Columbia: Lessons in health

By Stacie Bell

July 18
Last Tuesday we had an awesome FAMA lesson and activity with the kids. At the beginning of the lesson we talked about why it is important to stay healthy by being physically active. For the past few weeks we have had soccer and dance practice, so we used that as a good example of staying fit. We talked about how the heart works, how it pumps oxygen to your muscles, and we taught the kids how to take their heart rate. We had them take their resting heart rate, and we wrote it on a poster by their names. Then we set up an obstacle course for them and took their heart rate after they had run through the course a couple times. It was great! They understood the increased heart rate after they ran. Here we are writing down their heart rates.

Columbia: Meet Yoymer

By Stephanie Stewart

July 18
This is Yoymer. He's 4 years old and absolutely adorable. He has quite the attitude, but overall is a good kid. The other day we were having the kids pick up trash around their neighborhood. Yoymer was so cute and would always yell my name and wave me over to where him and his sister were picking up trash. I loved seeing how excited he was to participate in this activity, and how proud he was of himself. 

Aldea Infantil: Meet Maribel

By: Brett Fotheringham, an intern at La Aldea Infantil:

July 5
Meet Maribel, at age seventeen, she happens to be the young lady to the right of me in the photo. Maribel is an absolutely amazing, fun, caring young girl it would sufficeth to say, but that doesn't matter because I am going to say more. As you may or may not see depending on how the above picture gets cropped, today was "Feliz Dia Maestro" or Happy Teacher Day. I accompanied Maribel to her school to help out with, and join in the festivities. In words, it was a blast! We made refreshments with the kids (see picture two for reference), and of course enjoyed said refreshments later in the day. We were also danced for, danced ourselves, and were serenaded by various students, staff members and volunteers. Maribel was one of the first people up to dance and did so with heart and style. She is always smiling, amiable, and ready to have put her heart into an activity. Maribel has quickly become one of my favorite kids here at the Aldea. I use the term kid loosely as she is only one year younger than I, but whatever, she's one of my favorite friends here at the Aldea I should say. I am loving life here and am increasingly saddened by the shortness of my stay here and wish I could remain at the Aldea longer, but all I can do is make the time left count! Next week's activities consist of capture the flag, baseball, and dance lessons. Bring it on. Until next week. Chao. 

Aldea Infantil: Numbers

By Megan McKnight, an intern at La Aldea Infantil:

July 14
The last two weeks we have been focusing on NUMBERS.  As I talked about in a previous post, I noticed a real need for the preschool age kids to recognize numbers when I was playing shoots and ladders with Alex. We continued to notice this need across the board with all the kids, so we decided to implicate a new number learning system. We have the preschool age kids everyday for an hour after lunch and introduced our new plan.  The first day was a basic introduction and a day to get a general feel for what level the kids were at. The kids were at pretty different levels, so we decided that each one of the five volunteers could take a group.  The next day we started with the number one. We cut out large number ones for the kids to color, talked about the number, and talked about shapes it reminded them of.  We came up with object it ultimately reminded them of and used this as our memory trigger. For example, the number 1 is a palito (stick), 2 is a patito (duck), and 3 is a mariposa (butterfly). We then split up into our smaller group and practiced recognizing the number we learned for the day in a group of larger number.  We did this by using flash cards or for the more active learners, giant numbers they had to run to.  This has happened everyday for the last two weeks either learning a new number, or lots of days reviewing and practicing the numbers we have already learned. It’s so exciting to see the kids mastering the number and placing a sticker on the chart we made to track their progress.  

Aldea Infantil: Nicoll's Quincinera

By: Brett Fotheringham, an intern at La Aldea Infantil.

