The Daily Routine

On Monday I began what will be my regular schedule for the rest of the year. Regular schedule is a bit of a misnomer as things can, and will, change here due to the country I´m in and also because we are such a small, fluid organization. But anyway, here goes.

Each day, I go to the DREAM Project office in town from 8:30-11. I am in charge of supplies and supply donations and coordinate getting what we have out to our people at their locations. I also do various other tasks such as corresponding with people interested in making supply donations, and updating our website´s supply donation section. On top of that, I´m available to do any other office task that needs to be done.

From 11-12 I have lunch and usually go back to my room and have a couple sandwiches and some bananas.

From 12-2 I teach computer classes. Monday is reserved for teachers and other various adults, and the rest of the week is for students. I teach one class from 12-1 and another from 1-2. Each class meets twice a week, either Tuesday and Thursday, or Wednesday and Friday. My afternoons are spent supervising the afternoon recess and also trying to make it more organized (ie have them do something other than throw rocks at each other).

Directly related to the recess task is the student council that I am going to try to put together. Another volunteer and I are trying to get a group of interested students, aged 13 or older, to meet after school to form this council. The goal is to have them eventually conduct activities during recess and take on a leadership role within the school. We would also like to have special activities for them later in the year like trips, dances, and other events in the community. This seems to be a tall task, but hopefully it will be successful.

My last task is to be the DREAM member on the computer committee. This committe is mainly made up of local Dominicans and the goal is to get this computer lab turned into a functioning internet café during the evenings. The reason for that is to make this self sustaining as far as maintenance and also raise money to pay the salary of a full time computer teacher here. This also seems like a difficult task, but it would be hugely beneficial if we can pull it off.

So there´s an overview of what my days will look like for the foreseeable future. I also recently took some pictures of my school and would like to share them with you below.




Front of the school



Back of the school


The Computer Lab



Inside the computer lab



Inside one of the classrooms