Yesterday morning us volunteers met up in my site to talk to the captain of the cuartel (small military base) about the details of the swimming lessons. When I originally discussed the idea of the swimming lessons with him it was going to be me and one other volunteer and we would each bring 5 children from our respective sites. Then another volunteer asked to participate. I was a bit hesitant because that was not the original idea, but ok… 3 volunteers and 15 kids. Then one of the other volunteers invited a fourth volunteer to join our project without consulting me. 4 volunteers and 20 kids. No. I was not having it. The pool isn’t exactly huge and we are teaching beginner lessons. I know the ratio of volunteer to child would remain the same, but I simply did not feel comfortable with 20 kids in the pool at once. When the fourth volunteer showed up yesterday I was put in the awkward situation of saying something like “ummmm…. I don’t want you to participate.” I felt like a total bitch and was pissed that I was the only one who saw the potential danger. Well, the captain ended up not being there (emergency trip to Guayaquil), so I told the guard to give him my number and call me when he returned.
In the afternoon I visited families with my counterpart, tutored a child in English, and then went to the shopping mall to use the wifi to talk to my Mom. She never showed online and I was pretty disappointed. I really wanted her advice/support on my swimming problem and I think I sent her some not-so-nice emails. Sorry Mom!!!!!
Today was much better. The captain returned early and called me to request that we meet today. I went to the cuartel and somehow managed to negotiate two hours of pool time so that we could have two classes of 10 children each. I was pretty proud of myself! Those volunteers better appreciate what I did!!!
In the afternoon I met up with my counterpart to plan a small business charla (talk) that we are going to give on Monday. We are hoping to start up a small business with some mothers in the community. I then tutored a little girl in English for an hour.
Afterwards, I sat down with the librarian to plan out what we were going to talk about at a meeting that she was having later that afternoon. She has a HUGE tendency to go off topic, which makes her meetings last forever, which causes parents to not want to show up. I am trying to change that. The meeting actually went pretty well. She sorta stuck to the list. I sat next to her so that I could whisper to her when she was getting off topic, nudge her when she was interrupting people, and tell her when to rap it up. I think some of the mothers noticed and appreciated my efforts. Overall, I was quite pleased with my accomplishments today. And in addition to all that… I had my clothes washed!
No comments:
Post a Comment