July 13
The highlight of this week at the Aldea was undoubtedly Nicoll's Quincinera. For those unfamiliar with what a Quincinera is (as I was), it is the coming of age celebration for a Latino woman. I'm not exactly sure if it is practiced by all of Latin America but it sounded like a pretty widespread tradition. At any rate, when a girl turns fifteen they have a Quincinera party and they roll out all the bells and whistles, or more specifically here at the Aldea, they ask the volunteers to make this day very special. I feel sad that these pictures don't quite do our decorations justice but nevertheless, It was a pretty sweet time. Nicoll didn't have a Godfather to help out with the ceremony so she asked me to stand in as one for her Quincinera. It was definitely a new experience but I ended up having a lot of fun and can now say I took part in a Quincinera ceremony. I'm a bit scared of what might happen if there's ever a Quincinera here and there are no volunteers, because none of the Tia's have the time to set up for the celebration, but hopefully that never happens! I love being here at the Aldea because there is always something to do, someone to help, something to work on. Until Next week, Chao!

Aldea Infantil: Baseball!

By: Justin Schow, an intern at La Aldea Infantil.

July 6
One of my favorite activities so far at Aldea Infantil happened this week- baseball! We broke out the gloves and bats to play with the kids and it turns out that they are all quite good at it. We took turns pitching and batting and we all had a great time. Several of the kids even had little black gloves on their hands that made them look like pro's with their batting gloves.

I have really enjoyed sharing a love of sports with the kids at the Aldea, and I can see many of them continuing to play anything from soccer to basketball to baseball for several years to come.

Colombia: May 28 update from Brock

By Brock

May 28 

I would say that it was a successful week. We are now finding out more of what our roles are personally and figuring out how we can help them. So we started by telling the children to bring their homework. About 10 children were there when we did homework the first time and then we helped them another day as well. They need it. 

This week will be very productive at the foundation with the kids. We are going to teach them using the fama method one day and help them with homework, teach them english and play soccer with them.  We have painted everyroom but the center room accross from the kitchen, and we installed a toilet. We are all doing good health wise. Financial is another story. We have been paying a lot for mototaxis and buses. Oh and we also started profiling the children this week. its been good. well. that is it for now. here are some pictures.  Have a good week!

Columbia: Bethany, week 3

By Bethany Weiler

July 15

This past week was difficult because some of the older children were not behaving themselves appropriately. However, the younger children were very helpful and most of them listened and followed directions well. After lunch one day, we decided to have a trash pick-up activity that we have been planning for a while now but haven’t been able to carry out. It was fun to see the kids really get into the activity and they began some healthy competition to see who could pick up the most trash. We gave them a great deal of encouragement and found that they were eager to get attention from us. The more we noticed and complimented them, the better they behaved and the more trash they picked up. It was a reminder to me that these children not only need a center and school supplies, but they need positive love and attention as well. Whether we are looking for the good in them or the bad, we will find it. Abraham Lincoln said as much. I have found time and again that children (and people in general) live up to the expectations of others. If I treat these children like they are poor and ignorant, that is likely what they will become. But if I look for the good in them and help them to see it in themselves, they will live up to that higher expectation.

Columbia: Week 2 post from McCall

By McCall Plummer

July 18
This past week we sat down with the kids and facilitated a discussion on the effects of smoking.  It was well received and most of the children participated, but I was particularly impressed with the comments that Jose made.  He was the first to suggest that smoking heavily can lead to serious health problems including cancer. Also, he along with many others told us about the people in their life that struggle with this addiction.  It was exciting to see a kid like Jose engaged in the conversation.  It makes it all worth it! 

Colombia: May 26 update from interns

By: Armando Burrola
May 26

This week we were able to get the kids to bring their homework and we helped them for about an hour on a couple of days. It was really successful and the kids got a lot of help on their English and math homework. We also played soccer with the kids twice and they were really excited about it. We were able to do construction for a couple of days and we did some more painting and helped cookie prepare mix to cement the wall. This was a good week :)

From Lindsay:
I feel like we had our best week so far. After lunches this week we were able to meet with the children and play soccer a couple of times. After that we were able to help them with their homework. The first day we only had a few children come prepared with homework, but after that first day we've had more and more children come really excited for us to help them. We have also been working on profiles for the kids we have around 30 kids so far but we have A LOT more to do. We hope to have them finished by the end of this week. 

