week 5-6 (week 7 was a travel week)

For this entry I thought it would be beneficial to describe the population of the people in the home more fully, explain the art therapy processes I am using, and the goals I am hoping to achieve. The residents I work with have to come to live at Sambodhi home because they have been abandoned by their families due to their disability. Some of these families are extremely poor and cannot afford to provide for a disabled family member, other families chose not to live with the social stigma of having a disabled child and never have any contact with them. Whichever the case, the resident now exists solely in the confines of the home. If the resident is school aged, they attend the B. R Dissanayake junior school. Once they have aged out of school, there is an option to leave the home if the resident has the means to find a job without additional assistance, which most of the residents do not. There are no internal caseworkers or outside social services to assist them in employment. Sri Lanka, being a developing country, has passed some laws through Parliament to increase the rights of employment and living conditions for the disabled, but they are yet to be implemented. The disabilities of the residents are various. There are deficits in intellectual functioning, many physical deformities, and/or an inability to communicate verbally. The residents are given chores they must perform as part of their stay. In a way, this seems to provide some purpose for their daily life. I have mentioned previously how awe inspiring it is to see how they take care of one another. Common conflicts and disagreements between the residents that one would expect to exist within any relationship can also be seen. In contrast, I have witnessed repercussions that I personally have found troubling, as result of not following orders and rules, executed even by the residents themselves.
I hope that I am beginning to paint a picture of the obstacles that these people have to contend with. In addition to the previously described circumstances, these people have lived through atrocities of a 30 year civil war, and survived the horrors of a tsunami in which they witnessed the deaths of other residents in the home. One can only imagine the anxiety, depression, loneliness, isolation, trauma, fear and frustration that is possibly felt due to the situations of their lives. From what I have seen so far, there is not a continuous structured outlet for emotional responses and creative drives.
As I am only in Sri Lanka for three months, I knew coming into the volunteer work that my impact was limited. However, through art therapy I hoped to address:
Physical and occupational goals such as improving motor skills
Cognitive goals: improvement of memory, planning, organization
Psychosocial goals: improving interpersonal skills, building ego strengths and constructively expressing emotions
Emotional goals: easing anxiety and depression from feelings of loss, loneliness, guilt, frustration and possible trauma
　
Each art experience targets at least one of these areas. Evaluating how effective they are is difficult due to the limitations of time and our language barrier. However, this experience has done nothing but strengthen my understanding of art as a universal language.
In our art groups I continue to provide opportunities for personal choice of materials. We focused on the mandala one week, Sanskrit for circle, in Sinhalese - roum. We (tried) to use compasses to draw the circle, and also traced circular objects. The residents we given the choice of a big (lo-ku) or small (podi) roum to freely design. Once finished, we hung them in the library all together.

We also continued to try origami, making a fan. The repetitive opposite fold was easy for some, more difficult for others. I could tell many of them were really concentrating hard. We lightened things up a bit by taking photos and playing a peek-a-bo like game once we were done making them.

In the school, I continue to work mostly in the classroom for the children with Autism. Hassal, Mahesha and I spent some time together working with the color red (ratu). Coloring red shapes and playing with a red ball. We also used red instruments for our music time. Hassal has the sweetest singing voice you have ever heard, it makes my heart just melt. I love when he sings as he colors.


Hassal



Mahesha

Dulmina is blowing through every book I put in front of him. Reading is definitely a strength, but writing seems to be a more difficult task. We started using the computer to type words in English. I am hoping that he may possibly type answers to questions by the end of the month.

As I think I mentioned before, Dulmina loves technology. He has already mastered Youtube and searches for songs in English we can sing together. He also enjoys typing words into the Google image search and saving the pictures of what he finds.

We are quite found of eachother, he and I. I was told that he asked for me everyday the week I was gone traveling. It is very endearing that he grabs my hand pulls me to his desk when I arrive in the morning. I met his mother this week and was gushing about how amazing I think he his. I am not sure exactly what she understood of what I said however.

As I grow more attached to the students, residents and staff of Sambodhi home and school, I find myself wishing that I will be able to continue to help them after I leave Sri Lanka...