Fun with bubbles and bombs (water ones that is)
Sally and Jill (1Step2Step trustees) volunteered for a week at the orphanage and then went travelling in both Bangkok and Kanchanaburi, enjoying Thai food and experiences. I joined them for the time in Bangkok and we were able to be tourists in the markets and to celebrate Chinese New Year. We even saw the late King’s eldest daughter after waiting for three hours on the street. While Sally and Jill carried on touring I headed back to the 1Step2Step children. Most of them were ok, but there were a few new wounds to work at healing.
Today was Sally and Jill’s first day back in with me and the children and we also had two of my regular Monday volunteer ladies to help too.
Knowing this was to be the case, we had the children all ready and we took some special new resources to the trampoline/ grass area to play.
Sally had kindly bought us a giant bubbles rope kit and I had found those water bombs that claim to fill up 100 in 60 seconds… although we only managed to do about 30 in that time. We had Mr B, Miss A and Mr G on the trampoline with our new silver balls. The other three: Mr C, Miss N and Miss K (who is presently wearing a cast again for her hip, but more on that later) stayed in their strollers to play with the bubbles.
The trampoline kids waited well while I struggled to find a tap with a wide enough nozzle for the connector. In the end, the toilet hose managed to fill the balloons a bit but not as well as I’d hoped from seeing them used before.
We rolled the balloons into the middle of the children and they all reached for them and played differently. Miss A loved trying to suck on the bombs as they slipped through her hand. Mr B grabbed and waved them around till the water went everywhere, making all three children laugh. Mr G was still fixed on looking at himself in the silver balls, but laughed when suddenly soaked. Totally wet, Miss A roamed around the surface of the trampoline in army crawl style.
The others were in a circle and watching and trying out the different strings and methods. We also had a foam creating one. All were curious at different moments, although Miss N was not in full health, so she complained a bit at times.
The bubbles could be big: many were tennis ball size and at other times dependent on which string was used.
Miss A joined us back in her chair, as did Mr G. They were really looking at the bubbles and Miss A even started to reach. Miss K watched well at times, but was clearly not so comfortable with her cast. On one occasion we got two massive bubbles and one medium sized one at the same time and they popped one by one on Mr G. He found this funny and then wiped his face with amusement. Mr C was really laughing.
All were getting hot, including the adults, so we headed back to the ward with everyone and everything and gave most a snack or extra bowl of soft food in Miss A’s case.
When taken back in, the three youngest were asleep within five minutes and curled up so cutely. The others relaxed and no one complained.
In the afternoon Sally, Jill and I took Mr C for suction to clear his secretions and then we decorated the small isolation room with the decor wall stickers, like Finding Nemo, Winnie-the-Pooh and bright stained-glass-window-type ones.
Jill said…. ”Lovely to be back with the children and enjoy fun with them all at the trampoline in the garden. We all enjoyed water bombs and making giant bubbles in the morning heat!!!”
Nicola Anderson
Here are two videos of the activities:
We did have a good morning that day even though it was very hot. The children really engaged and had lots of fun with the water bombs and bubbles.