So, I’m back at the helm for the report of this week. Let’s just say that the first week of this month was as crazy as it was interesting because it was the week (third time in a sentence, nice, I know) in which our main activities started.
Monday was your basic 1st day of the week, meaning that we had to discuss what will happen along the next days. Kamila and Ula reminded us that this week we’ll have to start our work at the ‘local partners’, the language classes and the Italian presentation in Krąg. After the meeting, as per usual, some of us remained to prepare for the next day, and the others went back to their homes, probably filled with enthusiasm about the coming days.
This Tuesday started as per usual with the Polish lessons for all the volunteers, after which everybody was anxiously waiting for the start of the language classes. The first one who went there was Anna, who delivered a lesson of Ukranian, then Salvatore gave an introductory lesson in Italian, both of which went perfectly. After those 2 classes, the participants took a small break of an hour, then, I and Zacha had to deliver English lessons to the people of different levels in said language. I took the ‘advanced’ ones, and, to be fair, I had a blast trying to give a lesson as non-formal as I could so that I won’t go straight into the main thing from the first hour. It was horrendous at the beginning for me, but steadily I got more and more confident and in the end I actually felt good about what happened there. Big thanks to Marta for the translations, when needed, it was really a big helping hand.
Then Wednesday came, and I was filled with excitement and dread, as I did not know what to expect from the kids at the school. I got there half an hour earlier, and let’s just say that this was one awkward half-hour until the rest of the people arrived. After a while of talking with the people there, mainly the caretakers, I discovered that they are not that confident in their English skills, so I made a deal with myself that by the end of my time here, I will help them with their speaking, at the very least, as much as I can. Then came one person that actually was pretty confident in her English, and who’s actually a teacher of said language, but today, as it was her first day as well, she gave the kids a lesson in another language that she knows, Chinese. After the lesson, I remembered how to introduce myself, but that knowledge was lost the day after, hopefully, I’ll be able to regain it. After that, I went back to the office, met with the others, and helped with the preparations for the ‘living books’ event that was going to take place the next day in the High-school in which the office is. When we were done with that, we had to go to help Salvatore with setting up the Italian presentation in Krąg, only the technical stuff, as the cooking was done by him and Zacha. I could say that it was a resounding success, given that all the seniors were looking very happy and seemed like they were having fun with us.
The next day was another day that started in the Democratic School, better than the day before, as I actually managed to interact more with the kids. Today it was Marta’s time to give some Spanish lessons in which I was the lab-rat, as per usual. The good thing about it was that I actually learned some words in that language, and I tried to help the kids with those words whenever I saw that they were having some troubles, I think this made it easier for me to build the needed bridges with them. After those Spanish lessons, I had to come back to the office, from which I was sent to Biedronka to get some stuff for the people, in the name of CIM, just to fill the time until the Living Books event that was going to take place in the high school. It was very underwhelming, compared to the previous one, but I still managed to get some interesting conversations from the people that were present at the event, things that I really liked and it showed me that I actually have some good social skills.
Friday was very….”FREE DAY”, as I only had to come to the office and finish some of the details for the event that will take place next week on the 11th, dedicated to the Erasmus+ day. After I finished with this, I reached out to my co-coordinator and we tried to put everything in place so that it will be neatly done by that time.
I will end this article by saying that you’ll hear from me soon!