Making Friends

During the second visit to St. Christopher’s hospice, we met the patients for the first time which was quite exciting as we didn’t really know what to expect from them and I didn’t really know how I would react around them. As we got into a circle and started to talk you could see that a few of them had quite positive and humorous personalities and then there were some that were a little bit afraid, which seemed to make me put in a little bit more effort to try and feel comfortable and make them feel that way as well. Once they had chosen which workshop to work on I found it hard to keep them all busy at the same time as there were seven of them and one of me. I had to keep on trying to move round the table to help as much as I could. I was also trying to start conversations and get to know them and ask stories of their childhoods, which they didn’t seem to mind talking about. There was one guy that was quite bubbly but had a problem with his breathing and seemed quite uncomfortable which made me want to ask him questions about his illness but I didn’t have the right thing to ask as I don’t really know what I wanted to know but he seemed interesting. I've also realised that you have to approach them all on different levels as they don't take everything the way you do. This makes it harder to try and talk to the whole group at once. I enjoyed the day alot and look forward to going back next week.