September is a very special month. I have always liked it. It can seem bittersweet as summer starts to disappear and, with it, holidays for some people, but the city gets vibrant and full of life.
Reencounters with friends, universities starting, temperatures getting kindly colder…
September was a very active month regarding the events in the city and I really enjoyed being here. I had also the chance of spending some days in Sithonia, Halkidiki, and I discovered real paradises.
The projects continued with their routine. On the one hand, DIAPLOUS Women had a newborn! One of the women gave birth to one little and healthy baby and that was a happy new. After being close to two months with them, I am starting to create a closer relation and sometimes I take their good and bad news as mines.
Language courses continued in a more organized way, dividing classes by levels and special needs. We also had a little walk around the city this month. However, September has also been a month of changes and we are struggling with it. Some women will move to other programs, some new will arrive, some women are having kids and all of this changes the routines, so it’s the moment to sit and talk, and recover the attendance to all the activities we have in mind, always listening to what they would like and giving advice about what they could need.
On the other hand, the unaccompanied minors of the SIL Project (I actually don’t like to refer to them like that because it seems to impersonalize them too much, and I wouldn’t like that) continued with their language courses. School started for them this month, so even if I have the perseverant students that are very motivated and concerned and will never miss a class, some of them have more difficulties with managing school and language courses. School is a struggle for them sometimes because of the language barriers and it takes a lot of energy from them. Anyway, most of them really like going.
For next month we are organizing a day trip somewhere not far from Thessaloniki where we will play sports and enjoy a picnic.
In general everything is going on, but changes are difficult to manage for them and kind of frustrating for me as the attendance decreases and I realize that we have to rethink what should be the best for them. Anyway, motivation is on.
Let’s see what October brings.
