--New Opportunities--

Through many days of frustrating/long/tedious training days i have slowly learned that disorganization is a form of organization. I know, it sounds crazy, but close to nothing is organized correctly here. But hey...i got all the time in the world...

We were told that we needed to attach to an NGO (non-governmental organization) to shadow. Now at first we thought "what? more expectations? How am i gonna have time for this?", but with more thought i was excited about getting a chance to see more NGO work around the island. There seems to be many different outlets for parents and children to get help and support, but they are sometimes hard to find. So we were told that we needed to arrange times to shadow these organizations, so i quickly got on the phone earlier in the week with GrenSave, or Grenada Save the Children.It was started by the Brits around the 60's to help parents with daycare and the proper way to nurish children, but now has turned into more service learning with children. We initially had some issues catching each other but somehow i found out i was to be there this morning at 9am. I wander my way on down to the building, on the way seeing multiple funny looking tourists from Finland. Did you know men wear capri pants there? haha.

ANYWAYS...I walk into GrenSave excited to learn about this new potential counterpart, to be reminded of yet another reason I'm learning to adapt. The lady was awesome, but had not been informed as to why i was there. She apologetically said no one had contacted her about why i was coming, but she was just so excited an American wanted to help. hahahaha. At this point i was beyond frustrated at the trainer who had promised he contacted these places with all the information they needed, but i just took a deep breath and became the best bullshitter alive. Sorry for the language, but its the only way to describe me going into a random meeting, in a new culture, with no background info and no sense of direction. AWESOME! haha. But it turned out ok, and the lady is so nice and eager to have me there. So i guess that's a positive right? haha.

Then this afternoon i went to the YWCA so i could get a chance to meet the kids in the After School Library Program. They are adorable, but quite the range of kids. The oldest being around 12 and the youngest 3. Not to mention the space i have to work with is about the size of a classroom, with half the room being taken up by a sewing class today. It seemed as if the children had no real sense of direction with the program, but rather just supervision. I hope i can integrate some new ideas into the program to benefit these kids. Wish me luck!

Tomorrow ends the week with a great day of training (enter enthusiasm here), and then we are going to reward ourselves with a nice afternoon at the beach. I really enjoy all of the other volunteers and our sense of humor. We have tons of inside jokes and little things to get us through the days. Im really gonna miss them when i cant seem them every day.