Day 329

I spent my last morning in Gabs (for this trip) at the Baylor Clinic and I can't believe how fast time went by, a combination of having tons of fun with the kids and whenever I'm leaving home it feels like the last few hours fly by!

Two other volunteers joined me this morning and we had about 15 kids to hang out with. There were a lot of different activities going on and I was surrounded by a few younger kids - we made cars out of lego and had car races, caused accidents, and drove all over the tables and benches! The kids then drew pictures and wanted to show them off as soon as they got done drawing so I went from one to the next praising their creativity - they loved the extra attention!

Before leaving I sat with one of the younger boys as he read a short story book with me. I asked him questions after each story and he was excited each time he got the question right.

I had a great time meeting the kids and hanging out with them. And I look forward to going back some day! Now back to packing :(

Day 327

I had my largest group of kids at Baylor Clinic today, and it was a lot of work keeping up with them! The kids come to the clinic about once a month for their check ups. It's coming up to a month since my first visit there and today I had three kids from my first week. It was wonderful seeing them again and even more fun because they know me and were eager to talk and play.

I started the morning playing soccer with some of the younger girls - I'm defs getting better :)

Games of Jenga and the world puzzle are my favorites so of course there was a lot of that.

And while all of this was going on I had one little girl who demanded attention for showing off her hula hoop skills! It was a morning of being everywhere all at the same time, but still a morning filled with the kids laughing and smiling - so worth it!

Day 325

Like Jiten said, the internet has been down for the past few days so I was unable to blog yesterday. But here is how my Monday morning went:

I spent the morning hanging out with the kids at Baylor Clinic and had a wonderful time. This was the smallest group of kids I've had, as well as some of the oldest. There were several teenagers in the group who were content kicking around the soccer ball, while teaching me some fancy kicks. I soon left them though to hang out with my newest little buddy.  He's an adorable 5year old. We pushed around hula hoops (which were almost as tall as him); he soon became confident in his skills and started rolling out three at a time, and every time they collapsed would burst out in laughter.

We both then moved on to work on a puzzle. He was adamant about doing it so I helped him and one of the little girls put it together. They were so serious while doing it and had the proudest smiles once it was done.

Day 315

Aarti joined me at the Baylor Clinic this morning, along with one other volunteer. We took out the usual games and activities, and the kids helped take everything outside.

I started with the now famous puzzle of the world. A 14year old put it together today, and while he worked on it we chatted about some of the countries and he told me about one day wanting to visit the UK.

Once he was done with the puzzle, I taught him how to play Jenga, and he loved it! As we were playing some of the other kids caught on and joined in. They were all trying to be really careful because they didn't want the tower to fall over. The higher the tower went the more hands would shelter it in case it was going to fall.

Day 314

Time flew by at the Baylor Clinic today! Two volunteers from the University of Botswana were also there. We met in the toy closet and picked out toys/games for today's group.

Once outside the kids just started picking up the toys/games they wanted to play with. Two young boys took the world puzzle to another table so I joined them in putting it together. As they completed the countries we talked about the ones we knew about - I'm going to try take some pictures in tomorrow of the different things we talked about (rainforest, pyramids, kangaroos etc).

Once they were done I walked to another table where a young boy was challenging the volunteers to a game of Jenga. He was really good and won most of his games. Anytime the tower collapsed he would burst out laughing. Everyone enjoyed watching the game and before we knew it, it was time to pack up.

Day 313

Today I met another volunteer at the Baylor Clinic; he's been going there to volunteer every Wednesday for the past two years! He told me a little more about what the Play Group started out as...each day of the week taught a different lesson (hygiene, oral care) and each day was about building the children's confidence, self-esteem, conversational skills, and creativity. They started the morning with an introduction circle where the kids introduced themselves to each other, sang some songs, and did some easy exercises to warm up. They then played some group games centered around that days lesson. The second hour was unstructured and the children could play with any of the toys brought out and were encouraged to be creative in making up their own games. Before they left they cleaned up the area, picked up trash, and helped put all the toys away. He said that things have slowly changed to where the play group is now more just about playing and less about the lessons they were trying to teach.

We talked about how the play group could move back toward what it was initially meant to be, hopefully we can do something more meaningful for the children! And hopefully, administratively, there will be some support to help with this.

Of course the children were out today and they were very creative in building houses using Lego; one of the girls put together a puzzle of the world and we talked about some of the different countries, she also shared that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up; before we ended the group, two of the kids showed off their skills with the hula hoops!

Day 312

Back at the Baylor Clinic this morning. Today's group of kids were very artistic and most of them wanted to draw and colour, so I had the majority of them creating beautiful pictures.

I had a couple of boys who couldn't sit still for too long so we kicked around a soccer ball (wearing flip flops wasn't the smartest idea!). Once we got a few more people kicking the ball around we switched to little bean bags and attempted to throw around 3-4 of those. We just ended up all throwing them at the same time, but they loved it.

Towards the end of my time there I rolled around hoola hoops with some of the girls and a bubbly 3 year old. Again, we rolled around multiple hoops at the same time and the 3 year old would burst into giggles when the hoops collided.

Today went a lot smoother with having multiple activities out at the same time. Tomorrow I'm hoping to find a few more fun things in the toy closet - really wish there was a Dollar Store here!!

Day 311

It was my first day at the Baylor Clinic. Their mission is to conduct a program of high-quality, high-impact, highly ethical pediatric and family HIV/AIDS care and treatment, health professional training and clinical research. The Clinic is staffed by Botswana and U.S. health professionals, the center of excellence provides primary and specialty medical care and social services for HIV-infected infants, children and their families. BIPAI Botswana maintains an annual mortality rate of <1%, a rate as good as any Western nation, and the majority of its patients are thriving.

