Orientation & Work

Orientation:

Orientation is finally over! It was a total of two weeks. It’s safe to say it was probably the most strenuous two weeks of my life. Not only was everything in Spanish 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but it also introduced me to the life I am living for the next year.

Most days of orientation were spent being introduced to others, listening to people speak about their jobs, tours, rules, policies, history and more about NPH. Other days were spent shadowing the person we were taking over for.

Another reason I am happy orientation is over with is because we moved into the actual volunteer houses! As much as I enjoy the company of the other volunteers, I never want to share a hostel type room with seven other women again. Now I am sharing a house with eight women, which sounds worse, but Instead of one big living space we have a house with two women per room, four rooms, one kitchen, two bathrooms and a living room.

The old hostel type room:

The view of my new house:

My new room:

The volunteer house kitchen:

Kitchen with living room on the left:

My job and classroom and first day:

I have officially had two full days of work. For those who have forgotten I am the “Special Education Individual” all the other volunteers call it “therapy” for the kids. I wake up at 6:15 a.m., start work at 7:15 a.m. and finish work at 5 p.m. most days (it depends on documentation/notes). I have a total of 14 kids that I work with, with a variety of disabilities. I am not allowed to share but put all the disabilities you can list in a hat and that’s what I to work with J.

The maximum number of kids I will have in one day is 8 and the minimum for one day is 6. When I have meetings with the other employees I have a minimum of 6 therapies a day. Every day is a little different and I follow a “schedule” as best I can, FLEXABILITY is very important with my schedule.

My classroom is pretty cool and I like it a lot. What the kids do, more or less, is work on everyday skills, for example, tying bows, buttoning buttons, scooping rice and putting it in bowls, twisting bottle caps, ironing, playing music, and more. It also includes classroom type activities like numbers, colors, letters and sounding out words. All of the activities include the child’s senses and they are physically participating, exploring and learning.

My classroom:

My first day was exciting and crazy at the same time. I probably looked like I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I say that because I have to physically go look for the kids and bring them to my classroom. It gets crazy because half the time they are not where they are supposed to be.

First day of work:

The majority of the kids that I work with love me and want to come and work with me. Then there are a couple kids who like to test the water. The water is cold right now because I have some hair missing, bite and pinch marks. I keep telling myself with time things will get better. I know once I get accustomed to the language there will be nothing that can slow me down and as of right now I’m in a car with no wheels. It’s just as frustrating for the kids as it is for me and for this I feel horrible.

Other Jobs:

On top of my 7 to 5 job I am accountable for a specific section of kids and family projects every week/month.

Twice a week, minimum, I am responsible for visiting a section of kids. The sections are arraigned by age and gender. My section consists of 22 boys ages 8-10. If anything this will be fun because I will eat dinner with them, go to their area (room) at night to play games, read books, dance or whatever we want.

Twice a month I am responsible for family projects. Out of the 350 kids at NPH there are a lot of brothers and sisters. The family projects are designed for the brothers and sisters within the larger NPH family to have time together. With all the kids, I imagine it’s easy to forget who your blood is and who isn’t.  So, twice a month I get assigned a family of kids and we spend quality time together. We can go get ice cream, candy, play games and more.

Random thoughts/facts:

My camera got stolenL good thing they are only $100 USD in Antigua.

One of the 9 new volunteers has already quit and is returning home. YIKES.

There is a swing in the volunteer house hanging from the rafters.

A dog followed me all the way home today because it knew I purchased food from the market.