Sarah+Blome



Service Learning: ** African Hope **

Table of Contents: 1. **Essay** - A reflection of my time in service learning 2. **SMART Goals** - How I managed my project 4. **Action Plan** - What I did for my project 5. **4 Journal Entries** - My feelings about my project 6. **Disability Research** - My research about Down syndrome

Reflection Essay // A reflection on my time in Service Learning //  This year, service learning was a new experience for me. I had heard my friends talk about it last year, and I thought it would be kind of fun and it would also look good on my college transcripts. So, I signed up, and I became engrossed in a world that came to be exciting, fun, emotional, and altogether one big adventure for me. Service Learning showed me a new world: a world where not everyone has food to eat at night and a warm bed to sleep. It opened my eyes to the misfortunes of Egypt’s needy. My project allowed me to work with kids (my favorite people) and to assist them as much I could with gaining a better life and more opportunities. It makes me proud to know what I did could help a child in the future. What started off as a college opportunity ended as a life-changing experience, one that I want to continue working with in the years to come.  As I reflect on myself this past year, I realize how much I have learned from this class and how much I have learned from the kids I was supposed to be teaching myself! In the class, I learned about new disabilities I had never even heard of, and I learned about people who have these disabilities, and who have lives much different from my own. Down syndrome was my topic of choice and I read about kids who had done amazing things with Down syndrome and I was amazed at their strength and compassion. I also learned how to use my decision-making skills and develop goals and action plans for my project. The project itself was a huge learning experience for me, as I had never created my own project before in my life. There was so much to do, contacting the people who ran the schools and nurseries and developing lesson plans and purchasing and researching the best ways to buy paint and paint. I learned how to be independent and make decisions without an adult helping me. It was a really exciting thing when I realized just how much I had actually done on my own. Besides academic development, I also experienced personal development through service learning. I grew as a person in many ways. I learned to think about others before myself as I saw the poor conditions some people were spending their lives in, while I took a lot of my things for granted. I felt embarrassed that I complained about trivial things while these people were so strong. I went through challenges, as well. Teaching young children is not easy. When they don’t grasp a topic, I learned that you couldn’t get frustrated, no matter now much you really were. Patience really is a virtue, and it makes such a difference when a child who could get discouraged if you get mad realizes that it’s okay to make mistakes. Patience and dealing with small children is a skill I developed a lot during my project this year. Reflecting on my project, I can tell that we didn’t put much thought into it at the beginning. As we went on, we started becoming more and more organized; creating lesson plans and spending lots of time testing out the games and activities we played. We wanted everything to be perfect for the children! The beginning few lessons were a bit hectic and crazy but we knew we couldn’t get discouraged. As we persevered, the children began to trust us and think of us as friends rather than strangers who came to teach. We, too, began to look forward to our Saturdays when we could go see our first grade buddies at the school. We could tell we were making a difference in their lives when they would grasp concepts they couldn’t previously. Math had always been a tricky topic for some students; so we took them outside and sat down with them to play math games. Sometimes, they couldn’t understand the simplest things: like one plus one equals two. We invented easy, yet fun games that would help them. When the kids forgot they were learning and focused on the game at hand, they understood things quicker and more thoroughly. For instance, we took two children outside and made up a game on the spot. Using a tennis ball, we played the “counting” game, where we would toss the ball to a child and have them say a number, then have them toss to another child and that child would say the next number. We played it with addition, subtraction, and counting backwards, and eventually the kids could do it without hesitation. It made them, us, and especially their teachers extremely happy. Looking back on this year, I can see the bigger picture. In the beginning, I wasn’t really getting it. I thought this would look good for college, and maybe I could help a kid or two out. But now, I can see that service is really more than a transcript opportunity. It is a way of life; or it should be. In the future I plan to continue doing service wherever I am in the world, helping out my community as best I can. It makes me happy, and proud whenever I can make a difference, even in the smallest ways. Some people still don’t get it. When I ask my friends who aren’t in service learning if they want to help me out with a project or go to the school sometime, they aren’t interested or they say they don’t want to. I’m working on them, though, and recently they expressed interest in going with me to paint another room for the Happy Child Nursery. This made me extremely happy as I could see that they were changing their mindsets for the better! Service Learning is definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made so far, and I am proud I did it, and proud of what I have done. It’s made a difference in mine and so many other’s lives, and I am glad to say I was a part of it.

SMART Goals // Aiming for the Target: Goal Setting // S pecific - My goal is clear, simple, and has a single focus: helping the Sudanese refugee children M easurable - My goal is measurable in that we will be able to know we have achieved our goal by seeing a difference in the children's learning, environment, and attitudes A chievable - My goal is something I love doing. It will be difficult because the kids are not well behaved sometimes, but it is something I think I can accomplish R ealistic - The goal is within my capability, resources, and authority. I can use books and supplies from the school, and talk to the teachers and directors to receive permission and authority to perform my goals. T imely - My deadlines to see progress arebetween the beginning dates of the project - November 24th- to the last day of the project - May 23rd. The project is not exactly one you can measure through deadlines, however, as we are trying to measure the progress and growth we can see in the children. We found that these dates were timely and completely manageable.

