The team members are Paulette and Irene
from Wisconsin and Minnesota (old college friends), Jim and Carter from
Pittsburgh (father and son), and our fearless leader, Edith.
On our first day, Paulette and Irene headed
off on their adventure with a great deal of excitement and maybe some degree of
trepidation to La Molina to teach the college students English. Upon arrival,
they were greeted by Mr. Gorky, the director of the language center, and then
introduced to Olenka. Olenka was responsible for orienting Paulette and Irene
at La Molina and making them feel comfortable. In session 1, Paulette had three
students who were professors and Irene had seven students. In session 2,
Paulette was feeling under the weather and assisted Irene who had another seven
students. The ladies allowed the students the opportunity to speak without a
great deal of interruption in order to gain confidence and feel comfortable
speaking in front of them and each other. The students were engaged and Irene
was quite impressed by their level of proficiency.
Meanwhile, Jim and Carter were already in
the groove as this is their third trip to PPA.
Jim spent the morning clearing weeds and cutting bushes with Salvatierri
behind the kindergarten. At the
suggestion of a security guard, they attempted to trim a bush in the shape of a
doll. It looked like a ball. Although
Carter is only fourteen years old, he feels comfortable at PPA and took an
assignment away from his father working with the babies at Niño Jesús. His main
responsibility was to play with them while the ladies bathed and fed the
others. He has found this is not an easy assignment as babies can be quite taxing
over long periods of time. In spite of this, Carter has excelled and provides
the ladies with much needed assistance. In the afternoon, Jim and Carter were
for the third time assigned to the siblings program with César, Harold, and
Walter Sandalay. They were greeted with hugs and affection. The day was spent
playing the usual games of soccer, tag, and hide and seek. The brothers have
made great progress from two years ago when César and Harold would not
recognize Walter as their brother and now readily accept him.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
