Week 2 complete!

Hey everyone!

So, I am still loving everything about this project as much as I was a week ago, which is amazing! I've made closer bonds with some of the kids, and I've begun to feel more comfortable taking charge when I need to. I've also been continuing to work at the Hilltop branch, and I love it there as well. It's crazy how fast the kids get attached to you, and how fast you can get attached to the kids! We get notes and pictures from them all of the time, pretty soon I'm going to start hanging mine above my cot. The kids just love whatever attention you can give them!

Another really neat thing is how it seems like I'm making somewhat of a connection with some of the 5th and 6th grade girls, who seem to be a little tougher to work with. The younger kids just want to please you all of the time and immediately look up to you, but the older girls aren't that way. On Wednesday of this past week I was in charge of starting a "Youth Board", which is sort of like a student council for the club. Some of the older girls came and I really liked talking with them about things. Now I make it a normal thing for me to come say hi wherever they're hanging out, and I think it's helping. They know my name and ask me questions and stuff hahaha it's pretty neat!

In the mornings now 4 people on my team started at the food bank. Katy came back Thursday and she was so excited about all the families she got to help. The other's loved it too! I was sooo happy they were enjoying the work there. My project is supposed to be started at the Senior Center, but there was a miscommunication and I don't think we'll get to start it until maybe Tuesday or Wednesday this week. I'm not sure how that's going to work out, but so far we've just continued to work on organizing and helping out with things at the club in the mornings. On Thursday, San Juan College was having a free day at their rec center. Our whole team went to go rock climbing!! It was soooo much fun and now we all really want to make it a regular thing to go there, because I don't think it costs very much. I wasn't the best at it, but I definitely was having a good time. And it's one of those things that you just want to keep doing to see how good you can get at it. I'm so excited to try again! Today (Saturday) we went to Aztec, NM to get some ISP hours at the Aztec Ruins! It's a National Park and it's sooooo neat! We did a few hours of service for them, and in return they gave us a free tour of the ruins. The team was definitely glad we went.

So for now everyone's just hanging around being lazy. We're really enjoying have 2 full days of the weekend while we're here, because we didn't get that in Joplin. Anyways...I think that's all I have for now! :)

Love
Abby