Welcome

We gathered for breakfast at 8:30. Following this we went to the work room. Dorota welcomed us all to Poland and most particularly to the language camp. She reviewed a bit of the program history again. We discussed health and safety concerns and also Global Volunteer policies and principles.

Dorota introduced the daily meeting, explaining there will be a thought for the day and a journal reading. The volunteers will go in the order for journal as Lori, Carol, Lynn and Sara. Carol will start the order for thought of the day followed by Lynn, Sara, and Lori.

Dorota also explained the forms we need to keep in order to demonstrate for a possible IRS audit that we truly did volunteer work.  Dorota also provided the names of the expected students and gave us each a worksheet with tips for teaching English.

Next we reviewed the daily schedule. English classes will begin at 9:30, 10:30, 11:30, and 12:30, and continue for 45 minutes with a break of 15 minutes between the first three classes. We agreed that we will begin joining together for songs and dances in the 4^th hours, probably starting on Tuesday. We will use the third and fourth hours on Friday to do presentations about home states.  The students will take a field trip on Saturday to a Warsaw destination, yet to be determined.

We adjourned training so that volunteers might attend Mass. Dorota drove Sara, Lynn, and Carol to the picturesque wooden church in Zeliszew Duzy. The return trip included a brief tour of Kotuň, giving the volunteers some idea of where to find necessities such as an ice cream or the Bankomat.

We returned to Reymontówka for obiad. We found camp staff organizing on the patio. Meanwhile campers and their families were arriving.  After obiad we enjoyed a coffee and Dorota helped us learn a few Polish words.

At 4:00 we gathered in the tent. The volunteers as well as the Polish teachers of English introduced themselves. The camp staff also introduced themselves. Students introduced themselves, this exercise being used to assess their English skill level so that classes can be created with students of similar abilities. Then we took a break while consideration was given to class organization.

At 5:30 we gathered again in the tent. We each were assigned 7-8 students. We met with them for a short time to get slightly acquainted with our students.

Then all of us – students, volunteers, and staff enjoyed kolecja. We are sharing our evening table with one of the Polish English teachers, his wife who is serving as the camp doctor and their charming two little sons.

After the evening meal everyone was busy planning for the classes that will begin tomorrow morning.