Oh, Chicago! You spoil us with your lovely windy and rainy weather... Well, aside from the crappy weather, we were so happy to finally get to meet the kids at the Asian Youth Center! Shari (the director) was right - they are absolutely adorable and chaotic all at the same time. There's not a lot of space in the center, and we pack about 30ish kids plus tutors in there. Nevertheless, it's a lot fun!
We spend the morning and beginnings of the afternoon cleaning, organizing, and setting up the center for the kids. The first day we helped organize the bookshelves, and the second day we did inventory and painted a mural! The kids themselves are a blast. They range from little 8 year olds to high schoolers. On Monday, they had drum lessons and we made hemp bracelets, and on Tuesday they had ballet class and we made spray-painted macaroni pictures frames.
We are totally worn out at the end of the day! Between organizing at the center and tutoring/having fun with the kids, there's little time for rest. After our E&T sessions at the YMCA, our hotel, we fall right asleep. It's a good kind of tired feeling, though, knowing that we are doing our part to help out AYS and the kids as much as we can. Shari told us a lot about the center's history and the families and kids that come, and not all of them have the best households. We're glad that Shari has done so much to give the kids a welcoming place for both tutoring and having fun, as well as providing meals and money to send some of the kids to private schools. The public school system in the area isn't the best environment for a thorough education, and Shari is doing the best she can to help these kids.
We're looking forward to the rest of the week. See you all later!
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