Wednesday September 5, 2012

Wednesday September 5/12 update

I was awake again at 3am, with the mind churning and making preparations for the Amigos School meeting.  I tried to get back to bed at 5 but the Boys joined me so I only managed to toss and turn until 6:30 when I got up to get busy again.

I met Nancee (a Spanish class alumni, and an English teacher) south of Feria Libre and showed her where the school was.  Many people came late but we had a great turnout, even three new volunteers (including Yoshi’s daughter Lynn).  

Nancee and Victoria, our bilingual teacher met for 3 hours yesterday to hash out some issues and to coordinate on a curriculum for teaching English as a small portion of each class.

Miguel again chaired the meeting and Linda appointed herself as chairperson to follow the agenda she had drawn up.   Considering the circumstances, the meeting went quite well however we all had to gang up on Miguel to reduce his grandiose expectations to those realistically manageable at this time.   Many good suggestions were put forward and it appears that everyone is on the same page now.

The decision was made to expand the class time from 3pm to 4:30 to allow 3 segments of Art, English and Activities to be interwoven.  Everyone signed up to help in the various areas, and we will be accepting new volunteers as they come forward.

The decision was also made to change the name to Amigos Activity Center, in English and Spanish as we are much more than a school.

The Hearts of Gold people, Emilie and Melinda, joined us to impart the good news that they will fund us for a new locking cabinet for supplies for now, and they will probably fund more things later. 

I am to put in a GringoTree ad to see if we can get donations of a large screen monitor, maybe a projector, and a laminating machine.   It appears that Miguel was not successful in getting Etapa to donate Internet service and yet nobody seemed interested in contacting the many other cable companies….  I bit my lip on that one.

Chris is to make laminated ID cards for all kids and I am to supply him with the photos I have.  

Nancee volunteered to coordinate the staffing for each class.   It is all coming together slowly but it is certainly helping to have some qualified people in the right positions.

That was today’s excitement.   Please see all photos at souvenircuenca.blogspot.com.  Hugs to all.