During my time here in Ireland I
have been given the amazing opportunity to volunteer four of my afternoon at
Aras Chois Fharraige, the nursing home just down the street. They had us help with different activities each
time we came. This home has a very busy
activity schedule (including: pet therapy, work out time, cards, gardening, and
much, much more) and they house over 50 residents so they were happy with the
extra sets of hands to help out. During our first visit the four of us split
into two groups. One group played cards with the residents who chose to play
cards while the other two just sat and talked with some of the residents who
chose not to. I was one who did not play
cards. I got to meet a lovely lady named
Ann. Ann has lived in Ireland her whole
life and we spent the entire hour comparing my life in Nebraska to hers here in
Ireland. The next visit we helped with
their work outs. They call this
Spree. We would call it chair
aerobics. Some of the residents have a
hard time lifting their arms above their heads so we would hold their hand and
help them stretch out their muscles. The
final activity we helped with was catch.
This activity is simply just tossing a beach ball around with the
residents. This helps them work on their
coordination and always involves a lot of laughter. Our final visit we just talked to the
residents and said our goodbyes.
I really
enjoyed my time at the nursing home. Experiencing
how passionate the employees were about top of the line care for each resident
has secured my future plans of going into occupational therapy. This was truly and eye opening experience.