Michael: It was an interesting week, a bit harder than the first. On Tuesday the road up to the school was flooded so we were not able to go work with the children. When we got there on Wednesday we were amazed to see that the garden we had planted the previous week had started growing vigorously.
The cucumbers are doing the best so far with the cantaloupe close behind but almost everything has started growing. We had a hard time keeping the children from stepping in the garden at first but after putting in a distinct barrier and working in it with them they earned respect for it. The children loved to help plant the garden and they get excited when they see it grow. I hope they take this experience with them and continue to produce food for themselves and their families.
Stephanie: It’s been a good and challenging week; we had a couple setbacks but did what we could to keep things going. On Wednesday we were at the foundation early cleaning the floors and we got news that the food Uris had been preparing all morning was bad. The meat that was donated was no good and unfortunately she didn’t realize this until after she had put all the vegetables in it. This meant no food for the student, which is heartbreaking because for some of these kids it’s their only meal that day. Alfonzo is Uris brother and he comes with us to the foundation most days , He was ready to go home when he got that news and skip after lunch activities cause he knew the kids wouldn’t come if there was no lunch. I ran to the store and bought some bread and told Elevis (the lady who lives next to the foundation) to tell the kids if they come to the foundation I will have a snack for them. All the regular kids showed up I was able to do an activity and give each of them a small snack (not much, but something). I have been teaching English and I feel it’s very important to keep a routine with them as much as possible and so I was really happy when I was still able to hold a class with them despite the loss of the food.
The kids who attend my English classes’ everyday are progressing and it’s really exciting. I have a hard time getting all the kids to come so Friday I made a chart with everyone’s name and put stickers next to the names of those who came, after a student has 20 stickers I told them I would buy them a popsicle from the house next door (they cost 5 cents each, so I’m not worried about breaking the bank on this one) I really hope that it will be encouraging to the kids. I also want to encourage them to bring their homework somehow because I have been asking the kids if they have homework some of them say yes, so I ask them to bring it and not one time has any of the kids brought their homework. I have told Uris but she just kind of nods her head like “those crazy kids”.
As for the gardens we are very excited as well as the students we came back after last weekend and a bunch of plants had already sprouted, it had only been 5 days. The cucumber plants are about four inches tall and the kids are stoked about it, they want to help water and weed and take care of the plants. I think it was really important that we let them put the seeds in the ground and help with garden preparation. They seem to have taken ownership over the garden, some of the kids will get after other students for not being carful around the garden. It’s interesting because we have two gardens at the foundation and the kids are really only interested in the one they have planted, the other garden that Michael, Alfonzo, Cookie, and I made they seem to have no interest in. I know this is a simple concept but it shows to me how important it is to have the population you want to assist be a part of whatever it is that we are trying to do. We are also trying to teach some of the locals how and about gardening we healed a little class with the family across the street from us and now they have their own little garden.
It was really cool right as we were finishing the garden it started raining so we didn’t need to water the garden, it was great. My goal is by teaching students and family how to garden it will become more sustainable and so eating fresh produce will be more available and money that would be spent on this kind of things can go to other needs.
Last week I started tutoring a lady in the neighborhood in English, this week the time spent has turned into more of a class with currently only 3 students. I have taught English to kids plenty but this is the first time teaching to adults and I really like it, It's fun to get into the grammar part of things. It’s actually a really good review for me too, I have to keep getting on youtube and looking up tutorials to help me.
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