Comfort and discomfort

For the early part of the week, I took two stabs at meeting new people one of which was potentially successful and the other not so much.

First for the one that didn't go so well...my idea was that in volunteering with Ice Hockey in Harlem in New York I met many contacts while doing a good thing. I will always remember my time there and will definitely go back to it if I can. Having such a good experience I thought volunteering with kids here in Spain would also be a good idea. The university hooks people up with volunteer opportunities through its ayuda social program. I signed up for it, interviewed for it and was placed in a program at a rehabilitation school for kids. Little did I know but found out when I got there that the kids were severely mentally challenged and my task was to try and help them play a simple game with four other Spanish volunteers (university undergraduates). May I say first that it is an incredible thing that the university sets up. Those kids definitely enjoy the hour that is spent with them and they like the sport. That said, I was extremely uncomfortable because I'd never been around kids like that in my life before and really didn't know what to do. I felt like I was more of a waste than anything else. No when I feel like that my guy reaction is to persevere and get comfortable except my time is limited and I can only do one volunteer project and the other thing, the potentially successful one, has me much more excited so I am going to chase that up.

What is it? Fundacion de Profesionales Solidarios is a Spanish organization that tries to promote the cause of international development by hosting local culutral activities in Pamplona, conferences in Spain and runs international programs in the Congo and Nicaragua primarily. There is a staff of 6 people and a team of 60 collaborators. I was very interested not only in the cause, but also because it is the perfect complement to my job. My job is very top-down. It approaches poverty by trying to solve it on a policy level by affecting the lives of millions people. The organization is very bottom-up. It tries to life people out of poverty by affecting 100 or so lives directly. For that I think it is a perfect fit for me. I have an interview tomorrow to see exactly what a non-native Spanish speaker can do for them so I have my fingers crossed.

In other news, this weekend was a holiday weekend here in Spain as they celebrate their culture on October 12th. I spent the weekend in Barcelona which was great. We rented a car, saw cool sights even though we stayed for cheap overnight in a bungalo that was the equivalent of a trailer park. Still, pictures are the best way to tell how much fun a trip was and I hope you'll see from mine that I enjoyed Barcelona for the most part (except when I was hungry which is when I really look pissed in the photos because...I was). Anyway, I'll post the link to the photos soon. I haven't had a chance to upload all of them to Photobucket yet.