Friday, November 16

Tom Davatelis

Today we have reached the end of our first week of the program and our team has been reduced from 22 to 15. When we resume on Monday we will be down to only 10. HELP! Amazing Edith has already adjusted our assignments for the remaining ten.For me it has been a pleasure associating with such talented and skillful volunteers. We have a great mixture of all age levels and they possess a host of interesting experiences.

This morning Edith explained how our donations of supplies were distributed to the various classes. Edith also reviewed the pick up times for the two weekend trips to be taken by some of our remaining crew.

My morning assignment is with Carla´s class of a very, very active and noisy group (16) 4 year old children. And I was exhausted after the class was over: It was not what I had expected: Carla is wonderful with the children: She is always calm and very patient: My 2nd: day was better because I knew what to expect and just went with the flow; enjoying the challenging experience. By the third day it was enjoyable as I bonded with the kids and became quite fond of the little rascals. They are adorable despite their high energy level I think that I will have images of their happy faces for a long time.

My afternoon assignment is in the sibling program where family members get together because they normally don’t see each other during the day: four of us worked 7 children from ages 5 to 11. We tried to entertain them with various games and materials we brought from the office. This afternoon we were divided into 2 groups to prepare for the Cinema Project. One group had to hike some distance to haul back and set up 100 chairs while the other group had the more difficult task of slaving over hot kettles to make100 bags of popcorn. At 2:30 . We were ready to show “The Bee Movie” in Spanish and shortly after; passed out the popcorn and juice for every student. After the students left we began to take away and store the chairs while others swept up the floor.

Edith held a meeting before dinner to review our original goals and objectives to see if we had met our goals and expectations up to this date. Several of us offered our comments and suggestions. Some who expected to really teach English were disappointed that there was no opportunity at PPA to do this. Global Volunteers could be a little more specific as to the type of work that can be expected at the PPA. The majority of us, however, were flexible enough to quickly adapt to the unexpected day-to-day challenges. Overall, most of us are enjoying the unique experience that the PPA has to offer. It is both rewarding and satisfying.

Thought for the Day, John Haskins

What does working with the PPA and throwing a rock in the pond have in common? It's not the splash that counts, but how long the ripple lasts!!!