Up and Running!

My after school program is officially up and running! We started on Monday with a wonderful turnout of nearly 60 students, and the numbers have been consistent all week! The program operates in two shifts - a three hour shift in the morning and a three hour shift in the afternoon. Primer ciclo (first cycle, grades 1-3) comes in for one shift, and segundo ciclo (second cycle, grades 4-6, plus kindergartners) comes in for the other shift. Here's a snapshot of what the program looks like!

• 9-9:15: icebreaker game
• 9:15-10:00: English class
• 10-10:15: snack
• 10:15-11:00: Specials (art, science, team-building games - kids are rotated to a new activity each day)
• 11:00-11:30: study/homework time
• 11:30 - 12:00: group reading (Right now, it's Charlie & the Chocolate Factory!)

The schedule is the same in the afternoon, but from 1:00 to 4:00.

I've been fortunate to get a lot of help from the parents of the students, which is awesome because sustainability of the project is my ultimate goal, and their collaboration is necessary to make that happen. Like I've said before, I really want to find or build a house to be a permanent home for the program so that this project can continue to serve kids in my community for years to come. I am currently looking into a few different options as far as that goes.

In the meantime, I've started taking a few steps that I hope will eventually make me unnecessary to the program by the time I leave to return to the US. Allow me to explain... Poco a poco (little by little), I am doing my best to scale back my "ownership" of the program, and make the parents feel like they are the ones who own it and make it happen. So, while I did all the planning and put together all the lesson plans, materials, etc. for this week, I had the moms who were helping me out actually execute most of the activities, aside from English classes. I was more of a facilitator between activities and helped keep everyone on track and in check, bouncing around to help with various activities at any given time. Some of the time, I just sat back and beamed like a proud momma at how well the moms AND kids were doing, whether they were doing arts and crafts, playing a team-building game, doing homework, or just eating their merienda (snack). It was great to see the kids having fun and learning and watch a lot of the moms who don't necessarily think of themselves as leaders get to step into that role.

In addition, this week some of the moms and I formed a directiva (a committee) for the program. We now have a treasurer, secretary, organizer, and vice president (they wanted me to be the president, even though I tried to tell them that wasn't allowed...one step at a time). All of them are motivated and have already begun working on their jobs, for example, organizing snacks among all the parents, planning fundraisers, and scouting out new volunteers. We also started lesson planning together for the third week of the program (I pre-planned out the first two weeks just to get the ball rolling). Anyway, as you can see, there is a lot of leadership potential among the parents, and I am really hopeful that they will keep this thing going once I'm gone (cross your fingers!) Lao Tzu said it best:

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists; when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, the people will say: we did it ourselves."


On a different note, the week was just a lot of FUN. We made edible chocolate play dough, played some good old fashioned team building games, did lots of cheesy icebreakers, sang songs, ate snacks, and just enjoyed. As always, my very favorite part is getting to know the kids. I'm always amazed at how quick kids are to accept and love somebody new. I've made about 60 new best friends this week :-)

Next week promises to be just as great, and even better since we've settled into a routine! And now, for some pictures!

Our nice set-up in the salón comunal

Lucky has started following me absolutely everywhere I go.
Here he is trying to break into the salón comunal. 

Ice breaker game!

Making the edible chocolate play-doh! 

Some cute kindergartners

Making fake quicksand with cornstarch and water

Cheesin'

Volleyball...kind of!

Group reading time...What will happen to Charlie next?!