Since chemotherapy is a long process I would see a lot of reappearing faces holding a craft that I had given them. Until this time, I had worked in the testing room and IP ( in-patient rooms) seeing about 80 total people a day. Some kids stayed outside the hospital and come back for testing every once and a while, call OP (outpatients). These people wait just outside the pediatric ward, and there are many of them ~100.
I learned many types of origami to keep the kids minds off their situation as long as possible. The OP was probably the most hectic time of the day for me. My supervisor said if I could handle all the attention, then I could go there every morning. There was no lack of attention for sure lol. 1) I looked different than everyone else 2) I dressed different 3) People are curious why I have all these craft stuff. The staff set up a table for me and I brought out all these papers crayons and stuff. I beckoned for a couple kids to come over and I started. When I looked up again there were so many smiling faces around my table I could not see the walls. I felt like I had to say something since there were so many people hahah so I spoke my heavily accented Malayalam, explaining why I was there. That brought even more smiling faces bc people were like "He has accent, heheh, keep speaking please, we like it." It was a perfect Panorama moment on my Iphone but there were kids all over me and my phone was deep in my pocket so I got one of my supervisor people to take a photo. Then I took a Panorama after an hour when the crowd died down and there were just kids left. I made flapping birds, pronounced whatever words they wanted me to say, and made huge flowers. They were very happy and so was I. I changed my schedule to go to testing room first thing in morning, then OP, then IP. This meant I was seeing like 130+ people a day, which was awesome!
One of the most memorable encounters had to be a small boy and his mother. When I arrived to their bed, the mom was very stoic. I tried all kinds of things and they both were still stone-face, understandably. This little boy had been hooked up to every possible medical machine and had nurses always coming to him. I talked with them and asked how everything was. I finished my origami jumping frog and told the boy to put out his hands. I placed the frog in his hands then tapped the back of the frog. It jumped and soared straight onto his nose. The boy cracked a small smile and when I did it again he burst into laughter. It was the most satisfying thing. I looked up to catch the mom moving away quickly to the side of the bed and sob. I felt like it was inappropriate for me to stay any longer so I left. Another mom came up to me and said that the woman was sobbing bc that was the first time her boy had smiled in weeks, literally.
One of the most memorable encounters had to be a small boy and his mother. When I arrived to their bed, the mom was very stoic. I tried all kinds of things and they both were still stone-face, understandably. This little boy had been hooked up to every possible medical machine and had nurses always coming to him. I talked with them and asked how everything was. I finished my origami jumping frog and told the boy to put out his hands. I placed the frog in his hands then tapped the back of the frog. It jumped and soared straight onto his nose. The boy cracked a small smile and when I did it again he burst into laughter. It was the most satisfying thing. I looked up to catch the mom moving away quickly to the side of the bed and sob. I felt like it was inappropriate for me to stay any longer so I left. Another mom came up to me and said that the woman was sobbing bc that was the first time her boy had smiled in weeks, literally.
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