Free Trip to New Zealand

So, I went back to Aegis Living Senior Home, for my fourth time on Saturday morning. It was my usual shift from 9 am to 12 pm. Every Saturday morning the residents enjoy their morning exercise at 10:15, so I went and set up the chairs in the circle and put the weight balls next to the chairs. By the time I was done, one of the activity directors came and asked me to go with her and set up the other two buildings for their exercise time as well. So I went with her, and we encouraged the residents to get up and get active! It was really fun seeing the residents get energized and they seem really excited when they have something to do. After I was done setting up the other two buildings, I went back to the original lobby at about 9:45, so I still had time until their morning exercise. I ended up doing about 5 crosswords with the residents and it was really fun because they get really competitive and they race to see who can finish their crossword first. There was two residents that I really loved to hang out with on Saturday, Dot and Dorothy, because they are so energized all the time and they are like old best friends, it is so cute to watch them! Something that I found that was extremely cute was when we were doing the crossword puzzles, Dorothy gently kicked Dot and they started a staring competition but ended up laughing like 2 seconds later. I thought it was such a cute thing to see! (Cristel has a picture of them on her Equity 3 post). Soon it was time for the exercise, so Nikki and I led it.

After the exercise the residents helped me put the chairs from a circle into two rows to watch a slideshow. Every weekend they learn about a new place. Last week Cristel told me that they were wrapping up learning about Mexico, so this week they started to learn about New Zealand. Nikki had set up a slideshow about all the different monuments and special things about NZ plants and animals. She had a slide with a picture and under it was a caption, so we took turns reading it to the residents. Honestly, at first, I thought it was going to be really boring because no one would pay attention, but as we showed the first slide, which was an old church museum about 5 of the residents remembered going there back in the days on their family vacations. It was so interesting to hear about how different their vacations were and to hear their experiences. We learned about NZ high ice mountains and their colorful fish. By the time we were done, everyone had something to share out about a special memory from when they went on vacation. It was so fun to listen to their stories, because they explained everything in detail and they were so lively, after we had the discussion, I had about 15 minutes left to just hang out again with the residents, I did another crossword, and then helped the residents go in the dining hall for lunch. Then I signed out and left!

Since this volunteer work requires their volunteers a minimum of 50 hours of commitment, this isn't the last time I will be visiting this senior home. I enjoy to come here and spend my mornings in such a productive way. Honestly, after I leave I feel so happy and relaxed instead of waking up at 11:30 and having an unproductive day. The residents are always in such a good mood, and they love to interact with the volunteers, they aren't like those stereotypical "mean old people". From all four times of volunteering here, time had flown by so fast because you are always doing something, but the activity director doesn't give you busy work, you actually interact with the residents and spend time talking to them and hearing their amazing stories. Cristel and I came here because we wanted to see how senior home may abuse their residents, but at at this place the residents are at home, they are given so much to do and you can tell they are happy here!

My name tag!

My resident friends! Hehe

Doing their crossword