At last an update! My weekly routine - Week 12

Well, I've had my busiest week yet (worked 63 hours), because of an evangelisation event called Jesus House, which ran Wednesday to Saturday of this week – there’s still a lot to be cleared away, washed up, etc, so I’ll be busy tomorrow...

...although I normally have Mondays free, and would spend the day preparing for and running an English club at the local Christian primary school in the afternoon, 14:40-15:25, for which I get paid a nice sum of 15€ (but I have to do preparation as well, so in the end it evens out at a pretty normal wage for an 18-year old, although I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be earning whilst (hopefully) learning how to teach.

I also have time on Mondays (or at least allegedly) for getting on with my TESOL course, which I’m still about a third of the way through – it seems to drag on for a ridiculously long time.

Tuesdays have typically been ‚cleaner-days‘ up until now, and I’ve often found them the hardest/most tiring, although I’m now more-or-less used to sweeping and cleaning all the floors, emptying bins, cleaning the toilets (which only involves pouring chemicals down the pan, nothing more), sweeping leaves or weeding outside, etc. In fact, I’m starting to enjoy these sorts of practical tasks, where you get on with it and can think things over, pray, or whatever.
As of last week, however, there will be projects run with school pupils in the CVJM (Christlicher Verein Junger Menschen - Young People’s Christian Association) youth house on Tuesdays, so I may have to act the cleaner some other time in the week...

...which would mean working in the office on Tuesdays, which is what I’ve been doing for part of the day from Wednesday to Friday so far, taking phone calls, balancing the books, sorting through paperwork, shoving flyers into envelopes, sticking address labels onto envelopes, popping into town to buy something, running down the road (which I thoroughly enjoy) to the „Copy Shop“ (as the Germans call it themselves) to get something photocopied, etc...I also set up tables and chairs for clubs in the CVJM youth house whenever required, throughout the week.

Wednesday evenings I help with confirmation classes, run by my boss, Frank, the full-time secretary here at the CVJM, and a priest from what is the anglican church or equivalent here in Germany. Though priest sounds rather aloof and robey, he’s very much a normal guy, prefers not to wear his dog collar (if that’s what it’s called)...anyhow, at first I was only really sitting in on the ‚class‘, but now I’m helping, doing the (very short) welcome at the start and leading a song we sing on guitar. There are about a dozen 13-year olds there, of which only two girls. I always enjoy playing pool with two of the boys, brothers, who always come about half an hour early to make the most of the pool table in the basement. And I enjoy the fact that that counts as work...

Thursday evenings is quite different, with Tensing taking place – about thirty 13 to 20 year-olds who put on a performance (or musical, I suppose you can call it) every year with choir, band, drama (obviously) and dance. They also do a few other odd concerts throughout the year.
As a general rule, the Tensingers are pretty wild, but you’ve got to love them. I soon felt like I was one of them at the start of the year (all those weeks ago!) and that helped a lot. They teach me a lot about youth culture I suppose...and it’s simply all great fun. Until now I’ve been in the band, particularly filling gaps when they arise, but I’d like to take part in the Drama workshop more often. And choir is great fun.
Every week, we either all sing in the choir, practising the songs we’ve chosen by vote for this year, or split up into workshops – Dance, Drama, and Band. And there’s always a break with German squash (‚crumb tea‘ translated literally, which you buy as solid granules)

Fridays, I now start a bit earlier than usual, not helping with the school project that takes place in the CVJM youth house from half seven in the morning, but preparing coffee and biscuits for their break, and being there to serve drinks or whatever.
The rest of the day is office work, until 15:15, when I help with Smilies, a club for 8 to 12 year-olds which is always a refreshing, nice end to the week. We play games, often compete against each other for prizes, sing Christian songs, listen to a Bible story, enjoy squash (crumb tea again!) and biscuits in the break, and always have lots of fun. And last week (although I couldn’t be there, unfortunately) they cooked some kind of asian food and then ate it, one time we went to a beautiful spot near the river Oder, where there are sanddunes, and spent the time making tracks to roll balls down as slowly as possible.

So that’s pretty much my average week’s work with the CVJM here in Frankfurt (Oder) (apart from the English club at the primary, that's not CVJM work - just the reason for my day off).

My goal is, by the end of this week, to have properly updated my blog with the reams of things I have to talk about. At least I’ve now made a start! It was about time, having not posted anything in two months apart from a poem or two...