Wednesday, June 5, 2013

A Little Help from the Timoun

I cannot believe how quickly my time here is winding down. After today, there is only one more day with the students here on campus. You could definitely see the summer jitters in some of the students as the day went on here. In between tests with open notebooks in their hands, students would be chatting with their friends and at the same time attempting to cram for one of their remaining finals.

Despite all of the excitement on campus, work needed to be done today. Therefore, for about three hours this morning I worked outside alongside Deacon Moynihan and a few other volunteers. We were mostly digging a trench and sifting the rocks around it, but it was hard work. Thankfully it has been a little cooler here the past few days, so we were not dying in the heat.

Since we are working by the basketball hoops and the playground area on campus, we usually get to watch the kids running around playing games for a little bit in the morning. They are always having so much fun, and love the swings just like my campers at home!

Today the Timoun, or the children in the child development program on campus, broke for play time about two hours into our project. Many of them started coming over to talk to their teacher who is one of the Volunteers. They were all so excited to see people at work, and wanted to join in with the Volunteers like the older students usually do. After five minutes of trying to convince the students to go play, we eventually gave up and let them help us out.

Not only were they willing to help out with the smaller tasks like sorting rocks, but they also wanted to help shovel dirt and use the wheelbarrows. By the end of the work period, we had about nine little sets of hands working on the trench, unwilling to let any of the Volunteers help. Out of all of the students I have seen working on that trench, I have never seen kids that eager and willing to work hard.

The rest of the day was spent organizing my thoughts for the next step of my paper. I am a slow writer so I was only able to write a page today, however I am happy that I am starting to make some progress. I am hoping over the next few days to get a decent amount of the paper completed, so that I will be prepared to look at the results of my survey as they come in.

Tonight I was able to help with dinner. The Volunteers and members of the Junior Staff are on a rotating schedule for dinner, but if someone cannot make it I usually step in and help. Dinner is usually more like a typical American meal, so tonight’s dinner was eggs. I was especially happy to help out with this meal, because it is one of the only meals that I can make without truly testing my cooking abilities, or lack thereof.


I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings!

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