A Sleeping Baby=Success - Day Three

I forgot to mention that I am required to wear an official volunteer vest when I'm at Rainbow. I see all kinds of uniforms when I eat lunch- from the actual colorful nurse scrubs and coats, to the college student nurses's white coats, to the handfuls of red volunteer vests. So, along with all the other staff and employees, I feel pretty legit to have a specific uniform. In addition to the nifty vest, every staff member must have an ID and Code (codes for emergencies) card. We are not permitted to enter our division unless we have both the ID and vest. 

Today, I tended to most of the crying babies on Rainbow 6. Like yesterday, two demanded that I stood and walked with them as I also held them. My arms are so sore from yesterday, but I'm alternating between the left and right arm. Another volunteer told me that she has gotten so much muscle strength from holding so many babies the past few weeks. 

One baby, only 6 months old, would cry every time I sat down. The nurses told me that he only falls asleep when you walk around with him. And he was a big 6 month old baby, but he was so so cute! There was another baby who just wanted to be held all the time. He was also big for his age, but he loved to cuddle with all the nurses and volunteers. He and I sat and played with toys and watched Cars. 

Today was more chaotic because I went from room to room to play and rock children to sleep. It was also really busy because we only had 2 volunteers, in contrast to 5 yesterday. 

~Clare

Ending the first week

I started working with School of Rock at an awkward time. Wednesday was kind of an 'in between day' as School of Rock transitioned out of one semester and into another. Each semester has one show and a theme. I'm not sure what the theme was, but the next one will be Jam Bands. Students will perform songs from classic bands like the Grateful Dead, Phish, and the Allman Brothers.
If you don't know, School of Rock is an after school program where students come to take lessons and play in bands together. As a former students, I know that it's a very rewarding experience for a young musician who is learning how to play an instrument or who just wants to play in a band. They have many places of operation in Cleveland, but I'm working at the branch in Highland Heights.
So far I've mostly been doing managerial work. From entering data into the computer, filing papers, and setting up the space. Later, when it's not an awkward time for School of Rock, I will be doing more significant things. But aside from that, I have been sitting in on private lessons to gain experience on teaching music. The musicians working at School of Rock are all low key people and being around the building and hanging out during lessons are very low pressure and a lot of fun.

Green Ooze

Today's material that I covered in the "Blender 3D: Noob to Pro" ebook involved materials and textures. What does this mean? It means basically what it sounds like; instead of the object in the program having the same old boring, arbitrary textures and colors, I learned how to manipulate the characteristics of the object to give them a different "material" (i.e. plastic, metal, ceramic, etc.) and a different texture.

The "plastic" material

The "metal" material

The "ceramic" material

Additionally, I learned how to change the textures of the object to make it seem as though it were made of different, odd materials. The first tutorial was to make a cube look like a block of wood through manipulation of color, shading, and texture. Although that mini-project was cool, I particularly enjoyed the creation of the blob of "green ooze" (hence the title of this post). It is, as the name implies, a blob of green ooze.

"Green Ooze"

Flatter "Green Ooze"

Oh, and I made a beach ball.

A beach ball

Ben Wu

Such a Workout! - Day Two

Today, I was much more experienced with the daily routine and felt more comfortable going around to patients' rooms. It was Adam's first day today, so I was the one showing him around. I was no longer the newbie. I even got a mini workout today. I didn't realize, but staff members, volunteers, etc. walk so much during their work day at the hospital. I have to sign in and out on a different floor than the one I actually work on. I'm walking around all day, running errands (getting toys or coloring books) for the parents and the children, or I'm taking the children on mini adventures in the stroller around the floor. I am also constantly walking around all the rooms to see if there are any children who would like to play in the Activity Center.

But that wasn't the workout today. The babies sure are super adorable, but they require a lot of work and strength as well. I was holding this 5 month old baby girl for two hours, trying to rock her to sleep. She would cry if I sat down, and I had to hold my arms out (she was comfortable when I held them like that). She loved to watch TV, so we watched Nemo together. Success! I got her to fall asleep, but when I put her in her crib, my arms began to ache so much, and they're still so sore tonight. I'm preparing myself to do the same thing for the next few weeks.

