Field work from 9-7

Almost every day we work from 9-7 (Fridays we get out at 3pm) and as this is my fourth week of work, things are going very well and I am feeling very settled. There are 11 full time employees here and a bunch of volunteers, but I am the only full time volunteer that is integrated into the team. Each week, as I wrote before I am spending with each of the six areas. Last week (August 19th) I was with Workshops with Maria Luisa and had a good integration with her since he speaks English, so what I didn't know how to communicate in Spanish, I did in English. It was a good transition because this week I am with Social Work with Mario and everything is in Spanish. With ML o Malu as they call her, I went to a meeting with a community partner called Ollin, they do sex education for street kids and families and it was great to see an actual community partnership that was successful. They are putting on a workshop with the adolescents collaborating together- CODENI (the Psychologist and the Workshop Coordinator) and Ollin.

Then this week, being with Mario the social worker we did a socioeconomic study of a family that is going to enter into CODENI's programs. We did a complete questionnaire of the family's status, relationships, and problems. It was really interesting talking to a 28 year old for almost two hours, who has five kids, the oldest 11. The Tuesday I went out into the street with Mario and Diego (the street outreach coordinator) and played with the kids for a couple hours. This is the first fase of being able to enter CODENI- where the kids have a safe place to play and be free from work in the Plaza Liberacion in the center of town. I live about a ten minute walk from here so it's great to be so close.

My coworkers are great and they see me yes as a Gringa but also as someone who is here to support them and an objective person who isn't picking sides or getting involved in internal politics at CODENI. I have somewhat the best of both worlds being an outsider but having relationships that are of an insider.