yesterday I celebrated my 22nd birthday in the great city of DC! I was a little emotional being away from my family and our tradional birthday activites, but my day was lovely.
work was a little hectic. we had our annual visit from the DC public school auditors for "Count Day." on this day, auditors check to verify if the number of students in our classrooms match up with the actual number of students participating in the program. this report in turn provides our program with scholarship for our annual operating budget. a very big deal! we offered breakfast snacks in the morning to entice students to come early, gave away new children's jackets and adult gloves and hats. we basically bribed our students to be present for this count! as a result, no one was missing from my morning and afternoon class! with all of that tension though, I wasn't thinking about my birthday!
30 October 2008
13 October 2008
My Crazy Month of September!
last month was SO busy! goodness! I am happy though that we are in a new month. correction: we are in the best month of the year! ROctober! my birthday month! only 10 more days!
rewind. back to September.
the month started out with a MVS orientation in [unincorporated] Murdock, Kansas with all of the new VS volunteers from around the country. 30 of us stayed at Camp Mennoscah, which is in the middle of nowhere! (sorry Kansas lovers.) let's just say I got a lot of reading done that week! which is a miracle because I am a very slow reader! ha! and I totally appreciate Camp Keola so much more now! Mennoscah has a lot of flat land, a nice running river on one side, a great tradition of Giant Dutch Blitz. but, Keola has much better facilities. Mennoscah's cabins are quite old, their dining hall is large, but is not designed camper and staff divisions. after one week there, I was so much more appreciative of the hard work of Keola-lovers who donate time and money to keep the camp running and looking good. with that said, Keola is continuously on my prayer list; I would hate to see the camp go down the drain. back to Mennoscah: I made a lot of connections with other volunteers that week: met a girl who is doing VS in Fresno, fancy that! one of the volunteers in Baltimore, Maggie, her Dad runs the Newseum, the (obvoius) news museum in DC and is willing to get our house in for free! $20 discount! totally cool! plus, her favorite movie is "Almost Famous" so we became instant friends. also that week, we met our 6th and final housemate Tim, who moved to DC right after the orientation. it turns out that he really completes our house!
teaching at the preschool is going quite well. we had our first field trip to an international children's festival with lots of music, dance, and artwork. we did not leave any students behind, just me! two buses left the location without me! the students thought it was very funny! in the classroom, the kids are getting use to a school schedule, remembering our routine and helping teachers clean up to go to the next activity. I have learned to not underestimate preschoolers. just because they are three years old does not mean they cannot be given small responsibilities. the story for most of our preschool families is that only parents clean up around the house. the parents are totally surprised to come into our classroom and see their child willingly cleaning up along side the teacher. as I get to know the students and their parents, our team will be working in way to incorporate some of these basic ideas into a child's every day routine at home as well. I am learning that that link takes time and consistency as well. small steps! the sad thing is too that most of these parents cannot spend the time to teach their children these basic human-development needs. their life outside of the 2.5 hour class is working to bring home food and clothes for their family. some of the mothers in our program truly should not be mothers yet. some are still searching for their own individual identity as an American, as an employee, as a wife/ girlfriend. from their actions, one can tell they think they know what is best for their child (i.e. letting a four year old wear diapers so that it is easier for the mother throughout the day) but some of their actions will actually put their child behind in development and school. (DC public schools will not enroll children into kindergarten until they are toilet trained.) with all that, I am having a great time with the kids, learning a lot from them and hoping they are learning that much and more from me! here is a picture of us on a walk. this is some of our morning session with my co-teacher Lorena.
apart of the month's retreats, our house went to West Virginia for a weekend to bond and share our faith stories. I feel truly blessed to have such great housemates thus far. we are all very different, from all over the country, with many different views of religion, politics, God, social responsibilities. then on top of that, we have different views on house life, chores, recycling, use of electricity. a whole pot of differences! and we will be housemates for one year! with that said, we are a great bunch who are enthusiastic about our community and placements. I am praying that this year will be quite transformational in all aspects, not only for me, but for my wonderful fellow VSers.
ROctober has been pretty wild so far as well! explanation: October is the #3 month of the year for great reasons (17th- housemate Tim's birthday, 27th- my Uncle Andy's birthday, 30th- my birthday!!!, 31th- crazy costume day). with all of those celebrations, our house has now been referring to this great month as ROctober. I do not have a plan yet of how I am going to celebrate this year. I have a big meeting at work and choir rehearsal at night on my birthday. I might just wait for the weekend to get my party on!
my 22nd birthday list: a chance to see my California family and friends.
