Semillas de Amor: Stephanie Oct 17

The following is a post from Stephanie, an intern at Semillas de Amor:

October 17

Just like everything else in life we had a few hiccups last week that prevented us from meeting with the mothers of the foundation and the gardens that were supposed to be started didn’t happen.  This week has already been very productive on the other hand, we have a friend who decided to come and help for the week. It’s really nice to have someone with a pair of new eyes and fresh ideas. We were able to get a really nice looking fence up around the garden giving us way more room to plant and more room to move around. I was able to get a few donations that amounted to 60 dollars. We were able to buy a bag and a half of cement, 50 cinder blocks, and some sand.  We will be able to do construction for a few days with all the material we got. Because of the holiday on Monday we were not able to go to Banco Alimentos (the food bank), So the food had to be picked up yesterday (Tuesday) since that was happening while preparation of the food was supposed to happen lunch couldn’t be served so while we were working up at the foundation and ran and just grabbed some bread for whatever kids showed up.  Quite a few came in and out but there was a handful who really wanted to help. One of our students Neicer who is very punctual came earlier than any of the other kids and worked a long side us the entire time. He was so happy and excited to help us and was quite good at mixing cement, weeding the garden, digging up roots of unwanted tree. I think when people of community get involved with the work that’s being done and put their two cents in they take more ownership over the project. Neicer has obviously been involved in the development of the foundation, he has even been included in the paintings on the walls from previous volunteers.  It seems to me that because Neicer has always been involved with the development, he now is the only that comes every single day and he’s the one who  putting up the chairs and sweeping at the end of the activity.

Thursday we are meeting with the mothers of the family to teach them about planting a garden. Oh ya! And we got our first pepper in the garden!! Wahoo! 

Aldea Infantil: Hannah-Oct 6

The following post is from Hannah, an intern at La Aldea Infantil: 

October 6, 2012

Our past two weeks have been so busy. But such a great rewarding busy :) Our first couple of days were spent settling in, getting to know the kids, and getting to know the Tia's. After that we were right in the mix of things. 

Every monday, tuesday, and wednesday, I take Fabrizio to physical therapy, while Madeline helps get the rest of the children to school and then does art class with the younger ones.

The physical therapist taught me the exercises to do  with Fabrizio, he has muscular dystrophy so we work on building his muscles up so that he can hold himself up.

After getting back from the hospital, we have other art and homework class with any kids needing help or wanting to do activities. Once they are done, they love to go outside and play soccer or do sidewalk chalk and make bracelets. We keep a lot of the kids busy before dinner, and I think the Tias appreciate them being out of the way of their cooking.

We have told the older girls who know a little bit of english that we have a computer English program for them, and they are very excited. The past week they havent been able to make it because the Tia's had them helping do some chores, but we scheduled a specific time with them for this coming week that we are really looking forward to. 

There are a bunch of great kids here and we are loving get to know each of them. It is crazy to see how 

much English will help their lives and how many of them just want to learn.