Message of the day: We cannot prepare a future for your youth, but we can prepare our youth for the future. (Attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt and shared by Lori)

Our day began with breakfast at 8:15 with the thought of the day (See above). In addition, we welcomed Lisa, a new team member. She is replacing Sherry who returned to the U.S. on Saturday.

Dorota reviewed our schedule for the rest of the week, including third and fourth period classes and evening activities. She also explained that the director for Reymontowka was offering a Tuesday or Thursday field trip option: a visit to Treblinka or to Siedlce, including a stop at the museum which houses an El Greco painting. The volunteers opted for a Tuesday trip to Treblinka.

During the fourth hour today, Beata and Sunil gave a presentation to the students, volunteers, and staff on the country of India. Over lunch, we discussed the morning activities that we each had with our students, with some volunteers reporting that students were somewhat more difficult to engage in the classes than last week, and one teacher indicating that her students were quite tired. General consensus was that this was related to excitement of the weekend and re-adjusting to camp routine.

After lunch, Dorota met with the volunteers to assess progress toward team goals, and overall we felt that we were meeting the goals that we established at the beginning of our experience. Dorota also distributed Global Volunteers’ forms for referral of prospective volunteers and the Post-Service Program Evaluation forms, asking that volunteers return them to her this week.

In the evening the students presented a fashion show and volunteers present were asked to suggest “best dressed” in the sport and evening wear categories for both boys and girls.

Journal prepared and read by Mary on July 26