Playtime at the Garden

Hello people, it's me William. I know, William is writing again. I'm sorry, but I just have to tell you all what happened today. Alex, Dominick and I joined Anne, Jenny, and the Henry Street Settlement kids at the garden. It was designed by the students of PS 134. We're fixing it up for them for the summer. This would be the second time for me going to the garden. I was really hyped to get out of the cool, comfortable office for the dirty, humid outdoors.

Anne made me in charge of supervision. I was suppose to ask the kids if they needed a helping hand. My first attempt of interacting with people was a failure. I assumed it was because of me being much older, and therefore creepy. So, I walked around the small garden, picking up fallen bark and leaves. Can ya believe the trash people leave? My gosh, there were so much plastic wrappers. There was even a smashed glass bottle! Ugh, I tried my best to clear that away.

Alex had us interview one child each. He wanted us to practice our interviewing skills for the oral history assignment, that is later on in the internship. I was assigned to talk to a little girl in pink. I pretty much followed her, but didn't say a word. I thought, 'I'm a guy attempting to talk to a girl no older than nine years old. How creepy is that'. To solve this problem, I waited until she was doing something I could help her with. I saw her raking, so I took a broom and swept the garden path. Alex checked in on me and told me to stop sweeping and talk to her already.

I saw her working on the mosaics, and came up to her to lend a hand. When I asked her for her name, she said "...Megan..." as though she were scared. I could understand why. I could be a kidnapper. But after working together for a while, we opened up to one another. I found out that she wanted to be an artist. She would like to have a natural pond on the corner of the garden. I thought I'd throw in a silly question, asking if we could put animals into the pond. She surprised me by saying it was too much responsibility. Some one would have to take care of the animals. Instead, she suggested to me to have objects that would resemble creatures in the water. Unfortunately, due to my reluctance, I wasn't able to ask her more questions. She was a sweet little girl though.

I was surprised when another camp came in, a bunch of children came into the garden. They were asking why we where created a mosaic on the flower plots. I thought about it... It was a good question. I couldn't answer them, but was able to get two girls to join in. They really liked the assorted colors, and one of the girls, Ariel, said we deserved a medal. I don't know about a medal, but a grant... Maybe. Although they really wanted to help, their counselor took them back to their group. I was disappointed, but hoped that they will come back.