Wonderful. Amazing. Happy.

          It has been an amazing first couple of weeks here at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH). I have been making great progress at my morning job in the PR and photography department. When I first arrived, Kelley, the photographer here, would bring me along to her shoots and have me take some photos for practice. Then she started having me take photos with her and we would look at both when choosing the final shot to be used. Then, just the other day, we walked over to the studio and as we arrived, she turned to me and told me my photos have been looking great and she trusts that I know what to do now, and then walked off to get some other work done. It felt great, setting up the studio myself, working with the client (a doctor), and being completely in charge of the outcome of the shoot. I am ecstatic about the experience I am gaining and the portfolio of high caliber photographs I am building.
          My afternoon job is going wonderfully as well. Because most of the kids in the ITU are long term patients, I have become very comfortable around them and am beginning to understand each child’s individual personality. All of the long term kids recognize me now and it lights up my day to see the smiles on their faces as I walk in the room. It’s an amazing thing to see the power of touch and smiles and play here and I hope to remember this outside of AmeriCorps. Sometimes a smile and a hug is all we need.
          Every Friday the hospital provides a wonderful catered lunch and educational activity for us to learn more about each other and the hospital. On our first Friday we were given a tour of the helicopter pad and helicopter equipment the hospital uses to transport patients. The rooftop helipad provides an amazing view of Little Rock and the Capital building which is right across the street!



fun with the camera settings

Then, this past Friday, my team and I got a tour of the hospitals state of the art PULSE (Pediatric Understanding & Learning through Simulation Education) Center. The center is a separate building whose interior in modeled exactly after that of the hospitals, but completely equipped with dummies, cameras, and secret classrooms. And not just any dummies, these dummies have heart beats, veins, and blood (fake blood) running through their bodies as well as blinking eyes and the potential to have seizures, heart attacks, and an array of other symptoms! I’m not going to lies, it was extremely creepy walking through the center, but amazing to know that doctors can get training in such a remarkable and high tech environment.
          Of course living in the heart of Little Rock wouldn’t be complete without weekend excursions to find what the city has to offer. On our first weekend here (01/14) we hiked one of the highest mountains in Arkansas, Pinnacle Mountain. It was a beautiful clear day and we had a gorgeous view of the Arkansas River, Little Rock, and all of the surrounding area. 

at the top of Pinnacle

The following weekend (01/21) my team traveled to Lake Ouachita to visit another AmeriCorps team that is working there and take the lakes famous Bald Eagle Tours. The park is a bald eagle sanctuary where people are able to take boats out onto the water and look for bald eagles nesting in the trees. We saw three!



the whole team on the lake!

Today we walked across the longest pedestrian and bicycle bridge (build for the purpose) in the world, Little Rocks Big Dam Bridge… yup that’s the real name!

Every weekend we have been going into downtown for shopping and other activities but have yet to see more than about 10 people in the town, even on a Saturday night, so we are thinking we must just not have found the popular downtown spots yet. I’ll let you know when we find the life of the city!



pig fountain...