Action Plan // My action plan for my journey through service //
 * Target Problem **

Schools in Egypt for Sudanese refugee children


 * Target Group **

Sudanese refugee 1st, 2nd, and kindergarteners


 * Project Title **

African Hope/Happy Child


 * Goals **

1) Better the learning environment of the children through painting, cleaning, etc

2) Give the children a time to play and have fun

3) Tutor small groups of children who are struggling in a larger class


 * Obstacles **

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">- Language barriers

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">- Limited resources

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">- Shy, or scared children

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">-Children getting bored from games or tutoring


 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">Tasks **

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">1) Paint rooms and hallways in the nursery to make it more cheerful for the children

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">2) Tutor one or two students at a time who are getting left behind in large classes (math, reading games)

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">3) Allow the children to have time to play safe, fun games during the school day

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">4) Teach math and reading through fun games outdoors and indoors

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">5) Help children overcome shyness around new people by playing icebreaker games and having them read to us

<span style="color: #ff0097; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console'; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: center;">4 Journal Entries // My thoughts and feelings during my service adventure // Journal 1 Sarah Blome <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">When Eve and I first thought of our project, our goal was a bit broad. We wanted to help the Sudanese refugee kids at the schools our churches sponsored in some way, but we didn’t quite know how. The first thing we did was to contact the woman that ran the Happy Child Nursery, a preschool for Sudanese refugee children. We asked her how we could help, but our schedules were so restrictive that we couldn’t set up a fixed schedule. We instead decided to paint a room of the school. On our first visit, walking in to the school was a bit of a shock. I had been there before, but all my previous visits had been during school hours, where the nursery was overrun with smiling, screaming kids. Now, my attention was on the school itself, and it looked a lot smaller and dreary than I remembered. The walls were painted an off-white color on which fingerprints and pencil marks seemed to stand out. The room we decided topaint had definitely been through some wear and tear. Our first thought was of the fun, bright colors we could use to make the dark, windowless room seem more cheerful for the two and three year olds who used it daily. However, Ekhlas (the woman who ran the school) said she wanted us to paint with the same color. We were extremely disappointed. We left feeling a bit discouraged, because we knew the dreary cream color wouldn’t make much of a difference. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The next day, we arrived at a small paint shop on road 9. The man was very nice. We picked the color closest to cream that we could find, but it looked yellower than the current color. When we got to the nursery and opened up the can, we were dismayed to find that not only was the color not even close to cream, but it was also extremely yellow. But we knew we couldn’t change now, and Ekhlas reluctantly agreed to let us paint. We felt horrible, but we thought that maybe the yellow would look good on the grimy walls. We painted for what seemed like hours. I had never thought that painting a simple room would be so hard! Catching drips with newspapers and our shirts, painting meticulously around light fixtures and plugs, and more. It was a brand new experience and I felt a lot of new appreciation for professional painters. In the end, the room looked great and Ekhlas was delighted with the yellowpaint choice. She even asked us to come back and paint another room with the same happy color. We were honored that we had made such a difference in such a simple way.

Journal 2 Sarah Blome <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">After the first painting job, we got an offer from my Youth leader, Ben Robinson. He had another project proposal for us that helped the same Nursery. To be honest, this idea sounded a lot more fun AND a lot more appealing than the painting job. For this particular job, we would be helping to organize St. John's annual "Angel Tree" toy drive. What would happen is that canvas bags decorated with paint and markers would be given out during church services, and then brought back stuffed with goodies and toys for the kids. Each bag was attached with an angel-shaped name tag that had a picture, age, and name of a different child on it, so you could personalize the bags according to age and gender. Another one of our jobs for this project was to bake cookies for 100 kids, parents, teachers, and volunteers. It was tough, tough work, but we managed. Really though, it was harder than it sounded. We got together one morning on the first day of winter break and brought out mound after mound of cookiedough we had baked in the days before and froze. We rolled them out, and began cutting them out with various Christmas-themed cookie cutters, like Santas and reindeer and mistletoe. Finally, after we had baked all 250 cookies, we began the hardest part: the decorating. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Now, it may not seem like a tedious or even boring job, but decorating 250 christmas cookies is a lot more difficult than it seems. You can only frost so many candy cane cookies with meticulous red and white stripes before you want to give up and just slather on one color and a dash of sprinkles. But we tried our hardest to make each one special and individual, and we managed to decorate all 200+ cookies very beautifully, if I do say so myself. On December 17th, we took our cookies and the bags to the Happy Child Nursery and met up with more people from St. Johns who had come to help. The kids put on a lovely Christmas carol show for us and then we handed out the gift bags to each happy yet very nervous child. At the end, we had cookies and juice and I think everyone had a great time. It was amazing to see how happy we could make these children with just a simple bag and a cookie!

