Sierra- UCP- Day Five

Our last day at UCP was so sad. We went back to LINCPoint with the adults we worked with on Monday. I had such a great time with the little kids, but I think I liked working with older people even better. They were so fun and easy to communicate with, even if they didn’t have speech functions. When I first arrived, I went to the same classroom and just hung out with the participants. They were working on small tasks like organizing colored straws and putting eraser tops on pencils. There was one man named Kevin who loves giving hugs and kisses and would not complete his task because he wanted a hug from me. But he had to finish his task in order to get a hug so I couldn’t give him one. Another young man couldn’t say anything except a barely audible, “I’m mad!” Whenever he wasn’t getting enough attention, he would yell that and throw objects. Even though he was a troublemaker, he was really sweet and loved to give high fives. We went into the sensory room, which was a room designed for the members to relax. There’s a bubble tank that changes colors, a disco ball and padding on the floor for them to lay on. They sat in the room and watched short movies and pictures on a projector screen with the lights dimmed. It was very soothing and the participants really enjoyed it.

After that, I went on an outing to Wal-Mart with a few people. I escorted a man named Jonathon who couldn’t talk but was very smart and aware of what people were saying. He couldn’t chew most foods and had to have napkins in his mouth because he drooled profusely. But I could talk to him and he would respond in hand gestures. We walked around Wal-Mart and he pointed to different items and we talked about if we liked them or not, or if he had ever tried them or not. He had two dollars to spend and after finding a lot of candy and drinks he liked, he chose a bottle of strawberry flavored water. It was a really cool experience because on the drive there, he didn’t want to sit by me, but at the end, he was giving hand signs that meant we were best friends and only wanted me to sit with him. At the end of the day, I said goodbye to everyone and got a couple numbers to keep in contact. I’m definitely going to miss UCP and can’t wait to go back and visit everyone.