CHICKS Diary 5: Going home day
Tuesday
For the first morning all week we woke up before the kids. Kwan, a teaching assistant in Leicestershire, returned from the boys’ bedroom to report that he’d found Kieran asleep on the floor in his dressing gown with a purple pen in his hand. He’d spent the majority of the night drawing on his roommates’ faces.
This had been after the late night karaoke disco the night before; an end of week treat for the kids where they had the pleasure of the Volunteers singing Greased Lightening, Everything I Do (I Do it for You), and assorted other “hits”. It recreated exactly the school disco atmosphere and Chris and I took it in turns to fetch rounds of orange squash for the rest of the Volunteers. The evening had ended with everyone in a circle holding hands singing Queen’s We Are the Champions. Kieran had handed Nate a note written from Brandon to Tanika proclaiming his love and adding that she was “a sexy bitch.” The letter had a handy check box postscript she could fill in to indicate whether or not she would go out with him.
There was a mixture of emotions while we sat in the lounge after breakfast receiving goody bags with CHICKS memorabilia and assorted toys and sweets. As everyone said their goodbyes and tears were shed, Brandon was sat pouring his sherbet out onto a table, carefully cutting lines with his finger.
On the drive back to the train station, the children were quiet and quite sombre for perhaps the first time during the week. The only interruption was the unintended innuendo from Hayley reminding Charlie to keep his stuffed toy he’d purchased at Crealy inside the vehicle “Don’t dangle your snake out of the window, it’ll get soggy, won’t it?” “Keep your snake in, Charlie. You don’t want to get it caught on anything,” then seconds later “Don’t hit Adam with it either.”
I was tired but enthused on reaching Exeter St. David’s. The week had been really rewarding and I’d enjoyed myself. We weren’t given extensive background information on any the kids and I think that’s a wise decision; we don’t want to go in prejudiced or making snap decisions about any of them but of course they’d tell us things sometimes, aspects of their lives. Sure, some of them would be obvious outrageous lies, but occasionally you’d get the mildest glimpse of what they’ve been through and it would never fail to shock me.
Vicky told us that one of the most painful things is with the kids who attend CHICKS year after year because, although it’s great seeing them each time, it means their situation at home either isn’t improving at all, or isn’t improving enough. I’m not egotistical enough to think for a single moment that on my own I’ve made a difference to any of these kids’ lives, but I’m very happy with what I have done to help and I wish I could do more.