A simple catch-up⌗

As I underlined in the description of this beautiful blog post, an ongoing commitment to an activity earns you respect and trust. In the life of mine, the most resonating and continuous pastime is meeting my lovely charges. Therefore, it is unfortunate that my bulging holiday schedule made those meetings impossible.

Nevertheless, school year has been bringing me to Poznań every day of the workweek, which obviously facilities commuting to my charges and turns me into their frequent visitor - not all of them, much to my disappointment, but more on this later.

Adam⌗

Meeting Adam usually meant I got to ride a bike or play football, but since man proposes and God disposes, the weather ruined the prospect of any outdoor activity. Nevertheless, we had a chance to enjoy sport inside, watching Polish volleyball national team during the 2023 European Championship and Lech Poznań fighting Jagiellonia Białystok.

Moreover, we played Adam’s new game - NBA 2K23. I thought it’d like FIFA by EA, just in basketball. SPOILER - it wasn’t and Adam beat me (I’m lame I know 😭). I guess I need more practice before I ever go the US (hopefully.)

Marcin⌗

I also had a chance to meet Marcin. However, there is a rather sad side to this story. To make a long story short, every time I would show up at Marcin’s house, he wouldn’t be there and his parents would call him angrily to go back. I didn’t give it any deeper thought because, well, I’m just a volunteer and it’s his life.

But as the time went by, I noticed that each time we would go to his room, either his mum or dad would enter the room and start talking how he doesn’t tell them anything, that he’s a grown man and should take some responsibility and so on. As much as I understand parents worrying about their son’s future, I am also conscious that, at some point, one may have enough of constant complaints and begins to avoid them at any cost.

And I see that in Marcin’s case because, when we’re at his house, he mentions a thing or two and that’s it. However, let him go outside, he turns into a different person and is much more responsive and smiles more - of course, within reasonable boundaries as it’s Marcin we’re talking about after all.

So you may assume that taking a walk would be a better option than sitting on the couch. This is very true, but please bear in mind that winter is coming, which makes such venture much less possible. We gotta wait it seems…

Piotrek⌗

If you read my previous blog posts about meetings with charges, you know that Piotr was always discussed as a first one. What has changes you may be wondering? Well, I just didn’t pay him a visit. It is not my rudeness or unwillingness that play a role here, but communication. Piotr has an elderly mum who, although lovely and generous, is not up-to-date with modern means of communication, which is usually sufficient. Unfortunately, not everyday does she pick up the phone or call back. Moreover, once we agreed to a meeting, but, when I arrived, no one let me in and I stood for 20 minutes before giving up.

Luckily, we had a couple of phone conversations. Toward the end of the past school year, I also couldn’t meet with Piotr since he had a worse period at the time. Thanks to those calls, I know that Piotr is getting better now and he returned to attending his workshops he had to skip.

My appreciation⌗

What I probably should have underlined earlier in the reflection is that all parent show me great kindness. Maybe it is owing to the respect and trust I have mentioned… I don’t know. What I’m certain about, though, is that I always get delicious food, which is awesome (I’m hungry all the time)! I don’t fell worthy of those gifts, but it’s not nice to refuse. So let it be! 😍

Learning outcomes:⌗

• LO 1 Strength and Growth
• LO 2 Challenge and Skills
• LO 3 Initiative and Planning
• LO 4 Commitment and Perseverance
• LO 5 Collaborative Skills
• LO 6 Global Engagement
• LO 7 Ethics of Choices and Actions