One week in, never wanting to leave

I can't believe I have already been here for a week.  Its amazing how time just gets lost when there is so much to do and so much going on.  Each day I have been trying to film more and more, and generally it has been working.  I'm having some issues with my memory cards though, and sometimes things just disappear or don't actually record on the card.  It's killing me that it's so hit or miss.  Yesterday I tried to record some volunteers playing soccer and working on a cement pile, and the video just disappeared.  Same with some photos I took during the afternoon of volunteers with their favorite kids. SUCKS.  Its like two hours are just GONE.  The groups that left today had their despedida (going away party) last night, and all the boys dressed up and looked nice for it.  I was glad I didn't have to say goodbye though.

Today was better though, I have been able to take a ton of really nice pictures of the boys, get good B roll video for the documentary, and do some more interviews.  Today, during the day, a group of adults that work for the Fruit of the Loom factory came to ProNiño to drop off some donated t-shirts, socks, and underwear.  I was able to video a lot of it and take some fun pictures of the boys modeling.  Since I'm not involved in the construction at all, I really get to spend my time doing whatever I choose.  The idea is to eventually run some photography workshops to see who is interested in participating in the fall, but I'm thinking that everyone is really interested.  The kids are off from school next week, so I'm going to try to do it then.  My goal is really to be targeting the older kids who are more responsible and interested.  I don't want the course to be so easy its a diversion, I really only want the kids who really want to learn, whether or not they have any experience taking pictures before.  Often times volunteers will let kids use their cameras to take pictures, and the kids just go off and go crazy taking pictures of any and everything.  While I think its great that they do that, I want them to be able to learn enough that they are actually making choices about what is in the frame when they click the shutter.

There are so many volunteers around these days that I really haven't felt like I've had alone time in a while. Sometimes I just need time to be by myself and think and/or do nothing.  We have been with the kids and tons of volunteers everyday, so that has been nonexistent. Maybe eventually things will slow down a bit.  Since I'm only here for three weeks I really want to spend all the time I can with the kids, but sometimes it just gets so draining.

On Sunday we are taking all the boys in the foundation to the waterpark.  Its something they only do every few years, and I'm really excited that we get to make it happen.  We raised about $1500 since March so we can really do anything we want.  There are a few boys that won't be able to come, but we will be able to take them sometime during the week or another weekend.