I would say that the most hectic day this past week was Thursday. When we did our centers for international study day, there was a little confusion about who was suppose to go where and what they were supposed to be doing. However, things eventually worked out, it just caused the staff a little bit of stress. Going to Coolidge Park was also hot and a little chaotic with the kids getting changed out of their bathing suits and back into their regular clothes. But all in all, it wasn't that bad of a day, it was just a little tiring.
A fun thing we did this week (in addition to going to the pool) was go to this place in Chattanooga called Pump It Up. It has inflatables, like the moon walk, obstacle courses, and slides. It was nice to be in air conditioning as well as watch the kids have so much fun without having to constantly tell them to lower their voices. I think that the staff also had a lot of fun playing on the inflatables. Quite a few times, I raced kids through the obstacle course, which was tiring but exciting. However, I did eventually pull myself out of playing after I hurt my leg. Actually, there were quite a number of injuries that day, although most were very minor. One girl, who I rode with on the way back to NNH, insisted on talking about her injuries for the whole ride back. Kids can be so dramatic. Oh, and I forgot to mention what the kids did at academies on Friday. There was the typical finance, there was yoga, and then I was in a group where the kids learned how to make birdhouses. The kids really got into it and they seemed to enjoy making something with their hands. I did, however, have to get onto one boy who started hammering a nail into the table. I think these activities are really exciting for the kids and it is so great that they get to learn about so many different things that they would have never learned about outside of NNH. I'm hoping that next week when I teach German during academies (don't worry, only the basics...), that I can teach it in such a way that the kids will have fun. I was thinking of possibly having the kids play a game or learn a song in German just so they can get the hang of pronunciation. I'm going to try to think of something a little creative.
As my internship is quickly coming towards the end, I do feel a little nervous about whether I've gotten enough research to offer NNH as well as to show for after the summer is over. Looking back on my time here, I definitely think I could have probably done more things to gather additional information from the kids, staff, or parents. But, one thing that is different for me than I think what most Com Dev interns are doing this summer is that I basically have a full-time job at NNH. I was actually thinking about it the other day and I think of all the staff who work for the educational program, I work the longest hours (not counting Jay and Chelsea, who have already left the program). Basically, it is just a little more difficult to have the motivation to come back to my house after an 8 hour day and work on research. I suppose there are other non-internship things I do that I could probably do less of, but it really is hard to motivate yourself when you're tired. Despite these small challenges, I finally did finish summarizing my focus groups this week as well as write up questions for interviews I'm going to do with some of the kids and the parents. I'm also looking at doing a ranking exercise with all the kids to find out more about their experiences with the staff at NNH. So hopefully by the end of next week, I'll have accomplished some of these things. But, I have confidence that God will open doors for me and that I'll be able to find out more information about the kids and NNH.
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