Many "news"

Lots of "news" for this past week.

Last week Friday the rest of the semester group arrived and settled into their host homes.  All of the students for this semester are staying with host families provided by the Spanish school, La Union, that where we are all studying.  These families either have a room available for students or they rent a small apartment complex to house numerous people.

Today marked the first day for my second Spanish class, Intermediate Spanish.  I will have class Monday through Friday, for the next three weeks, and should be able to speak at an intermediate level by then which is pretty cool!

Today also marked the first day that I worked with the God's Child Project. After my Spanish class and a quick lunch, I headed over to GCP which is about a 40 minute walk one-way but goes by rather fast.  Once there, I met with another social worker and his coworker and was told that we were going to do five home-visits to the parents of some of the new students in GCP's elementary school.

These visits allow GCP to understand how the parents of the children are doing financially, physically, and emotionally.  Besides supplying their children with basic school supplies, families only need to pay $2/month for their child to continue their education.  Many of these children are at risk of being pulled out of school in order to sell souvenirs in the street in order to make money.  Therefore, it is very important for the parents of the children to understand that GCP is there as a resource for keeping their children in school.

The children GCP supports mainly come from the poorer areas of Antigua where a person may not make more than $5 a day.  Since I was obviously not able to take photos for our home visits, I do not have any but I will be sure to post some of GCP next week.

After the home visits, I was offered to work as a volunteer coordinator since their office has been lacking a lot of assistance.  This would entail setting up appointments, tours, and assisting new volunteers in any way through GCP.

Thanks for reading!

Hasta luego!