Volunteering is Fun!!!

So, I think I wrote a while back about the volunteering activities that I have gotten involved with here in Galway. I thought I would just give a little update on how things are going.

Over the summer while the kids were on vacation I went to the school garden twice a week just to do watering and some weeding. It was really fun for me, except on those really rainy Irish days!! Anyway, the kids are back now and they really helped get things back in shape like the grass and weeds that grew like wildfire from all the rain. It's looking beautiful now, which is a good thing. Just last week we found out that the garden had been nominated for a some sort of biodiversity award and a judge came by to look and take pictures. I think there's a good chance we will get something, but we won't know for several weeks. I need to take some pictures to post so you can all see what I'm talking about.

I also still go to the "Friendship Club" every Wednesday afternoon. This is the place for refugee women and children to come for a couple of hours of social time and activities. With the kids back in school, one of the main activities is homework time. Somehow, I got nominated to be the main homework helper so I spend my time assisting the kids with math (or as they call it here "maths"), reading, spelling, etc. It's actually really fun to feel like you are helping kids to learn! It is also very challenging to get them to pay attention and focus, so I have a much greater respect for all of the teachers of the world! After homework time there is usually some sort of craft or activity for the kids. This week they made sock puppets and actually put on a show for us. I finally took some pictures of the kids, so below you can see a little slide show.



Tomorrow morning Marco and I will head off to Dublin. We have an appointment at the US embassy early Monday morning to get his visa for our visit to the US next month. We figured we would go a day early and try and have a good meal in the big city. Based on recent experiences with the French embassy, we are really hoping things are a bit easier this time!