Colombia: May 15 update from Armando

By: Armando

May 15 

This last week was pretty good. Except for the fact that we all got pretty sick. We continued to paint the walls in the kitchen and on to the bathroom and we retouched some areas that needed it. We got all the tile in a room and got the doors installed. Some more cement was brought in and we helped mix it while they were putting some on the walls. We're getting along  great with the kids and getting a hang of things.  The only bummer was the intense headache I got Saturday and Sunday and then Lindsay got it bad too. But we're all doing lots better.

Colombia: May 5 update from interns

By: Lindsay Brown

May 5
So it was our first week here in Turbaco. The people we have met in this short amount of time are already so loving and giving to us and each other. This week Armando and I did some painting at the center. We worked mainly in the kitchen area. This week we plan on finishing the painting in the kitchen, and doing some touching up. We just received the tile for the center, so we hope to start on that this week too. We will also start working with the kids after lunch with their homework. Its only been a week, but I'm very excited to get everything going.

Progress on painting in the kitchen

From Armando:
One week later, I'm loving it already. We honestly feel like we're already part of the family. Uris an Oswaldo  are some of the nicest, most humble and hardworking people I've ever met. And the kids are so cute and lovable.  The first couple of days was mostly getting settled in and figuring things out. Our first day in the center was spent painting part of the kitchen walls and helping to serve food while getting to know some of the kids. They are awesome and energetic  although a bit rowdy at times. We had a day where it rained alot and uris told us it wouldn't be safe to go that day. And another one of the days was a holiday so there wasn't any school.  Thursday we went back to the center and helped serve food. We also helped deliver school supplies and the kids were really excited.  Tomorrow we will go to the food bank and prepare for the week!

Work day in Colombia

Our project director, Chris Jensen gives the following report:

June 13
Today was awesome! I am so excited for how close we are to finishing the center! Today was a tough day becuase we had lots of little short jobs for people to do, but it was great. Today we mixed cement by hand (not easy, but my favorite), we painted walls, help lay tile and put up cement plaster on the walls. Some of the participants got to play with the kids during lunchtime and they had a blast. As always we had the best home cooked rice, chicken and sausage a la Uris. It was an overall great day!   

Colombia: Week 1

June 30
By McCall Plummer

Our first week in Colombia has been amazing.  We have had many experiences that we will never forget after only being here one week.  On Wednesday, we taught a lesson using the FAMA technique on trash.  Our goal was to raise awareness that throwing your garbage in the street effects the environment and health of individuals in the community.  It was well received for the most part, but I noticed that Dayer really came to understand the meaning of our lesson.   He had some great insights that really added to the process.  He mentioned that throwing garbage everywhere creates bad air quality, and that it ruins the beauty of the outdoors.  It was exciting to see him reach these ideas and take something away from our discussion.  Hopefully, he will be as receptive in the weeks to come.

 

Aldea Infantil: Working with Fabricio

By Brett Fotheringham
June 30
This week I looking for what picture to post for the week and I came across this picture of Fabricio which had been taken by one of the boys with my camera. Fabricio is three-years-old and suffers from a variety of conditions. He is partially deaf, blind, and cannot sit up very well unless assisted. His muscles are very weak and as a result he is very difficult to care for here at the Aldea. Working with Fabricio however is the best thing in the world! Whenever possible, the other volunteers and I do exercises with him in order to strengthen his legs, back, abdomen, and neck. I know that if only he had more people working with him, more often, then he may be able to walk, but I fear as time goes on it will become more and more difficult for him to walk as his body grows in size while his muscles do not. At any rate, I figure every time we do exercises together, he gets closer to being able to sit up by himself, which is a gateway for crawling, which in turn, is a gateway for walking. Fabricio is the best little guy in the universe and I absolutely love him. Sadly this picture doesn´t capture one of his happier moments, which I shall be sure to try and capture this coming week, but despite all the adversity in his life, Fabricio is a happy child who is in dire need of simple physical therapy from doctors and volunteers alike. I look forward to working with him this week as always, and seeing the progress he can make. Until next week, Chao!

