Einstein, a time travelling sock puppet, came by post today- Hospital D being his third stopover since we started the Puppet-exchange between the schools.

I had known about him and arrived with a bag of shiny silver and golden foils and papers, suggesting a travel into future , and a very simple "envelope puppet" steroetype, a simple paper puppet which is worn on the hand- thus introducing a "new" type of puppet to offer sth new to repeat patients. (One of the girls though asked could she make a newspaper /tape puppet again! )

Following mentorship with Ann I had set up the camera on a tripod, already in the position I d like to film with later-to simplify the whole videoing, - when it came to it one of the teenage girls really wanted to film and I let her- I tend to allow the kids as much freedom as possible to chose themselves what to do ,but this often means my plans are "crossed"- so the editing again will be complicated for me! Do I have to be stricter with myself & stick to my preset ideas more?
But first we made the puppets. Not all of the children (all girls,8 all together, 3 I knew) were there from the start, the documentation-book we keep in the class helped to quickly introduce them to the Puppet Portal Project and they jumped into the making, helped by staff and an older girl  who had finished her puppet. During the making I tried to encourage talking about thir characters, how they would act and speak as futuristic people and what puppet Einstein would think of them- but making puppets seemed to be ully enough for the children (again!). Maybe in future music in the background or smells or even a story told could produce an atmosphere and suggest a theme, I wonder? ...

 Puppet Einstein came with a travel-journal in which we found photos of him in the other hospitals- on a cleaning bucket; with  a staff member, ...so this inspired a parallell activity : some childern who had finished their puppets picked a situation and / or place inthe classroom they wanted to show him, photos were talken for his travel journal , one of them Einstein looking back at his photo on Ait Eile (see Image).

We went on a live link up which was fun , and chaotic- most children were still finishing their puppets, some really enjoyed the engagement with a red fiery creature and it`s maker,others enjoyed seeing  Ruby -the puppet we had sent away two weeks ago- having fun in another hospital . In the end linked up with a girl who was in her bed on the ward- timing seems crucial though, and we had to finish the link up soon after starting due to time pressure. Still sound problems (first lots of noise, then-with hospital A-no sound at all).

Still in search for the best way to facilitate the filming / play bit, today we created a performance space with chairs for the audience. Two girls and the teacher student had created a great set. As we had not "built " a story and some of the kids were quite shy peforming, dialogue did not come easy. Two girls though did a lovely scene were their puppets swapped each others names and identities, you could hear them whisper behind stage to figure out where the other one`s originally from ..

Some  children seamed tired before lunch, one teacher pointed out that I do in a day what they d do in a week and that there s lots happening for the short time. Another teacher suggested that introducing  a prepared text or storyline might be helpful to provide a framework to feel free and safe, rather than being a restriction as I would be afraid of. I will think about this.

Afternoon was quiet , three girls came back and we uploaded and named images, documented the day in our book and updated Einsteins travel diary .

Before school and during lunch I adressed thoughts and concerns towards principal, teachers and assistants that had been building up, especially when comparing with the project progress in the other schools which seem to be more and more integrated in daily hospital life. On the one hand (as well reading back my blogs) I feel the awareness of the project could potentially be much more disseminated throughout the hospital. On the other  hand I feel that within this school`s set up I get the maximum possible support and , even though I could think of ideas for the project to become more visible , I see there s hardly capacity to put these in place. Both from my an the teachers side. It was very helpful to actually speak openly about these thoughts, and it became obvious that, from the hospital s side, it would not be to easy to extend the project (to the playroom, wards)- as well as they say they rather want quality than quantity. So ratehr than disseminating the project through more activities, it was suggested that to talk to the PR department could help to make it more public.