Journal 3 Sarah Blome <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In March, I did another painting project by myself at the Happy Child Nursery. I thought it would be a way to rack up hours, but this one visit turned out to be a very life-changing one for me. I came to the nursery with my mom at night, later than Eve and I had gone before. This time, the nursery wasn't a nursery. It was doubling as a free kid's clinic, run by a man named John. As I began painting, John would come out of his office every once and a while to check on me. He noticed me struggling, and began to help, in between visits from screaming babies. He did the toughest parts, using a long roller to reach the top of the wall. I was genuinely honored that he took the time and effort to help me. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As we painted, John and I began to talk about his life in Egypt. He was a Sudanese man who had left his family 10 years ago to come to Egypt and work. After years of working elsewhere, he quit his job and opened a free children's clinic, run on Wednesdays and Mondays during the out of school hours in the Happy Child Nursery. He hardly made any money, but he seriously helped the extremely poor Sudanese living in the area. Not only was this clinic a place to get healed, but it was also a safe-haven for people on the streets. They could come in and sit down, have water or a bit of food, get checked over by John, and then be on their way. It was like a small break from the hectic outside world and I was so glad I could make it a bit better by repainting the walls a cheerful yellow color. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">John told me all about his wife and kids he had left in Sudan, and how while he loves his job and the people here, he yearns to go back to them. However, he knows that he needs to stay here a bit longer and help the ever-growing population of refugees. His strength and faith amazed me and I can honestly say this man is now one of my role models. Luckily, an anonymous donation to John allowed him to go back and visit his family for a week, and he is now trying to save money to bring them here to Cairo to live with him.

Journal 4 Sarah Blome <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">My last trip to the African Hope learning center was a bittersweet one. I had come to look forward to my weekly trips to the school, working with young 1st and 2nd graders. We would play games, read stories, tutor them in math and reading, and act out charades and pictionary games to help with vocabulary. On the very last day, we took pairs of 2nd graders out on the balcony in the front of the school to get some fresh air and a bit of a break from the hectic classroom. Pulling out a few books, we expected the same response we usually got. A tentative glance at the books and a small voice telling us which one they'd like to be read. However, this time was different. The shy little girl, instead of cowering in her chair, decided along with the little boy we had taken out that they wanted to read their favorite story: "The Man with Leprosy," a story about Jesus's miracles. As we read, the children called out observations and "helped" us with words we were "having trouble" with, providing us with a huge improvement in their attitudes right in front of our faces. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">These kids had gone from shy little 7 year olds to happy, confident 2nd graders who had no trouble trying out a word or making a mistake. I remembered the first few times we had visited where the kids would just stare blankly at us, and I was overcome with the massive change I saw in their attitudes. It was amazing to me how a child could open up and learn and you could see the progress right in front of you. It was a great feeling to know that I helped at least this little girl and little boy, if not more than them, to become more confident learners, to learn vocabulary and to not be afraid to make mistakes in front of their teachers and peers. I am confident when I say that I think these kids will now be able to learn in a better environment, thanks to the attention that we gave them, and that fact makes me extremely proud to be a part of the service learning team so that I got an opportunity to share my knowledge and witness the growth of these children!

<span style="color: #ff0097; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console'; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: center;">Disability Research // Research on Down syndrome // Down syndrome occurs prenatally when there is an extra chromosome 21 present. This extra chromosome affects the way the brain and body develop. Down syndrome is the most common single cause of birth defects in humans, and there is no way for a mother to prevent it. However, older mothers have a higher risk of having a baby with down syndrome, as do mothers who have already had a child with down syndrome.
 * Causes/Prevention **

Most children with down syndrome have a very recognizable look to their bodies and faces. These physical effects include: - Smaller, abnormally shaped head - Flattened nose - Small ears and mouth - Wide, short hands, and short fingers - Upward slanting eyes - Decreased muscle tone at birth
 * Symptoms/Effects **

Other symptoms besides physical ones include developmental symptoms. - Delayed social and mental development - Impulsive behavior - Poor judgement - Short attention span, poor learning Many more medical problems are seen in people with down syndrome, those including: - Dimensia - Eye and hearing problems - Sleep apnia - Under-active thyroid

There is no specific treatment for down syndrome. However, some of the side effects like gastrointestinal blockage can be fixed with surgery. Behavioral training, for children to learn to manage anger, frustration, and compulsive behavior, and special education can also help with some of the developmental side effects of down syndrome. Speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and others are also helpful for children with down syndrome.
 * Treatment **

Board, A.D.A.M. Editorial. "Causes, Incidence, and Risk Factors." Down Syndrome. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Nov. 0000. Web. 21 May 2012. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001992/>. "KidsHealth." Down Syndrome. Web. 21 May 2012. <http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/genetic/down_syndrome.html>. Image: http://edu.glogster.com/media/5/33/62/40/33624006.jpg
 * Bibliography: **

<span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; line-height: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; text-align: center;"> Photo credit to Benjamin Robinson

Photo credit to Benjamin Robinson

Before the painting (Happy Child Nursery)

During the painting After the painting Photo credit to AFLC website (there was a fee to take pictures at the school)

** I hope you enjoyed my project :) **   ** Sarah Blome **    ** May 24th, 2012 **