There was a little boy who was only 17 months, and my goodness, he had so much energy. I took him for a stroller walk, he stared out the window of Rainbow and looked at the view below, pushed him in the Little Tikes mobile car, played catch with him, and chased him down the hall. The nurses told me he loves to run, and he sure did!

I actually worked with quite a lot of children today, about 7, but these two really stood out to me because I spent most of my time with them. This has only been the 2nd day, and I already know it's going to be such a rewarding experience!

~Clare

3D Objects in 2D Space - More Confusing Than I Thought

At the time of my writing this post, I will have spent approximately twelve hours acclimating myself to the User Interface and functionality of the 3D modeling program Blender. Having no previous experience in 3D modeling, the first step - learning the functions of all the buttons and keys - was extremely difficult. The program is incredibly in-depth and contains innumerable functions and abilities, many of which I have yet to discover or use, even with the assistance of the super-helpful ebook tutorial, "Blender 3D: Noob to Pro".

Erica and I met the staff of Clemens Architecture today, with whom we will be working for the next few weeks to learn how 3D modeling is applied and used in architecture and architectural design. Suitably enough, the first exercise of the tutorial was to... wait for it... build a house. Of course, since it was the first tutorial, the house was basic and unextraordinary. And yet, finishing and rendering the image of the 3-dimensional house, was a satisfying feeling.

The finished house in edit mode

The finished house in edit mode - camera view

The finished, rendered house

 As I progress in the tutorial, I will be sure to post images of the projects that I finish along the way.

Ben Wu

Watching the Rain Come Down

Today, Sarah and I are somewhat unexpectedly spending another day getting ready to leave for Hyner Run State Park, PA and start work on our first of two trail building trips. We’ve been flooded out of our original plan to leave today, make a detour to the Tracy Ridge recreation area of the ANF and spend the afternoon hiking a section of Johnnycake trail that's carved into the side of what's basically a cliff overlooking the Allegheny reservoir (Noah has a good picture, I think). Instead of slogging through mud all day and spending the night out in a massive thunderstorm, we're taking today to read more prep materials and explore wild spaces near our homes. 

       This trip will be very different from our second week-long experience because it only runs from Friday to Sunday, which means that we’ll probably be doing quick, light maintenance like blazing, and all of the participants are camping and making food separately, which I think will lead to a much more separated dynamic than the one that we’ll get later on, when we’ll all be working together to cook and clean the cabin we’re staying in. While Sarah and I  don’t really know who we’re going to be working with aside from the trip leader, we’re really excited to see who shows up, find out why they’re devoting their weekend to trail building, and hopefully convince them to play some Frisbee. All this rain should continue to make things interesting for us;  I’m wondering how much of the work that was originally planned we’re going to be able to do on trails that are reduced to mud right now. 

Rainbow 6 - Day One

It took a while before I actually reached floor 6 of the Horvitz Tower at Rainbow. As the second part of my volunteer orientation, I had to take a tour of Rainbow 6, the floor I will be working at for the next few weeks, have a quick training on the floor, and also receive a TB test.

Getting the TB test was an adventure. My sponsor directed me to the basement of Rainbow (I had never been down there). This was a true basement-with the mail cart, dark, cement floors, narrow hallways, etc- and I was traveling down by myself. She gave me a visual map (with pictures!) as a guide to find the room where they do TB tests. I got an eerie feeling when I was walking down the dark always, but I got to the room just fine with the map! When I got there, they immediately turned me around and told me to head back up to the first floor. So basically, I didn't really have to go the basement. I finally got a TB test and some blood work done. This took 45 minutes.

Yes, now I was headed toward Rainbow 6. I met my two other sponsors, and I shadowed another volunteer from Brush High School who is doing her senior project at Rainbow as well. She was my mentor for the day. After another hour of training specifically for Rainbow 6, I was allowed to interact with the patients.

Because of confidentiality issues, I am not allowed to reveal too much information. But I can say I worked with three adorable children today. I played with two children, a 5 months old and a 2 year old, in the Activity Center/Playroom, and I did bedside activities with an 8 year old girl. I realized that some of these children have literally grown up in this hospital and have been here for most of their lives. All the nurses knew the 2 year old and greeted her like it was an every day routine. They noticed how much she has grown since she has been here! It's nice that the nurses try to connect with the children during their stay.

~Clare