I started out working with FRIEND, and still am a bit...but I've finally found my niche here. I'm working at a school for kids with special needs. I'm assisting them develop a P.E. program & an art program. Two to three days a week I call the following photos "work." The teachers & I just completed a workshop on developing P.E. for students with special needs...and everyone is excited to start making a curriculum & involving all the kids, which from what I've been told, wasn't the case before.
I'm also developing an art curriculum...I'm like the neighborhood garbage collector right now...anytime I see someone throwing away a plastic bottle, egg carton, or anything else that could possibly be transformed into an art project , I fly through the air like superwoman to save it from the rubbish. I have rediscovered my love for arts & crafts though, I get excited when I practice them at home...speaking of, please don't spend money on postage, but I'll be home in August & if you wanted to donate some construction paper, crayons, powder paint, markers, or glue we could really use it. Once the art program is up & running we'll ask parents to give $1-2/year to fund it, but first we need to show them why art is so important in their children's development.
And finally, we also really need a library at the school. The kids have very few books to read & learn from...and most of their learning involves repeating the same things every day... a lack of resources makes it difficult to encourage creativity in thoughts & actions, improved literacy, or comprehension. Not only this, but the teachers don't have great resources to reference on the special needs of their students & intervention strategies. I'd love to get a library up & running before I leave...I'm looking for options of how to get this done, if anyone knows of organizations that would fund something like this, let me know!
That's it for now, hope you're enjoying summer back home...we're just now moving into winter...80 degrees, brrrrr!
Some of the kids on a Friday game day....they're a handful, but they sure do make me laugh!
Some of the kids during our water break....
This is my yaca (yah-the). Names mean a lot in Fiji, your last name determines your clan, and can show which position you have in society. It's an honor to have someone named after you, in fact I think in the training villages there are a couple new little ones that were named after Peace Corps Volunteers. You also have a special connection with those who share the same name with you, they are your yaca...and this is mine...her name is Sera but I address her as yaca.
One reason I love kids...you say 'everyone hop like frogs...' and they do, no questions asked, and no worries about how ridiculous they might look.
Ok, so the cone is supposed to be on the ground, but this is a creative "thinking outside of the box" use of one, so I approve.
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Hey there Betch! let me know your address in chi town and I will mail you some kids books I have lying around so you can pick them up in the fall I dunnoif they will be useful to you but someone gave them to me when I was getting ready to go to the peace crops and i never brought them becuase they felt like a waste of space! so yeah just let me know!!!! miss you glad to hear things are going so well!!!!!!
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