This morning I got to spend some time with these patients, kids aged 7-13. While they waited for their appointments I kept them entertained with games of Uno, soccer, tag, and Twister. I was nervous going in because I wasn't sure what to expect. But once there, I got some materials together and walked outside to the play area, and the kids just followed me. Most spoke to me and told me about themselves, I had two little girls who sat by me the entire time but didn't say a word! They were adorable!

One of the boys, 7 years old, was the most energetic! He ran around everywhere, played with everyone, and had so much energy! He was always laughing and smiling and really made some of the other kids more comfortable.

I had a good time and am hoping to be a little more prepared with games and activities for them tomorrow :)

Day 300

It's been an amazing day of giving! And I can't believe we're at Day 300!!! Time is flying by.

I was finally able to go back to SafeHouse this evening and had such a good time catching up with everyone. I plan on doing that for the next two days before I take off for a month :)

Hema also volunteered this afternoon through her work. Here's what they got up to:

"Today was a great day to be a employee at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead. With the help of Atlanta Challenge Team Building, not only were we able to identify the behaviors of optimum teamwork, but we were also able to give back to our community. We started out by being divided into 4 teams: Gold Team aka Silent but Deadly, White Team aka Sons of Anarchy, Blue Team aka GPG, and the Green Team aka Superstars. The objective of the team building event was to complete a series of challenges to retrieve bicycle parts. After completing all the challenges and gathering the parts, we had to assemble the bicycle. The bicycles that we built then would be donated to the Georgia National Guard, who then would donate it to a child who has a mother or father in the armed forces.

All of the challenges that we completed today were tough, but very entertaining and interactive. All the teams completed all the challenges and successfully retrieved all the parts. As for the winner, I would say that the Gold Team won, but I am sure that the others teams might not agree :). The Green Team believes that were certain managing members of the Blue Team that might have swindled their way to get ahead. The Blue Team believes that they were just smarter and that they outwitted not only the Green Team, but all the teams. The White Team believes that they were awesome just because they were the Sons of Anarchy. Lastly, the Gold Team was the best because they had the best assembled bicycle with the most accessories. At the end of the day, the real winners were the kids. The Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead was able to donate 4 bicycles today and we are so glad that we could be apart of a great community event!"

 It's amazing that a company sponsored an event like this and got their staff involved - it makes giving back that much more fun!

Day 156

I hung out with my two year old buddy at SafeHouse again :)

Before that though, I talked to one of the gentlemen (the one who donated his hair to Locks of Love) about jobs and housing. We hadn't had one of our long conversations in a couple of days, so we had a chance to do that today. He shared that he had a job interview coming up and that he was starting to look at going into a transitional home. He is beginning to take the steps to get off the streets and it's wonderful seeing him go through that process! Keeping my fingers crossed for him!!

Of course once my buddy came outside it was all about him! We ran around again, tried to count to five, he moved around imaginary chairs and had a full conversation going - only half of which I understood :)

There was also an energetic four year old there today - he's a sweet kid but he's exposed to life on the streets and sees/hears a lot of things that aren't always appropriate. This comes out in the way he interacts with others. Kids pick up on what we say/do so easily and it's really evident with this little boy.

Day 148

"In 2010 only 12% of 8th-grade African-American males were proficient in grade level math, compared to 44% of their Caucasian counterparts in the same grade. While both figures are well below where they should be, the difference according to race and socio-economics continues to baffle educators and social scientists. 

In response to this crisis, students from the City of Atlanta Centers of Hope have been gearing up for Neighborhood Mathematica with First in Math online math game modules. These modules have allowed students to make great use of their spare time while at the recreation centers or while at home.  Volunteer math coaches were also dispatched to the different centers to help students in their quest to sharpen skills." Read more here.

When a friend of ours invited us to volunteer with the Adamsville Recreational Center this afternoon, we weren't sure what to expect at the Neighborhood Mathematica Competition. What we found were several children ready to go to battle with each other over some Math Problems!

Christine, the host, and DJ K'leel had the kids dancing right off the bat, setting a fun and free-spirited tone to the competition.

The kids were engaged throughout the entire competition, and Kwanza was a wonderful host!

It's refreshing to see the community invest in programs such as this one, when heavy budget cuts are axing down educational programs within public schools.

We had a blast, and can't wait to return!

Day 43

I had the opportunity to do something fun today! I went to Scottish Rite Children's Hospital and spent some time working on arts and crafts with the kids. The hospital has an area called The Zone - a place where the kids can come to play video games or watch movies, and when a volunteer group is there, do some arts and crafts.

The kids were working on projects with their parents so I just walked around for a bit and looked at what each was doing. I came across a little girl just sitting with a blank piece of paper in front of her. So I asked her what she was working on, she said "I dunno". I then asked her what she would like to make, she said "I dunno". I asked if she wanted to make a Valentines Day card, her response "I dunno". So I sat down next to her and suggested the first thing I could think of - a day at the beach. She shrugged but started looking for things we could stick to our beach picture. Since the theme for today's arts and crafts was Valentine's day, this was a little more difficult than I thought, but she was starting to get enthusiastic about it, especially after we found the sun and a pool float. As she was doing this we kept talking and she kept laughing and smiling.

She didn't want to leave when her IV pump started beeping, and only got up because her mum promised they would come right back and I promised I would save her picture. While she was gone I cut up several pieces we could add to her picture, and when she came back she was so excited! She eagerly stuck all the pieces down and each time others walked by, she'd pick up the picture to show it off. She was such a sweetheart!

This was a really cool project and I look forward to going back soon! I volunteered through Kashi Atlanta but you can volunteer through http://www.choa.org/default.aspx?ID=17 as well.