Volunteer Day 4: Thursday June 21, 2012

8am: We arrive at the school today and the kids do not have school today so we get right down to our work. We are told that today all the teachers from the nearby schools are meeting at the school we are working at to have a large faculty meeting. The first thing we do is go up to the kitchen and help out by setting the tables before the teachers arrive with cups, silverware and napkins. Once all of the teachers arrive, we hand them their breakfast plates with the tamales we made yesterday on them. We also serve them coffee in the school's set of tea cups. All of the volunteers went outside and took a break while the teachers ate and talked and then we went back inside to slear the tables for the kitchen staff and the teachers. Myself and some other volunteers sorted the plates and utensiles into stacks for washing; big plates, little plates, cups, silverware, tamale sleeves, trash, and plastics all had to be sorted out as a part of the clean up process. Once all the things were sorted out, myself annd four other volunteers took up sponges and washed and dried all the dishes from the breakfast. This was no easy task considering that there were about 25 teachers in attendence at the meeting. From this experience I learned that if you get a good system going, then any job can be very simple! I also came to really appreciate the kitchen staff for all their hard work that they put in, not just at the school in Costa Rica, but anyone in general. Once you put yourself in someone else's shoes, it is alot easier to see life through their scope and to appreciate what they do. After we swiftly did the dishes, we went outside to take a short break before continuing with work in the kitchen. We next rolled silverware for the next meal, we put a fork, knife and spoon together and wrapped it in a napkin to create utensil bundles. After completing this task, we went outside to paint rocks that lined the pavement and paths and I went back later and touched up the rocks with more of the runny white paint that we were using. We then had a job in the place that I have been avoiding most.. the chicken coop! We scrubbed all of the mud off the painted tires in the chicken coop with rough scrub brushes and water so you could see the bright colors again. The tires looked at first dull and dirty but as we scrubbed them up and we realized how bright all of the colors were! There were tires that were blue, peach, navy, sea foam green, yellow, brown and purple. It was rewarding to see the product of our hard work in the form of school beautification. Meanwhile, there are about 20 chickens and 1 rooster running around the coop so it got pretty hectic at times! The rooster strutted around the coop trying to protect the hens while we scrubbed tires, it was pretty comical! After we completed our work, we walked around and made sure that nobody else needed help with any other painting or scrubbing work, then we left early at around 11am. 
4 hours service, Creativity and Action.