Our Experiences

Samples from Pre-Service Reflections

Excerpts from Service Learning Journals

With this experience, I was able to see more of an interaction between the roommates and so was able to get a better feeling of their different personalities. One woman seemed very sarcastic and liked to tell jokes, while the other two women seemed to like to tease her. They all were very interested in each other’s lives and held conversations similar to the ones that I have with my friends. This suprised me because as a cultural assumption, I thought people with disabilites did not really have personalities, as if that was beyond their capabilities. I was also suprised because all of the women that I have talked to, say they have a boyfriend. At first I assumed that meant someone that they hang out with on a daily basis, hold hands and go on dates with, etc. but now I think their idea of a boyfriend is a male who they see a few times a year. It is like a young child, who mimics what her parents do and so call a guy friend her “boyfriend” because that is what society decides is normal. These women watch tv and movies and look at magazines and see what they “should” be doing and so because of this, ask one of their guy friends to be their boyfriend. But on the other hand, maybe they do become more intimate when they are with one another. I also felt that this group of people was less isolated and in a happier atmosphere and so I felt less depressed for them. They seemed to be more competent and communicative. I was able to carry better conversations with them than with the people that lived in the previous group home. However, it was still a conversation that I would have with a young child. Even though we could discuss different topics, they were not able to transgress from what they had experienced or how they were feeling. It was not like we were trying to talk about abstract ideas, but if I tried to talk about something in my life, I could tell they were not listening and then for example, if I made a comment about my boyfriend, they would not ask a question about him to me, they would either say something totally irrelevant or a response about their own boyfriend. Through this visit, I was able to view people with disabilities, more as an individual with a distinct personality. I also realized that a lot of their interests are the same as mine, because of the influences of society. Those interests are merely on a different level of understanding and maturity.

Samples from Post-Service Reflections

The problems the people who utilize CPARC face in “normative” society are those similar to the problems the elderly face. People tend to see them without really seeing them. In other words, people will notice that they are in public, but not openly acknowlege their presence. People tend to treat them as a nuisance instead of an active part of society. Because they look, speak and behave differently from what is expected, the clients of CPARC have difficulty blending in to “normative” society. They have problems performing the most basic of activities, such as making dinner and remembering to take their medecine or to taking a walk without a cane or wheelchair. Unfortuntately, this makes them conspicuous enough in public for people to take notice and then pretend that they are not there.