I miss home! especially with my birthday around the corner, I miss all of your faces and laughs and hugs. this will be my first birthday away from home and it will probably feel a little off because of that. but the greatest part: having people to miss.
rewind. back to September.
the month started out with a MVS orientation in [unincorporated] Murdock, Kansas with all of the new VS volunteers from around the country. 30 of us stayed at Camp Mennoscah, which is in the middle of nowhere! (sorry Kansas lovers.) let's just say I got a lot of reading done that week! which is a miracle because I am a very slow reader! ha! and I totally appreciate Camp Keola so much more now! Mennoscah has a lot of flat land, a nice running river on one side, a great tradition of Giant Dutch Blitz. but, Keola has much better facilities. Mennoscah's cabins are quite old, their dining hall is large, but is not designed camper and staff divisions. after one week there, I was so much more appreciative of the hard work of Keola-lovers who donate time and money to keep the camp running and looking good. with that said, Keola is continuously on my prayer list; I would hate to see the camp go down the drain. back to Mennoscah: I made a lot of connections with other volunteers that week: met a girl who is doing VS in Fresno, fancy that! one of the volunteers in Baltimore, Maggie, her Dad runs the Newseum, the (obvoius) news museum in DC and is willing to get our house in for free! $20 discount! totally cool! plus, her favorite movie is "Almost Famous" so we became instant friends. also that week, we met our 6th and final housemate Tim, who moved to DC right after the orientation. it turns out that he really completes our house!
teaching at the preschool is going quite well. we had our first field trip to an international children's festival with lots of music, dance, and artwork. we did not leave any students behind, just me! two buses left the location without me! the students thought it was very funny! in the classroom, the kids are getting use to a school schedule, remembering our routine and helping teachers clean up to go to the next activity. I have learned to not underestimate preschoolers. just because they are three years old does not mean they cannot be given small responsibilities. the story for most of our preschool families is that only parents clean up around the house. the parents are totally surprised to come into our classroom and see their child willingly cleaning up along side the teacher. as I get to know the students and their parents, our team will be working in way to incorporate some of these basic ideas into a child's every day routine at home as well. I am learning that that link takes time and consistency as well. small steps! the sad thing is too that most of these parents cannot spend the time to teach their children these basic human-development needs. their life outside of the 2.5 hour class is working to bring home food and clothes for their family. some of the mothers in our program truly should not be mothers yet. some are still searching for their own individual identity as an American, as an employee, as a wife/ girlfriend. from their actions, one can tell they think they know what is best for their child (i.e. letting a four year old wear diapers so that it is easier for the mother throughout the day) but some of their actions will actually put their child behind in development and school. (DC public schools will not enroll children into kindergarten until they are toilet trained.) with all that, I am having a great time with the kids, learning a lot from them and hoping they are learning that much and more from me! here is a picture of us on a walk. this is some of our morning session with my co-teacher Lorena.
apart of the month's retreats, our house went to West Virginia for a weekend to bond and share our faith stories. I feel truly blessed to have such great housemates thus far. we are all very different, from all over the country, with many different views of religion, politics, God, social responsibilities. then on top of that, we have different views on house life, chores, recycling, use of electricity. a whole pot of differences! and we will be housemates for one year! with that said, we are a great bunch who are enthusiastic about our community and placements. I am praying that this year will be quite transformational in all aspects, not only for me, but for my wonderful fellow VSers.
ROctober has been pretty wild so far as well! explanation: October is the #3 month of the year for great reasons (17th- housemate Tim's birthday, 27th- my Uncle Andy's birthday, 30th- my birthday!!!, 31th- crazy costume day). with all of those celebrations, our house has now been referring to this great month as ROctober. I do not have a plan yet of how I am going to celebrate this year. I have a big meeting at work and choir rehearsal at night on my birthday. I might just wait for the weekend to get my party on!
my 22nd birthday list: a chance to see my California family and friends.
I miss home! especially with my birthday around the corner, I miss all of your faces and laughs and hugs. this will be my first birthday away from home and it will probably feel a little off because of that. but the greatest part: having people to miss.
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