Values Clarification Lecture

We have really interesting lectures during our Psychosocial module in Occupational Therapy. Alot of them are interactive and really get you thinking. One of these lectures was "Values Clarification".

We were broken up into 2 groups and told that we are on a ship and it is sinking. There is only one lifeboat left and only 4 people can go on the lifeboat because of the weight allowance and other factors. We then had to choose from our group of about 12, which 4 people would be jumping in the lifeboat and who would be left on the sinking ship with only life jackets to use.

Once we were left to discuss the whole classroom was filled with everyone talking because our minds were racing with the factors we would consider when choosing who would stay on the ship and who would be on the life boats. Eventually our group went and sat outside because we were getting pretty loud and disturbing the other lecturers.

Escaping to the outside gardens

We then decided we would each have a turn to say who we thought would be on the boat and why. I started by saying that I think that Mo (Monique is a girl in my OT class) should be on the lifeboat because she is married and also does so much for the community so you would want someone like her to survive cause she could definitely make a change in this world. Then the discussion came up if married people should be put on the boat or not because they have had the chance to fall in love and the rest of us haven't. Another factor that came up was age and how Lauren should be put on the lifeboat because she was the youngest and hadn't even celebrated her 21st yet.

After a while we started to think logically and started thinking about what would be the best options. We decided that all the people that are swimmers or have done lifesaving should be left on the ship because they had the highest chance of survival. Then our lecturer came and told us that she was also on the ship and she expected to be one of the people on the life boat, which took up one of the places we thought we would have. There was some uproar then because of the fact she has lived longer than us but in the end it was agreed she would be on the lifeboat. I spoke up and said that I would stay on the ship because I have watched Bear Grylls and should be able to make a life boat out of the sunken ship supplies, this cause some laughter from the group, I am also a swimmer so thought I would have quite a good chance of survival.

Eventually the argument was going on for too long so we were given 5 mins to decide who the other 3 people on the boat would be. Mo was put on because she would get her husband (who always makes a plan) to come save us. Our lecturer promised that she would bring a helicopter or make some plan to come back and fetch us. The last 2 places were taken up by 2 girls in our class that can't swim very well and said they should be on the boat because they wouldn't survive if they were left on the boat.

After the exercise we reflected on how our different values played a part in our decisions. In the beginning we were all fighting to be on the lifeboat, which would probably happen in real life anyway. But if we started to think we thought of what would be the best for the most amount of people.It was so interesting to hear everyone' views and what things they placed importance on. We also did our reflection with the other group who had quite different views to us, they hadn't put on the married girl and they had placed importance on age rather than who could or couldn't survive if they were left on the ship.

We were then given a list of 10 values (money, acceptance/popularity, balance, beauty, communication, family, religion/wisdom, friendship, independence and peacefulness) and we were asked to prioritize them in the order of importance to us. For me it would be:

1. Religion/Wisdom
2. Family
3. Friendship
4. Independence
5. Communication
6. Acceptance/Popularity
7. Peacefulness
8. Beauty
9. Money
10. Balance

The next task was to take away 5 of those and add 2 of our own, so my new list would be:

1. Religion/Wisdom
2. Family
3. Love
4. Friendship
5. Independence
6. Success
7. Money

I hope this gives you a better idea of who I am and what I believe in and what holds value in my life. I learnt so much from this lecture and also about the other people in my class and the things that they value. I would encourage you to take the time and make a list of what you value in your life and what you would do if you were on a sinking ship, would you push and shove to get onto the life boat or would you stay on the ship and give the place to someone else...

A day spent at the St Thomas Home for Children

We arrived excited and ready to go on the morning of the 28th July. We had prepared a 2 hour programme to do with a group of kiddies that we had been given. My group was designated the 7-10 year old boys called "the Dragon Ball Z". Just a name like that got our brains thinking of all sorts of fun, wild activites that could keep these boys entertained for the morning. In my group was

Dayna, Me, Mariam and Haseena pictured in the photo and also Slindelo.

When we got there we found out that our boys had been sent away on an excursion for the morning but luckily the other group was missing a few members so we got given the 6 and 7 year old boys and girls. We also now had a few extra hands to help us run our activities which was nice.

As soon as we opened the door of the kids' room you could hear the excitement, one immediately grabbed my hand and it was like he was my best friend. I was shocked to see how small these kids were for their age, which is due to malnutrition and other factors.

We started off by breaking them into teams of boys and girls who were called "The Hulks" and the "The Barbies" respectively. They were given the task of creating a group banner as their warm-up. They loved all the stickers and we had to limit them or else the would of covered the whole poster. The kids loved just drawing and decorating the poster and eventually we had to pull them away so that we could start the relay races.

Fellow therapist, Princess pictured with the  "Barbie Girls" poster.

The kids were pumped and ready to go. I made them have little war cries with actions that they loved performing. We played games like beanbag throw, dunking' for apples, sack race(done with black bags), dribbling around the bucket etc. All the games went really well and they loved them but we had a problem when it came to the competitive side. These kids come from all different backgrounds and most have been told they are not good enough and are in the bottom of their class at school so their self esteem isn't good. Therefore when they were losing they were nearly in tears because they felt defeated especially when the girls were beating the boys. So after some rigging we made it a victory for the boys in order to boost their morale again and the girls were proud of them. We had made party bags for all of them so that they all received the same prize and therefore tried to instill equality. The other group then took them for a picnic which they had great fun doing. When it was time to say goodbye we all got huge hugs and lots of thank you's.

When all the different groups had finished our lecturer got us all together to reflect on our time at the home.My group reflected on how we didn't realise competition would be such a big deal for them and how sad it was seeing their little faces when they were losing and how hard it was to make them feel better about it. Something we should of done differently was to mix up the boys and girls to make the groups more fairly weighted. The idea of the relays worked so well though and the kids were introduced to games that they had never seen before like the apple dunking game, we had to help them a bit in the beginning because they couldn't pick up the apple our of the bucket of water with their mouths. It was also a bit eye-opening to how the kids craved attention and were very possessive over you if they thought you were their friend and therefore couldn't be someone else's. The other groups made musical instruments, told stories and many other fun things. Children in those groups had problems with understanding morals behind stories that they should be familiar with like "the 3 little pigs" etc. They also didn't know how to colour in a flower. It was discovered though that they all really enjoyed the physical games and activities like spinning around, running around etc. All in all I think the day was a great success because we put a smile on every single one of those kids faces and gave them so much love. Imagine what we could of done with more time...

This home needs so much help and I am very keen to go visit more often in order to make a bigger change because these kids are needing input and love. There are great facilities that can be used and lots of opportunities to help out. The kids range from 3 to 10 years old and they are all very cute and eager to be apart of something fun. Please contact me if you would like to get involved.