Monday December 8^th

Special day, I had a field trip with the basketball team to the Byron Health Center to do community service. We left at the very beginning of school, and we went to Fort Wayne. We expected it to be like a home for old people but when Reagan's mom (who works as a nurse there) told us what it REALLY was...we were all shocked! It actually was more like a mental home! I maybe exaggerate, but she told us that we had to be prepared if we saw people who peed on themselves, who tried to talk to us, who came really close, who were screaming...She also told us that Kevin (a patient) would probably ask us to marry him and that we had to say no! When I arrived in I was scared! There actually were 2 old guys in wheelchairs when we arrived, they talked to us but they didn't articulate at all, they were mumbling so I didn't understand them. We were there to decorate for Christmas, so we started with the third floor, the one with the most affected patients. The hallway smelled like pee, because most of the people who were there had accidents or drug problems that affected them and now they are not able to take care of themselves anymore and it damaged their brain...

We actually met Kevin who was really nice, and we talked a bit with him! Some guys were scary, just coming next to us, really close, but without talking. I know that none of them were mean or wanted to scare us, they were just not use to see new people and as most of them weren't able to talk, they communicated how they could! We put craft paper over each door, with ornaments, garlands... When we were done, we went to the second floor, the women one. One was crying, we didn't know why, one was playing with little dolls (she was 60 years old). The weirdest one, was this old woman who walked through the hallway, stopped in the middle and sat on the floor. Then she took off her shirt, keeping just her bra, and she started “cleaning” the floor with her shirt. She just put it back on and then went to sleep on the floor in her room! I talked to another one, I think less affected who asked me where I was from (“the neutral land” how she then called Switzerland) and she told me that my shoes were really ..attractive! She kept saying that for 3 minutes.

When we were done, we went to the first floor, the one where the least affected patients live. It was easier to talk to them. We finished decorating, and we met a man (I don't remember his name), who tried to kill himself when he was 17, in high school. He shot himself in the head with a gun, but he “missed it”. He lost a part of his brain, so now he can't talk and his face is deformed (and he is kind of retarded) but he was so nice! Smiling at us, he even wanted to help us to decorate! We finished by decorating the fire place and the Christmas tree.

with tereza and casey, our"smiley decorated door"!

Before leaving, we met Adrian. That was for me, the best part of the day! He told us his story, sitting on his wheelchair, and we saw that it was very hard to talk about that. He was a very good athlete in high school, but he wanted to do like his friends so he started to drink, and he had a car accident while he was drunk. He stayed in the coma for 4 months, and he lost his whole life because of that. He also has a son who never comes visiting him and who hasn't talked to him for 19 years. He told us to be careful with our lie because we only have one and it is precious. He told us that never mind what stupid people do, that we were too smart and too talented to do the same and lose our life for that. That was a very touching moment, most of us cried because it made us realize that we only have one life, how much we are lucky to be able to live it as we do, and that we need to realize that not everybody had this chance.

The complete basketball team! Always ready for community service!

Just a picture of Emma, to show how wonderful she is!

After saying goodbye to this place, scary and disgusting at the beginning, beautiful at the end, we went o Pizza Hut for lunch. I had so much fun with all these amazing girls! Ma experience wouldn't be the same without them!

At school, we had to right some lines to tell what this day brought to us. And we didn't have practice because we beat Garrett on saturday.