, Senthil suddenly looked up, looked around the room and exclaimed with his beautiful smile…”This (as he held up the paper chain he was working on), art projects (pointing to the paper plates on the windows), SUPER! Thank you”. As I said “you’re welcome” through my tears I felt truly grateful for being here and, I realized, Senthil is a truly grateful little boy.

We finished tonight on a real high note, as I started the kazoo band with 5 members. They caught on very quickly, Happy Birthday, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Jingle Bells, and something of their choosing. It was a big hit as several others came out wanting to try their hand at the new and funny sounding instrument. I’m hoping to add more members tomorrow and maybe I’ll even get them to march while they play. How fun!

Nancy