Note: Many of our interns have had concern for Fabricio and have helped in any way they could while at the Aldea. More posts about Fabricio are here. Take a moment to think about what you could do to help Fabricio. Visit our website to learn more.

Aldea Infantil: Pizza!

By Justin Schow
June 30
This past week was a lot of fun for us, our casa hosted cooking week! Having the older boys' group allowed Brett and I to gather some resources to make pizza, which some of them had never tried in their life. I was skeptical at first since my kitchen skills aren't necessarily anything special, but with the other volunteers' recipe and advice and help from the Aldea kids we were able to serve up a surprisingly delicious pizza. Good enough that I wouldn't mind making it everyday for the rest of our time in Peru.

I enjoyed it more since the kids enjoyed it, and I fully expect them to be asking for all the photos we took very soon. And of course, more pizza.

 ean Pierre, Ruben, and Brett getting the pizza ready to put in the oven

Aldea Infantil: Banana bread

By Megan McKnight
June 23
This week we focused on learning a new skill that we hope will come in handy in the future! We worked on baking with each group and each group made some of the best banana bread I've ever had.  Every person was in charge of a specific task and it turned out wonderfully.  We stressed the importance of keeping things clean and sanitary and the importance of washing hands before and during the baking.  The kids absolutely loved baking and were so excited with their final project.  

One kid in particular was special to see.  Miguel has a hard time walking, so it makes it hard for him to participate in a lot of the things the kids like to do, such as sports and dancing.  But Miguel excelled at baking! He was great at helping the other kids with measuring and mixing and it was easy to see how much he enjoyed himself and how comfortable he felt.  

Learning about all the kids and their talents and things they enjoy is so fun.  I love getting to know each child and what makes them special.  I have already met some of the coolest people and I can't wait to get to know more!   

Aldea Infantil: Challenges & rewards

June 23
Life at Aldea Infantil so far has brought its challenges and rewards, and this past week has been no exception. 

Each day we try to spend time with several of the younger kids, and I've really come to enjoy this part of the day. There's 7 of them from about age 4-5 and we have been helping them with homework, teaching manners, playing games and trying to just have fun and spend time with each of them. At first they were a handful as most kids are, and some days are more crazy than others but overall it's just a lot of fun to be around them. They definitely enjoy their time with us as well. 

They love our cameras, and in one instance as soon as I got my camera out three of them- Andrea, Renzo, and Jose Angel- made silly faces right away. They sure know how to take a good picture.

What a blessing to be here and to get to know these great young kids in Peru!

Justin Schow

El Bichito: Week of June 17th

Week of June 17th

By Dane Smart and Brennan Howick

             Hello all, we here to report to you another fun filled week at El Bichito.  We can’t stress enough the importance of knowing mathematics for everyday use.  Although the children are learning math in school, we still get children coming to us telling us they don’t understand their math homework.  We put together some lessons that would be fun and educational. 

            This weeks activities entailed: a multiplication race in which the children competed to see who could fill out a multiplication table the fastest, a grid axis layout where each point represented a letter and the children needed to decode different messages, and the last activity was a math bingo game which the children have always been fond of. 

            Included is a picture of one of the students named Aurora who has loved the El Bichito book check out program.  She never misses an opportunity to check out a new book to take home and read. On this occasion she came up to Brennan with the book she check out the day prior. When asked if she had finished the book, she replied that she had and then subsequently opened the book to read her favorite parts.  The book check out program continues to grow each week as more children come to exchange the books read from earlier in the week for new ones.  It is exciting to see their reading skills progress, even in the short time we have been here. 

            As part of our rewards program we treated the children to a game of soccer at the local park called, “The Garden.”  The children are so passionate about this sport and show it when they are on the field.  It is a joy to see how motivated they can be in something that is so important to their culture and something they enjoy so much.