Monday, I returned home after my two classes in the morning, completed some homework, and ate with Margarita, before I had to walk back to Casa del Sol to start my volunteer hours. I was there for 2.5 hours and the majority of this time I spent playing with pre-school aged children in a gymnastic and fun room type area. The majority of children immediately run up to you and give you big hugs, and they fight over you for your attention. It is nice to be in such high demand and to be able to interact with the kids, but it is a sad reality that most of the children want all of the attention because they don’t have parents and don’t receive as much attention as most children do. The time on Monday went by relatively fast, although we were all definitely tired after playing for that long.
Tuesday, I had class from 8:00-11:10, and after class headed back to Casa del Sol to complete 3 hours of volunteer work before going home to eat and then to dance class. During this shift of volunteering, I was assigned to help in the baby/toddler section, which I was initially thrilled about. However, the children were sleeping when I first got there, so I had to label, fold, and organize the laundry. This would have been completely fine, except that the lady in charge of this area was the most anal lady I’ve ever met. I understand that they have hectic schedules and organization is key, but this lady was just over the top. So, after an hour or so of doing everything wrong, I was finally done with the clothes. The children were up and needed to be changed before lunch. There were already too many volunteers in the area, so I was asked to make cotton balls. The cotton comes in a large section (4-5 ft) and then I had to break it into smaller sections before separating it into even smaller sections. Then, I had to form the cotton around my finger and make sure it was firm enough so it would not break in the water. Two hours of cotton ball making later, I was more than ready to leave. I do not mean to bash the program or the people associated with it, because all they do for these kids is absolutely amazing and a blessing, but I would like to interact more with the children.
On Wednesday, I decided I was not necessarily willing to commit to 8-10 hours of volunteering, on top of courses, English lessons, and time to explore, a week, so I went to talk to Ignacio. I expressed how grateful I am to have the opportunity to work with children and volunteer at the Casa del Sol, but my original commitment had been for 25 hours, and the jump to 8-10 hours a week seemed a bit extreme. He didn’t recall ever seeing that we had only agreed to 25 hours, but once I pulled up the e-mail indicating this, he agreed that it was quite a bit different. So, he has lowered it for me, and I now only have to complete 6 hours a week. This is still much more than the initial 25 hours, but something that I am willing to do, at least for now. I have now figured out my schedule and I will spend 2.5 hours on Monday afternoons and 3.5 hours on Tuesday afternoons at the Casa del Sol. I just hope that future time there allows for continued interaction with the children!
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