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Published: November 4th 2011
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Our class room - the kids were very keen to learnSo I have been fortunate enough to be scheduled to work on 3 volunteer projects! I will be working at the Health Clinic, The Children’s Community Centre and with the Street Kids. My week days are kind of busy as seen below!
Monday -Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Frida
Health Clinic = 8:30 – 12:30
Monday & Friday
Street Kids = 3:00 – 6:00
Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday
The Community Centre = 3:00 - 5:00
Working at the Kids Community Centre – what an eye opener! I am working with another Volunteer (Kelsie). We both have limited Spanish so again it can be difficult to properly communicate with the kids at times however hand gestures and big smiles go a long way! The centre is a newly built large white building which houses a number of smaller rooms and surrounds a concrete court yard. I was amazed to find approx 50 children from the ages of 4 – 12 awaiting our arrival. As soon as you enter the front gates to the centre you are immediately swamped by a million kids with big brown eyes and heart warming smiles wanting hugs, cuddles and kisses. They
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The kids!!! are just so excited to see you it’s a bit overwhelming!
The idea with this project is to give the smaller children somewhere safe after school to wait and play until they can return home to their parents. Hence my job is to help them with their home work, teach an English class twice a week (learn simple things like numbers, colours, shapes, animals etc) and provide educational stimulation through craft and play. I have to say I absolutely loving this project even though it can be extremely challenging to keep 50 kids in line with so many communication barriers. There are 4 younger Spanish girls (about 16 – 18 years old) who also come to help out at the centre which is great! I have many fun activities planned in the coming weeks and cannot wait to get to know the kids better. At the end of our day we have to tell all the kids to ‘VAMOS’ ie get out. I really struggle with this, sending kids at the age of 4 to their homes with no parent supervision! But it seems to be the way of the world out here. The kids seem to be
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Learning numbers... extremely independent and just walk the streets alone. As we say goodbye to the kids at the gates we are again covered in multiple kisses and hugs. Some kids won’t let you go until you physical remove them from yourself....it’s a totally new world and I am loving every single second of it!!!
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