The frustration is building....

This week, after i got back from Peru, I finally got moved into a room with older kids at work. My internship coordinater had wrote to the organization asking them to move us about 2 weeks after we started working, because changing diapers was a part of our job description, but it wasn´t the only thing on it, but in the nursery, that was all we were doing.

So finally, 4 weeks after that, I finally got moved. Now i am in a room with children 3-4 years old. One good thing about moving to a room with older children is that I can practice my spanish more. I was expecting to be bombarded with words I dind´t know, but these 3-4 year olds, some still don´t speak much, and the ones that do don´t speak very clearly, so its quite challenging to understand them. But at least I am forced to speak a little more than in the nursery. I tell ya, I¨ll be a pro at using the imperative form by the end of this!

But its still not as stimulating as i was hoping. Basically, i´ve gone from changing and feeding babies to babysitting children (with occasional changing of clothes when they accidently peed their pants).

This is what my job description said:

* prepare comprehensive, multi-disciplinary assessments and evaluations of children;
* provide individual, group and family support services;
* provide substance abuse information and counseling sessions;
* build effective communication channels aimed at increasing the awareness level of clients on personal health issues;
* provide information sessions and workshops for Fundación Amanecer staff;
* assume the role and responsibilities of classroom assistant and provide general child care duties;
* coordinate special events, as well as activities with other program components of the Foundation
* perform related duties as required.

Do i do ANY of this stuff??? NOOO, except for "provide general child care duties"!!! Does any of this stuff happen at my house??? Not that I´ve seen!! Ok, evaluations of children, I think the workers do that, but I´ve never seen a volunteer do it, especially none that is just working there for a few months! Substance abuse? Yea right. Think they´re gona talk to 3 year olds about how its not good to sniff glue?? Coordinate special events... ok, that is a possibility, but its incredibly difficult when I have no communication channels with other volunteers at other houses (there are 7 Amanecer houses in total), and there´s no effective communication even within one house!

The objective of the Youth Employment Strategy (YES) is to give youth experience so that they can find a job later. And the objective of a CIDA internship is to give youth experience in the field of international development. (My internship is a CIDA internship that is a part of YES) Right now, i´m doing nothing I can write on my resumé. Ok, living abroad for 6 months is great, but what did i do there? Babysit.

Everything about my internship so far has been great, except for the actual CORE part of the internship - my WORK. Its so frustrating, because I came here thinking I would be doing the above. Maybe not all of them considering my level of Spanish, but at least some of them, not just ONE.

I´m really disappointed, frustrated, and discouraged that this internship isn´t benefiting me in ways I was hoping.

But, i´m trying to be positive. I thought, I still have 1/2 of my time here left. There´s got to be something else I can do that will benefit me and my job hunt later on. So yesterday, I walked all over town with a list of possible organizations I could volunteer for. After a whole morning, I came up with nothing.... some offices were closed, some had moved, I emailed some but the email bounced back, etc etc.

And that is why my frustration is just growing!!! But i WILL PERSEVERE DAMNIT!!