We arrive at 2:50 pm and at 3 pm all the children gather in a court area and start singing a song. Then they get to choose where they want to go for an hour and a half. Either the library, art, computer, science, homework or activity room (which is where Denny and I are). In the activity room there are puzzles, memory games (which they love to play), Legos (where Denny hangs out), board games and chess. Both of us have played the kids chess. Yes, I can beat a 6 year old in chess. Then at 4:30 the children clean up the room and it’s reassess for a half an hour. During reassess I met Sabastian on the swing set. I asked if I could push him, he said “yes”. Sabastian is autistic, very bright and a sweet 12 year old. We asked each other questions, I told him I didn’t speak very good Spanish, he smiled and spoke slow and used simple Spanish words. I understood everything, the 30 minutes flew by talking. I wish all the kids and adults talked like Sabastian. Then at 5 pm we go into our “family” groups, there are about 8 families. There are 3 volunteers and 6 kids in my family. We go as a family into a big room and sit together. This is called “circle” time. During this time it changes each day. Yesterday, one of the volunteers told the kids how she grew up, not in a good family situation and at 14 found herself living on the streets (in Australia). All the kids had questions for her. Then they started talking about their own situation and how their parents yell at each other for example. The coordinator tries to give helpful solutions and the other kids do the same. It’s hard to know exactly what they are saying, but I get a summery in English later. Then at 6 pm each family goes into their room and does a project or talk. At 6:30 our family is served hot chocolate, after the kids are finished, they clean their cups and return them to the kitchen. At 7 pm we all go home.

Becky