Saturday, December 8, 2007

Impact end of year dinner

We have just come back from the Impact end of year dinner. Impact is the youth group at our church, which is for college age kids and some older ones stay on as leaders. Both Katie and Rowena have been attending numerous events during the year, as well as meeting in small groups during the week, and on Sundays.

The end of year dinner is for the parents and other family members, and is to wrap up the year and celebrate what they have been getting up to.

We had a bit of a surprise tonight. We were randomly assigned to dinner tables (to mix people up), and randomly assigned a 'physical impairment', which we had to maintain during the main course.

My impairment was 'no arms', so I had my wrists tied together behind my back. Elanor had the same impairment. Bern had 'stiff arms' - splints tied to his elbows so he couldn't bend his arms. Katie was 'blind' - blindfolded. Sophie had one arm only and Rowena had no arms as well. Other impairments were no hands (hands bandaged into fists) and one leg.

Now just try to imagine for a minute how you would eat curry and rice, lasagna, salad and vegetables with each of those impairments.

Done that?

How about if you knew you also had to go up to a buffet table and serve your meal, and carry it back to your table?

Fun...!

I paired up with a 'blind' lady to get our meals. Mary was able to carry two plates, and I was able to see what the food was and ask someone to serve us. I also guided her very carefully back to the table so she wouldn't 'lose' our dinners!

It turned out that the people with stiff arms were reasonable at feeding others, but had to be fed themselves. The blind people needed guidance to get the food, but could eat just fine - but they all reported feeling very lonely unless people were talking to them all the time. The 'no hands' people did a reasonable amount of cheating, slipping cutlery into their stumps. And the 'armless' people could eat a bit off the plate, but being fed was much quicker (and less messy).

The whole point, of course, was lots of cooperation. Apparently the kids ate a meal in this way earlier in the year at camp, and it really was good fun. Everyone at our table got their dinner eaten eventually. We were allowed to take our bandages off for dessert.

We were also entertained with some songs, a dance (which Rowena was in), paintings which some of the kids had done displayed (including one by Katie) and a quiz.

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