Friday 10th June visits and workshops

At first when we got there i was a bit nervous as my workshop partner wasn't going to come in due to sickness, so i thought i would be on my own with a patient. but it was okay as my partner turned up anyway so my nerves cooled down a bit. although we planned the workshop and how it was going to happen i still think it was hard to determine how it was going to be depending on the patients.

We started off with everyone sitting in a circle and the patients coming in. i noticed that a few patients from before didn't turn up so there was less numbers but there was a few new faces too which was enlightening. Tessa and Finley introduced the workshop to them and what we will be doing such as casting and liquid light. at first i don't think the patients were too enthusiastic about liquid light and photography as they didn't really know what to expect which i suppose is fair.

Jerry, the music therapist, split as up into where we were sitting so i was not with my workshop partner but with another girl in my class. i didn't mind as we both had the same workshop plans and ideas for the project. The patient we were paired up with was Colin and his wife carol. carol told us this is their 2nd week at the hospice, which explains the new faces. we explained about the art project and who we were again in case it wasn't made clear at first. I noticed that Colin didn't talk much, and let his wife talk for him a lot. although she spoke about him a lot i don't think we got him engaged in the conversations and workshop.

Carol had a lot of interesting things to say about her and Colin's life but she was very closed up about certain subjects, I'm not sure if she was trying to avoid it being awkward or that she didn't want us knowing too much about her personal life. she spoke about her children and grandchildren a lot as she seemed really proud of them. she seemed very enthusiastic to do the animation workshop with objects and thought up of ways we could make a story through stop animation.

If Colin and carol are there next week i hope that Colin will be more involved with the workshops, i am now aware that he cannot walk or use his hands well so we will have to try and figure a way around it or have carol helping. I would like it a lot more if he spoke more often about himself, he told us he wasn't creative and enjoyed sport but I'd like to know more about him.

The animation workshop was successful besides not getting Colin to talk more. I really enjoyed it there and found out a lot of interesting things and i hope the next workshop will be just as good.

Mia