Day 2: June 2, 2009

On day two, I continued shadowing Olivia with our group from the day before, debriefing them on their experience of staying the night in the Global Village.

The villagers had just finished their breakfast which included: a basket filled with a container full of oat mill, one of sugar and a handful of raisins that they had cooked over a fire they had built and prepared down in the Urban Slums. They met us back up at the Global Village Barn and Josh and Olivia each took a group (one took Guatemala, the other took the Urban Slums) back to their dwellings to complete their chores for the day. I stayed behind with a few from each group to wash all of the dishes that they had used to cook their meals the night before.

Some of the chores that the villagers must complete are: cleaning-up their area, the fire pit and the squat toilets. Then, they water the crops in Zambia, Thailand and Guatemala. After that, they feed the chickens, goats, ducks and then walk and feed the goats. After the chores, everyone meets back at the Global Village Barn and we begin the debriefing process.

Debriefing consists of asking a series of leading questions about their experiences in the village and relating them to how they compare and contrast to their lives back home in the ‘real world.’ Then, we do a few activities before releasing them to shower-up and head to lunch.

After lunch, I met up with Jacob at Metzger to meet the rest of the Ranch staff and tour Metzger and where the office supplies and material that I will be using for the duration of my summer education volunteer program, or Summer Action. Then, Jacob gave me a stack of training DVDs that covered most of the practices and policies that I missed during the two-weeks of training.

I met back up with Jacob around five and he and I drove into town to pick up some groceries, beer and socks (the latter of which I had forgot to pack in my suitcase before flying here).