Day 1 of volunteering!
Today was my first day of volunteering at St. Mary Villa Child Development Center through InterAmerican Health Alliance (IAHA)! As soon as I walked into the play area for the kids, I was greeted by 6 young kids, Kayla, Jose, Nicholas, Joshua, and Sophia. Minutes later, quite a few others joined my welcoming committee and I instantly fell in love.
St. Mary Villa Child Development Center is located about 20 minutes away from campus. The co-chair of IAHA here on campus drove another volunteer and myself over after my first class this morning.
We arrived at the center a little after 10am and I spent about half an hour playing, watching the kids show off in front of their friends, and smiling from ear to ear because I having so much fun! The game of choice happened to be catch today, so I stood in the middle of a circle and tossed a basketball to each kid.
Other than having a blast with the kids there, one of my goals as a volunteer is to expose non-English speaking children to English. While many kids did understand and speak English, there were some kids who were a little more reserved because of the language barrier. They became a little more comfortable after a few minutes and talked to me and played catch with me, which was a good sign. I really can’t wait to form relationships with these kids by coming back every week and seeing how much they grow and improve!
Around 11am they split up into different classrooms according to their age groups for lunch. I helped hand out lunch to a group of 6 kids and then unfortunately had to leave. However, I will most definitely be back next Wednesday for more fun with some absolutely precious kids!