2020.02.22/21:00/World Space Studio Q
Making the final preparations to embark upon the journey on the Rotoplast Mission to Firozabad, India. This is our Mission Handbook: Firozabad 2020 Handbook.
My role is to be the Recreation Therapist, which means that it is my job to be there for the children–and their families– who are in the ward awaiting surgery for cleft palate or burn injuries. I am to provide reassurance, entertainment, and fun activities while they wait. I am confident, but also feeling butterflies, with a desire to do my best to inspire and delight.
As an educator, entertainer, and parent, I have worked with children of diverse ages and cultural backgrounds, gifted children, children with socioemotional issues, learning disabilities, and so on, but I have never worked exactly in this type of clinical setting. I also understand that the children are very young. Aside from my own (now grown) children, I have mostly worked with school age children.
I am a mime artist, poet, and storyteller. I can engage children in movement and theatrical activities, but I am really not fully aware of what to expect, aside from something new and wonderful every day. I want to be sure that I am culturally aware. My undergraduate work was in the field of intercultural communications, which prepares me in general.
This will be my first experience in India. Of course, I love Indian food, I watch Bollywood movies, and am aware of the history and culture through what I have read and studied.
