Alina's Volunteer Day

This morning Alina & I participated in the little girls circle together.  We noticed that some of the little girls can get a little "out of hand" around Alina, so I did tell her to be careful around them...& not to encourage them to be disruptive.  She did a good job with this (although some of the girls can still get a little crazy).

Reina was in charge of leading the devotion, but she looked to me quite often to keep the girls 'in line'.  When the girls got done singing and it was time to listen to God's Word, she begged Yolany to do it for her.  So Yolany took over.  Reina had told me this weekend that the little girls do not listen to her at all and that she's been struggling with that (being a house leader).  She's only 14 years old, so please pray for strength for her.

After breakfast Alina & I headed our separate ways.  I headed with the little girls to school.  I had an idea for Julie (the volunteer who's helping me from the Maryland group this week).  I wrote down some students' names who had struggled the day before with reading and had her pull them out to read with her one-on-one.  It was a great opportunity for them to get some extra reading time in and a way for her to get more involved.  Down here when children are pulled out to read, it's actually a privilege and a treat!  They love it.  As I'd pull out some students this week, then others in the class would remind me which day they got to go, with a smile on their face.  :-)

I found out later that while I was gone this morning, Alina got to fill around 100 water balloons for the medium girls' field day today.  Then she went to the toddler house to play with them.  She spent time in the 'Casita' which is the arts & craft house, painting the book shelf ends for the library.  These ends will help tremendously, since right now the books just slide right off the shelf because it does not have sides.  They ended up looking so wonderful too (another reason why I'm disappointed my camera broke).  After painting, Alina went to participate with the medium girls in their field day.  She got soaked!!!  Finally she came over to the small girls' house to watch a movie with them...Narnia (but not the one I'm reading, one about a King named Caspian).

When the girls came back from school, there were two women volunteers from a Panama City group waiting with me to give them some cookies that they had made.  The cookies were delicious!  They socialized a little with the girls and then when they left, it was time for supper & baths.  We did save some cookies for the bigger girls who were still in school and those adults who are in charge of the house.

When the little girls settled in to watch the Narnia movie, I did stay for a little bit.  But when I realized that it was NOT the one I needed to have read for tomorrow's classes, I headed out and prepared about 20 pages before heading to bed.  I also wrote down some ideas to possibly share at tomorrow's circle...if Reina would accompany me.  I'll let you know more when I actually lead the circle.