Hello friends and family (and random other people reading this blog). I just wanted to dedicate an entry to all of you who were so kind and wonderful as to send me donations! It has really helped me to feel more relaxed and productive in my work knowing that I have the funds to cover my work-related expenses.
I realize that it's kind of "bad manners" to talk about one's income, but I'm hoping that those rules don't apply to Peace Corps volunteers... Due to a variety of factors, including the fact that I'm still in Peace Corps' lowest pay bracket even though my rent is higher than many other volunteers' (they seem to keep making excuses as to why I can't get bumped up - dear Peace Corps staff member who is paid to read PC blogs: please help me!) aaaand the fact that I occasionally like to indulge in things like oh I don't know, yoga classes (only a dollar, how can I pass it up?), mozzarella cheese, and used American books, I'm still struggling a little bit to get used to my income. BUT, thanks to all of you, my work is NOT suffering, and I have several upcoming projects that I am very excited and not stressed (at least money-wise) about. To give you an idea, here are some things that I have used the donations for:
- Transportation to and from my schools
- Print-outs and photocopies for lessons (when there's too much information for the kids to copy down in one class period)
- Paper, pens, markers, staplers, folders, etc.
And, starting this Wednesday, I will have several "summer vacation" activities going, including three Harry Potter reading groups (one in each of my schools), and two groups of weekly English classes, which potentially could have about 50 participants each. Therefore, your donations will also be going toward:
- Notebooks for everyone in the clubs (to write down new vocabulary, discussion questions, class activities, homework, etc.)
- Coloring supplies (for Harry Potter!)
- Supplies for the "prize bin" to be used in the reading groups, where kids will earn points for attendance, learning new vocabulary, and participation
- The occasional snack for the reading groups (snacks are popular here and are usually provided at any type of meeting)
- Any other costs in maintaining these groups that I can't think of right now but that will surely come up
I'm super excited about these clubs (especially Harry Potter!) and my hope is that the kids will want to continue with them once school starts up again in January, but we'll see what happens. If they did continue, it would be a good way for me to stay occupied during the transition to getting Guatemalan teachers to pick up Peace Corps materials, because that means that (hopefully) I wouldn't be giving lessons during class time anymore, and instead would just be observing the teachers giving the Peace Corps lessons. Which isn't exactly very stimulating. If the clubs don't continue, I'm sure I'll find something else to do - world map/mural projects are near the top of the list right now... I'll also be doing lots of teacher and parent workshops, which I haven't had very much time to do this year.
Anyway, point of all this is to say THANK YOU all of you who donated, you are all amazing! And to those of you who can't/don't want to donate right now for whatever reason, thank you for following my blog! I'm grateful for any and all forms of support :) Que Dios les bendiga...
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| Giovanni (on his "boat") thanks you too |
:-)
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