Almost the end of October

So, it has been awhile since I last updated. Things have changed a lot. Finally, more kids have showed up and I now I have up to TWENTY KIDS!! It can be extremely over whelming because about 1/4 of them do not know English. Then there is the other 3/4 that do, so my new challenge is how to come up with activities to fit both groups. My solution is to have a simplier version of the activity that I plan for the other kids and I have the college volunteers help the kids that don't know English. Two weeks ago, me and the other Jesuit volunteer assisted with a program called refugee academy, which helps refugee from elementary to high school ages learn about school in America. We helped the high school kids learn everything from the different rooms to opening a locker combination. There were some that knew very good English and some who knew English but were extremely shy. One day we went to one of the inner city schools to give them a tour and it was very different from my suburban high school. There were HUGE security guards and kids walking around the hallway as if it is their break in between classes.

This past weekend we went on our fall retreat to Buffalo. We left Thursday night and came back Sunday late in the afternoon. It was an excellant chance to regroup and to get some tension out in the air that has been stirring up in our house. I really think we got to reconnect as a community and to come back to improve on what we were lacking. Saturday night we played a murder mystery and I was the murder! It was a lot of fun because we all had to be in our character, and my character was a shady lady who owned an exclusive club. Then Sunday we went to CANADA to see Niagara Falls. It was a GREAT day and we caught a glimpse of the finish line of a marathon and got to go on the maid of the mist. Then after we went to Anchor Bar for some buffalo wings, which were very good.

It is close to the end of September....

So, Its be a week and a half since my last update. At CYO we still haven't finalized the bus route for the non walking kids. This means that the same kids have been coming in, but a group of siblings who (except for one) were kicked out decided they wanted a second shot. So, me and the other volunteers decided to give them one, which turned out to be a bad idea, because one of them I already had to suspend for good. The boy was in my group and is the closest thing to a monkey I have ever seen...what I mean by this is that he is always jumping and trying to cause trouble. Since he also would never listen I had to suspend him, but he does not have a home phone number, so I had to call his Grandma's cell phone. That was interesting beacuse I think she was shocked that he got kicked out and was probably mad that I was calling. On another note, me and the other volunteer (Meghan) picked our age group last week and I will be working with the younger kids. I actually like them more because they don't have an attitude problem....just yet. Also, the college volunteers have been EXTREMELY HELPFUL!! It has been great getting to know them.

Franciscorps has two season tickets for SU football and then I got four more from work. So, we all were able to go to the game! Before the game we tailgated with some of Brother Jim's family in the parking lot. The game itself was exciting because the first half SU didn't do well, but the second half they came through to win the game. The Carrier Dome wasn't as full as I thought it was but about 35,000 people were there.

First month

I decided to make a blog to share my experience with everyone. I started Franciscorp almost a month ago in Syracuse. For those who don't know what Franciscorps is I'll tell you. It is a Catholic (but you don't have to be Catholic) volunteer program in Syracuse and in Costa Rica (you have to know Spanish to do that one). Along with me there are five other people participating in the Syracuse program. They are: Anthony (from St. John Fisher), Jeff (from University of Scranton), Megan (from Catholic), Kathy (from U of Dayton), and Sarah (from Saint Mary's College). We each have a different volunteer site where we work 40 hours a week at. My placement site is at the Northside CYO where I work in the youth program office, and I run the after school program and the teen boys program. The good thing is that I work with only a certain group of kids (for me it is ages 9-12) and starting next week I'll have college volunteers come and help out.

So far the kids have been pretty good but at times they can be crazy. I work on a four day schedule where each day there are two different activities for the kids to do. I spend part of my day planning what to do with the kids. The activities range from gym to community service, but since not a lot of kids have showed up me and the other JVC (Jesuit volunteer) don't plan much. The first day was extremely over whelming and I thought why was I placed here?? Now that I have the kids under control for the most part it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Right now, me and the JVC are trying to figure out a bus route to pick up the kids that can't walk to the CYO. that means I HAVE TO DRIVE A SHORT BUS AND A 15 PASSAGER VAN!!! I have been tested for the passager van, but not the short bus yet because it was in the shop for repairs.

The other part of Franciscorp is about living in community with your house mates. For the first two weeks of the program, the Costa Rica people lived with us and we spent the first week doing orientation at Green Lakes and at the Jersey shore. It was a great to get to know them and we missed them a lot when they left. We have been able to keep in contact with them through letters and skyping. As for my community we have gotten along great and we have also discovered that we can all cook, which is good because the first night we discovered that none of us could cook (or thought we couldn't). We try to have dinner together 6 times a week with Saturday being left over night and we have nightly prayer together too. Each month we are trying to pick a weekend to do something together, and our first house weekend I think we may go to Ithaca/the Finger Lakes region. I think this is a great idea because just me, Anthony, and Kathy are from upstate NY, and it will be fun to show the other people around!

So, I might blog so more but it is lunch time and I am hungry!