Volunteering

Hola,

As I mentioned in the previous post, the volunteering that I am doing while living in Barcelona deserves its own post.

The fourth class that I am taking, International Service Learning, is all about understanding the local community and getting involved to help make a difference in people's lives.  This class meets once a week on Thursdays for an hour and half where we learn about problems and real issues that locals are dealing with.  So far, we have talked about immigration and the housing problem in the city.

In addition to the class time, we are assigned a place to volunteer once a week for two and a half hours in the community.  On Tuesdays from 4:30-7:00, I take the metro to the outer area of Barcelona and volunteer at an after school program.  The kids I work with are ages 3-5 and many of them come from unstable homes.  Some of them are also children of immigrants so sometimes Spanish isn't their first language.

Since I have a lot of experience with kids being a camp counselor for the past two years and babysitting since I was younger, I thought this would be similar to what I had experienced before.  I couldn't be more wrong.  When I first walked in, all of the kids were reading books.  They were reading books by themselves and to each other.  It was so cute.  Even though they didn't know who I was, they immediately came up to me and asked me to read to them in Spanish.  Good thing they were young because most of the books they asked me to read were in Catalan (which is really different than Spanish)!  They also lost interest pretty quickly so I didn't feel that bad about having a bad accent. When reading time is over, they all have a snack.  All of the kids went to get their own chair and sat down at their tables without any problems.  They had fruit and cookies as a snack and when they were done, the teachers assigned certain kids to wash the tables.  When they were done cleaning up, they had play time but the kids who behaved the best during snack time were allowed to start playing first.  I have never seen kids go so crazy while playing!  They rode little bikes all over the place and were crashing into the walls and each other!  I honestly felt afraid for my life.  Other kids were playing with blocks, dolls or reading more books.  When they were done playing, they divided the kids into their age groups and did age appropriate activities.  I sat with the 3 year olds and the teacher read them a book about animals and made it interactive and visual by asking them questions and putting pictures of the animals on the board.  They absolutely loved it!  Once this was over, their parents started showing up and they were on their way!

I have to admit, I was really overwhelmed by this at first.  The language barrier was really hard (not to mention, sometimes it is hard to even communicate with 3 year olds when they speak the same language as you).  I also had to take a step back since the kids and the teachers knew their schedule and I had to follow along.  I have also never seen kids behaved so well.  Their schedule was strict and followed a certain time frame and the kids knew what to do as soon as they asked.  For example, after play time was over, the teachers asked the kids to clean up and they did so immediately.  Not one kid kept playing after they asked to clean up.  This amazed me.  Another difference I noticed was how touchy the kids were with me.  Before even knowing me, they were giving me hugs, sitting on my lap and pulling at my arm to play with me.  These are culture differences I had never noticed before until I was interacting with the locals.

I can't wait to go back next Tuesday.  I loved every second I was there and the program director told me I was "encantada" which means delighted.  For next week, I am going to look up some words and phrases to better interact with the kids.  I think here out of anywhere I go and anything I do in Spain, is where I am going to learn and speak the most Spanish.  I am so excited to go back and play with the kids again!

Besos!