Third Play
Monday!
This
month’s Play Monday was really light. Lighter than a balloon! But not just one,
many of them!
This time
the words played right away: “Let’s go
to another Play Monday?” And before we started, we remembered what we did on
“Second Play Monday”, the games, the simple plays, the good mood and… we showed
a bag full of empty balloons.
“Today
we’re going to have a balloon game”. After a lot of breaths (I was really rusty
in the task of filling balloons) and with the help of my coworkers Ângela and
Raquel, and a special help from Mr. A, we filled a lot of balloons with many
colors. “What now? We are going to be on a circle so we can see each other
better.” each one with their own balloons (Ms. C. was really happy for having a
green balloon, “it’s the same color of my football club” she said).
To start,
we did an individual balance exercise, just to warm up. Raquel noticed that Mr
M. had a good balance with his balloon on his head, and Mr. J.C. too, Ms. C as
well… All of our clients are good players!
That’s when
Ângela had an idea, write or drawing what means “Playing” for every person. Our
balloons were much prettier than before.
The
“Playing” in a word-balloon-drawing wrote by each one:
Ms. M.: “Yo-yo”
Ms. A.: “Happiness”
Ms. I.: “Happiness and Youth”
Mr. J.C.: “Playing without fighting”
Ms. C.: “Rope jumping”
Mr. A.: “Fishing”
Ms. E.: “Smiling”
Mr. M.: “Spinning top”
Ms. F.: “Having fun”
Mr. J.R.: “Two oxes and a sproket”
(Here I had to ask to Mr. J.R. what was
that, in other words, why that means “Playing” for him. Then he explained:
“When I was a child, they carved two oxes and a sprocket made of cork for me to
play, and this was my favorite toy. My toys were made of wood or cork and this
one represented my parents job on the fields”)
What I
liked the most in this play was noticing that the clients, like “a lamp that
lights up”, started to play games from their childhood, to their memories and
the meaning that those had to them. So, from the nowhere (correction: from
everything!) they started talking enthusiastically about games they made with
their friends. Then occurred the game “Linda Falua”, the “rubber band game”,
the marbles, leapfrog, the tissue game… and it was so good our Play Monday,
there, in that moment, with the light of that lamp on top of us. I think it was
a meet between two different times that weren’t that far.
After this
playful warm up, we moved to our main game which was throwing the balloons
between everyone in the group without letting that the balloons fell on the
floor. And it was a colorful dance of balloons, each one would go higher than
the other and Ângela and Raquel were in the middle of the circle trying to
catch those balloons that wanted to escape. It’s impossible not to smile with
this game. And yes, let the pain go away! At least, the pain was so light as
the balloons weight.
It’s also
important to say, this time we had the collaboration of some client’s relatives
in our Play Monday, to be more specific, Mr. J.C.’s granddaughter and Ms.
C.B.’s husband, that when they arrived to visit their relatives, they were
surprised with the idea and they also played! It were three generations with
the hands on the balloons!
That was
when Ms. C.B. , during our game, started to sing a song. She arranged the song
to our game and it was like this:
“Oh balão,
E oh lindo balão,
Casadinho sim,
Solteirinho não.
Oh balão,
E oh lindo balão,
Amor da minh’ alma,
Dá-me a tua mão.
Eu tenho um balão correndo,
À tua porta parou.
Quando o balão te quer bem,
Que fará quem o jogou!
Oh balão,
E oh lindo balão,
Casadinho sim,
Solteirinho não.
Oh balão,
E oh lindo balão,
Amor da minh’ alma,
Dá-me a tua mão!”
And it was
many rounds of balloons! And music! And fun! And good mood! And memories! And
laughs! And…
Ah! We also
had a little Play Monday in the rooms (infirmaries), because the balloon game
was in the recreation room. Here it was even lighter (not going to tell all the
steps because I think the photo explains it all). I just know that from today
on, I’m going to start having a bottle of soap bubbles in my pocket.And again, thanks to my coworkers!