This post is for parents and teachers or anyone who has ever had to organize/manage large groups of kids.

Last week was the first week where we lead activities for kids who came to the centar. It was a bit of shock/nerve racking to go from planning things to actually having to do them.

Things were a bit rough the first few days. We ended up not having enough planned to fill two hours and needed to improvise a lot. We were also disorganized and had difficulties getting kids to follow the sign up sheets we had made. It is also difficult to lead activities when you cannot speak the same language as the children you are trying to lead. Luckily we have a bunch of teen volunteers who help us with translations, but for the first few days we had to figure out the best way to have them translate. Eventually we just decided to talk to the kids in English or broken Bosnian and have the teens translate after each thing we say.

We have organized each day of the week into a certain category. Monday is games and drama day. Tuesday is English lessons. Wednesday is dance and ukelele lessons. Thursday is craft day. Friday is sport day.
Granted we haven't stuck to this completely, but we do try and give the kids different activities each day. Last Tuesday was probably the most difficult, because we realized that we can't actually have the kids sit and listen while we try and teach them English, so instead we started to play games that use English words and have them try and learn by playing.

The picture above shows the craft that we did last Thursday. Because Thursday was the opening of the World Cup of Soccer/Football/Nogomet, we had the kids draw the flags of the different countries participating in the tournament. It ended up going really well, so we decided to post up their flags in the centar afterwards.

So far this week has gone more smoothly, we've had to adapt a few things because it has been really rainy, bu things have definitely been progressing better. We already have a better system in place and things will only get better from here! (hopefully!)

Everyday life in Bosnia!

Hello Everyone!

I thought I would give you a look into my everyday life with this blog.

Most mornings I wake up around 9. I usually wake up earlier but stay in be until 9 because I don't feel like getting up and I don't actually have to be anywhere until 11.

I never have breakfast alone and I rarely make it myself. Either my host mom makes eggs or sausages or some kind of bread or me and my host sister eat the bread she makes with cheese, meat, or tomatoes or even all three. We always have some kind of fresh bread in the morning!

I usually take my time in the mornings, so I'll take my time to eat and get ready before leaving for the centar at 11, because it is so close to my house and it doesn't take me more than a minute to get there.
On Monday mornings we have meetings with some of the centar's staff, they like to check in with us to make sure we are doing ok, not just in the centar, but in all kinds of things.

After meetings or if we don't have meetings, the four of us get together to plan activities for the kids. In the picture you can see the four of us with the posters we made that describe the activities we will have for the kids this summer. (left to right: Natasha, me, Magali, Élise)

To be honest we don`t always spend the time planning, but there hasn't been much of a rush to get anything done until now, because we start officially working with the kids next week! We've met a few of them already though and do our best to interact with the few that show up at the centar when school is still in session.

Around 1 we usually break for lunch, and take an hour because it is the most important meal of the day and we all usually sit down with whatever family members are home for lunch. Lunch consists of all kinds of different things, chicken, potatoes, burek, stuffed peppers, etc. My favorite so far is the stuffed peppers. But it is all usually really good. Sometimes we even make homemade pizza!
We head back to the centar around 2 for Bosnian lessons, not that my ability to speak the language has progressed much, but I know some words and my family gestures a lot so I can understand quite a bit. Lots of people also know at least a little bit of English.

Our lessons vary in length, but sometimes can last 2 hours, mostly because there is a lot of talking in between things. After lessons we mostly just do whatever we feel like, next week our schedule will change because we will work with the kids from 10-12 and 2-4. For now though, when lessons are done we are done for the day. It's kind of nice actually, we haven't had to rush into anything and for most things the pace of life is pretty slow which suits me well.

In the evenings, the four of us girls usually hang out, sometimes at one of our house's or my host sister and Natasha's host sister will join us. Sometimes we just hang out with our families, which often means I see Natasha because our host sisters' are good friends/we are neighbors. My host mom also loves to walk, so often we go on these long walks and I just marvel at the beauty of this country, it is so green and everything is hills and mountains.

We haven't done much volunteering so far, but I honestly think that's a good thing, because this has allowed us to really get familiar with the country and our host families and truly live out Intercordia's mission of "being with, not doing for". We have had so much time to be with people and build relationships with these people who are different from us and have gone through more that I can imagine, but we still can connect with one another even despite the language barrier.

I think that's all for now, hope everyone is well! :)