Nature..

The following weeks where pretty much the same as the beginning; everyone was really helpful and very kind with me. Also some of the kids wouldn’t like to read at all even though they knew how to, and they make me read all the time. Some time I had to stop reading the book and telling them that they need to read with me or I would not continue because the idea of this is for them to practice not for me to do all the reading. When I try to make them understand my point I will talk calmly and I with a little of joke in it for them not to be mad with me, I know for experience that kids are easy to upset. When the weather was warm enough we went outside to play in the playground, we have a little e problem sometimes because we were just 3 and there were more than 9 kids. However we work it out the best way we could and everyone was happy, especially when new volunteer arrive in my fourth week and help not only in the homework section but in the reading class and playing in the park.

In my last week they had a project of planting some vegetables in a park near the building, we when with some of the kids and dived our self in 4 groups to make it easier to work. I work with 2 girls planting our seeds. When we were going to put the water we discover that we didn’t have any in our buckets, everyone look for water for some time until we found a drinking fountain to fill our tanks. Working together we rapidly put water to the seeds and when to play in the park; however some of the kids and me went to observe the baseball game. Finally back in the building I say goodbye to everyone and I was happy when some of the girls that I work with where sad that I wasn’t coming back, however I think I will go back next semester because it was a incredible experience.

Posted by crial002 at 10:52 PM | Permalink

Week 1:
I start my volunteer work at CommonBond in Sky Line tower in the week of spring break; I wasn’t going anywhere in that week so I decide to start right away with my volunteer because I was beginning I little late. I work 2 days a week for a 1 ½ hour. The first day I was presented to the person that I was going to work with in pre-k, his name is Michael, he has works there for a while and all the kids know him and like him very much. At the beginning I was a very nervous of what I have to do, they explain me that I just have to read to the little kids or help them to pronounce some words when needed, all depends on how much they know how to read. Also if they need help in the homework center I will go and help there too. There wasn’t much to do that week because it seems that the kids had a lot of homework and just will come to read 1 or 2 books and have their reading exams with Michael.

Next week I felt better going to volunteer because I already know some of the kids however some of them don’t always what to cooperate when I was trying to read to them. Michel had to tell the kid to stop so we could work in the book; some of them just like to read the really easy books as “No David� which them have read several times already and are not in their level anymore. Beside the little complication with some of the kids it was a fun week to volunteer. I think that they didn’t want to read because they wanted to play outside in the part however it was still too cold to take them out.

Posted by crial002 at 10:27 PM | Permalink

Goal 4… Reduce Child Mortality

The group chose for realm of response Afghanistan, they explain a lot about the history of this country and how they end in such a critical condition. They basically explain that in the Taliban regiment there was no health care for a woman, that’s why the rate was so high. They reported that there are 191 deaths per 1000 births; they are in second place in the world with this rate of mortality. However many new organization and policies have been created after the elimination of the Taliban’s, for example UNICEF have a immunization campaign and have help more than 5 million kids. Also, they have mobile health units and community health programs for different cities. Furthermore, they express that the best way to get out of this situation was to educate the masses, without education they will continue doing the same thing.
To improve the health care in Afghanistan the important key points given where, the necessity to educate the mass about sanitation and health care, to prevent massive infection such as diarrhea, malaria and other dangerous sickness. Their presentation expose the important points, however I concede that the explanation of the history and wars in Afghanistan was too long. Furthermore, they went to dip in the history of women in Afghanistan, taking time for a better explanation of the resources use to improve the child mortality.

Goal 7… Ensure Environmental Sustainability

This group presents various possibilities to have a sustainable house, however not many people will desire this because of the extra cost to implement them. For example, we have the action more common to take and that is the solar panel to produce electricity from the sun, however the disadvantage that it has is that in a cloudy day, in the night or in a place that there are not many solar light this method won’t work. For creating this energy they need the sun, but there is no sun in the night and to buy a battery with the capacity necessary to last all night or more it will bring economical problems to a normal family. Other possibilities where the earth tube which will maintain the house cold or warm depending on the season, this is possible by tubes that go under the earth and absorbed the heat from the soil. Finally we have the wood heat, a method that have been use many years before the discovery of electricity, however as everything this have its disadvantage, the over use this source will be butting in danger the forest resources, also we use wood for many other object of our daily lives. On the other hand they have a sustainable house that use this method and was especially constructed for be sustainable; I’m talking about Aldo Leopold Legacy Center which has no CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. It construction materials was the woods that surround them and every tree that was cut was replace to compensate the lost one. This place looks like the ideal place, however to change the way of live of many people to implement this methods is at this moment just a dream, to transform their house into a sustainable home cost money which many have no desire to pay for.

Posted by crial002 at 7:56 AM | Permalink