In the last one and a half months of my project, the school where I worked was closed due to the summer vacations in Greece. Unfortunately, we were not able to plan and promote official activities because the other volunteers and I are leaving at the end of July. Instead, we come to the third primary school of Vrontados every evening and play different games with the students who are there.
For this, we got materials from the school and the organization. Among them are basketballs, volleyballs, a volleyball net, other balls and skipping ropes. From our school principal, we got the key to an old gym, as well as the school gate. He also asked us to water the plants. Three times a week we do this, often together with the children.
Most of the kids who meet at school in the evening play soccer. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to play soccer, because the students are often very competitive and the risk of injury is too great. Instead, we play basketball or dodgeball.
It depends on how many students want to play. Dodgeball is not a good game for a few people and basketball is not a good game for many people.
Usually, there are also a few kindergarten children, with whom Jule then plays catch. Sometimes we also play catch together or try bottle flips.
When our summer activity began, the kids were a little surprised why we are there, but very fast, they got excited and now we have students, that come to the school, to play with us. Also, the parents are happy that we are there because they have to work, but the kids are too young to go to the school alone. Now since we are there, they have enough trust to bring the kids and pick them up when we leave.
The goal of our work is not simply to play with the children and take care of them. Much more important are the values we try to convey. These include team spirit in basketball: everyone should be involved in the game, inclusion in everything we do: everyone is allowed to play with us and of course we teach the English language.
How many children are there depends on the day. When it is too warm they prefer to spend time on the beach and there are only a few students. On other days there were sometimes 20 to 30 kids.
For me, the summer activity is my favorite working time, because you see the kids outside of school and play with them basketball. It is a dream of how to spend your working day.
