Typical Day At Seeds of Hopeprint story
August 09, 2012
8:00 – 9:00 : Wake-up, have breakfast, head to school 9:00 – 11:30 : In the morning the High school (grades 7 to 11, ages 13 to 18) students come to Seeds of Hope. They are well disciplined and focused. They come to Seeds with the homework their High-School teachers have given them and take advantage of the quiet space, and the resources (internet, text books, dictionaries, and most importantly volunteers and teachers at Seeds) in order to complete it. We often do English, Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, History, and Communications. As International Coordinator, I am responsible for helping new volunteers find a student or two to work with on homework that they feel comfortable helping with based on their background and level of Spanish. 11:30 – 12:00 : The children are asked to wash their hands, to then proceed to say a prayer and eat the snack that was prepared for them which is either an Oatmeal-milk drink with hard boiled eggs, or a Quinoa sweet drink with bread and cheese, followed by a fruit. They then hurry off home after brushing their teeth to change into their school uniforms to attend thei high school classes from 1 PM to 6 PM. 12:00 – 3:00 : From noon to 3 we have our lunch break. It is a free time where volunteers can choose to have lunch together, cook up a storm, go visit the Hot Springs, take a nap, catch up on emails home, etc. 3:00 – 4:30 : In the afternoon, the little ones show up. They are Primary students (grades 1 to 6, ages 6 to 15). They have spent the morning in school, have gone home for lunch, and have had time to play with friends a little bit. They are also asked to come to Seeds with homework that they got from their teachers. However, often there are students who have little or no homework from school, we therefore give them homework appropriate for their level. We work mainly on Mathematics, Religion, Reading, and Writing. The afternoons are often more hectic, because the little ones need a bit more help to focus and stay seated. They also need more attention and affection. 4:30 – 5:30 : This is “recreo”, playtime. Most of the children head to the backyard to play games, some stay inside for more help with homework, and some stay inside to read storybooks and help us prepare the afternoon snack. 5:30 – 6:00 : Time to wash our hands, pray, have a nutritious snack, brush our teeth and head home.
6:00 – until bed time : Here is more free time for the volunteers, once again free to go out to dinner, cook, go to Karaoke, go out dancing, go to the gym, get your fill of the internet, watch a movie, etc. Often on Fridays we take the afternoon kids to the park to play games, and once a month we take the children on a field trip to places near Huaraz where we organize games and the children can run around, get some fresh air and their fill of hugs and cuddles. Weekends are free for volunteers to do as they please. Nearly every weekend I do a day hike to the surrounding astonishing mountains, and every now and then I go camping with other volunteers in order to discover different valleys and peaks. It is such an amazing treat to be living in this gorgeous city, and working for such an incredible organization. I truly love it here!
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Omprakash volunteers have been posting stories, photos and even videos from their time abroad since 2007. We now have an extensive collection of personal stories from volunteers who've worked with our partners abroad. You can browse through the most recent stories below or use the category selection tool to narrow your search. Alternatively click on the Stories tab for each organization we work with to see specific accounts from a particular organization. Be careful - you might lose a couple hours of your day in here! Happy reading.