Kielikoulu Spanish at Locations toimii edelleen. Heillä on kolme toimipistettä Panamassa (Bocas del Toro, Boquette ja Panama City) sekä kaksi Costa Ricassa (Puerto Viejo ja Turrialba).
https://spanishatlocations.com/
Vaikuttaa siltä, että Kris ja Lisanne ovat varanneet koko paketin kyseisen kielikoulun kautta: kielikoulun, vapaaehtoistyön sekä majoituksen.
Wayback Machinella pääsee tutustumaan koulun tarjontaan vapaaehtoistyöstä tammikuulta 2014 eli mennee melkoisen liki ajankohtaa, jolloin tytöt ovat tehneet varauksensa.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140112200 ... n-boquete/
Kris ja Lisanne olivat suunnitelleet/sopineet työskennellä päiväkoti Aurassa. Tämä kaatui, sillä heistä ei edes "
tiedetty" siellä maanantaina, kun he menivät sinne. Maanantai-iltapäivänä kielikoulusta yritettiin järjestää toista mahdollista työpaikkaa Casa Esperanzassa. Tämäkään ei onnistunut kyseisellä viikolla.
Guardería Aura Daycare
This daycare is located in the centre of Boquete. It’s a small place where the employees organize activities to stimulate the children. They receive children from 2,5 till 5 years old. Twice a week there comes psychologist who works a certain amount of hours with the children with some specified activities.
They offer:
- The first years stimulation that the children need.
- English
- Music
- Drawing
- Improving the knowledge of colors, number, letters, objects
- Stimulate the manual, motor coordination
- Preparation, with academic materials, to go to primary school
Working as a volunteer
As a volunteer you can help the social worker with anything they have going on. For example with handicraft, playing, giving food etc. The volunteer is able to work in the mornings, afternoons or both. The morning schedule is from 7 till 12. At 7 they have a little breakfast and around 11.30 they provide lunch to the children. Volunteers assist with anything. After lunch, the little children go for a sleep while the others play, and you’ll play along. Their day end at 4pm. are from 7am till 12pm for the young children (till 4th grade) and from 12.30pm till 5.30pm for the older children (5th grade till 9th grade). At the school are some teachers that speak English, but for the communication with the children it’s better if you have an intermediate level of Spanish.
When is Guardería Aura closed?
Christmas vacation and the Holy week (a Thursday and Friday in April or May). Besides that it is closed in the weekends.
Minimum dedication time: 1 afternoon
Work schedule: From 7.00 till 16.00, but you can decide just to work the morning or just the afternoon.
Need to sign a contract?: No
Provides food and drinks: No
Able to take part in meetings: No
Dress code: Appropriate clothes, so no miniskirts or sexy tops
Certificate: No
Level of Spanish: Intermediate
Kakkosvaihtoehto:
Casa Esperanza Primary school
Casa Esperanza helps kids in different regions of Panama by giving them the opportunity to go to school and by providing nutrition and health care. It’s a non-government organisation and is founded in 1992. They help annually 3500 kids between the ages of 3 and 17 years old. Casa Esperanza Boquete has about 210 indigenous kids (almost all Ngobe Bugle) who are divided in four different groups according to age.
These groups are picked up from their houses in the early morning and brought to school. When school finishes the kids are dropped off at Casa Esperanza where they get lunch. After lunch the daily activities start. Each age group starts in a different ¨room¨ and will rotate every hour.
They have four activities:
- workshop: here the children will learn and talk about different issues of health, self-esteem, norms and values, etc
- games: children can play outside, play football, etc
- computer room: here the children can do their homework on the computer, or the younger children can play educational games, etc
- homework: here the children are given the opportunity to do their homework or, if finished, play board games.
In the afternoon they start to bring groups to their homes, and will have the same routine the next day. Casa Esperanza is a great initiative and a lot of indigenous kids benefit from the project. And also their parent benefit, because for many of them it is too expensive to send their children to school. Parents also have the opportunity to follow workshops about nutrition, authority and discipline, violence in the family, sexual transmitted diseases, communicating with your family, etc.
Working as a volunteer
You can work in the mornings, afternoons or both. In the morning the youngest kids stay at Casa Esperanza because they don’t have school yet. As a volunteer in the morning (8am till 12pm) you can help the teachers. If you work in the afternoon (1pm till 5pm) you will help the teachers with the different activities that are planned. Depending on your Spanish level you can help the kids with their homework, play board games, help with the workshops, etc. If there is something that you’re good at, you can teach the children this too. It would be nice if you have a background with education, but it’s not necessary.
You can do your internship here in this school. Although we can’t promise that you can actually teach a whole class, if you take initiative and work hard you will have lots of opportunities to do more than helping a teacher.
You are not obligated to bring a gift to the project, but if you want to bring something, here are some ideas; sport attributes, (colour) pencils, paint of something else for the children. You can also bring something that you want to use in a class.
When is Casa Esperanza closed?
From half December till beginning of March and from 17th till 28th of August because of the school holiday and during national holidays: 3, 4, 10 and 28th of November, 1st of May, Holy week (a Thursday and Friday in April or May). Besides that it is closed in the weekends.
Minimum dedication time: 1 week
Work schedule: From 08.00 till 12.00 and/or from 13.00 till 17.00
Need to sign a contract?: Sometimes, depends on the situation.
Provides food and drinks: No
Able to take part in meetings: No
Dress code: Appropriate clothes, so no miniskirts or sexy tops.
Certificate: Yes
Level of Spanish: Intermediate