El Bichito: Full of light & happiness

The following is written by Anna, an intern at El Bichito:

Things are picking up at El Bichito this week.  Anna Gleave and I, the other intern have had the incredible opportunity to spend the past week really getting to know the children.  We have personally asked each of them about the lives, their hobbies, and what they want to be when they grow up.  We are trying to get an analysis on their health and family situations as well.  We plan to make a file for each child, with their information and picture, in order to keep better track of their progress, and to help future interns.  What a treat to spend one-on-one time with each of these kids.  They are full of light and happiness.

The focus this week was on nutrition and healthy eating habits.  Anna Gleave did a great job teaching the children about vitamins, protein, and where we find these in our foods.  We bought a bunch of mangos from the local market in Cajamarca, brought them to the center, and incorporated them into the daily meal as a desert.  The kids were thrilled and we hope to do this often in the future.

Collaborating with Feliciana we finally solidified a system to complete the backpacks we have been sewing for the kids.  I think I have now mastered the sewing machines that were brought by the last expedition, and I hope to soon help other women in the village learn how to use them.  A lady dropped in with her son for lunch one day and appeared extremely interested, so I am exciting to get going on that.

My focus this week has been on math and reading.  The kids are on summer vacation, so its crucial they keep their multiplication and other mathematic skills sharp.  I drew a giant calculator out of chalk outside with numbers from 1 to 9.  I would yell out an equation such as 3 times 2, and they would have to jump as fast as they could on the correct number.  I was so impressed how quick these children are.  Never would I have thought they would beg me the next day to play "multiplications."

We told the kids that if they read an entire book, drew a picture of the story line, and wrote a couple sentences about what they learned, they would receive one of our backpacks.  Edgar, above, was our first successful candidate.  He could barely contain his excitement as he vividly related to me what happened in his story.  The most fulfilling aspect of this experience was his desire to then start another book.

I am excited to continue to work with these kids and get them ready to return to school.  I can't wait for the future projects to come.

El Bichito: Globos de bacteria

We are so excited to have interns on the ground once again for the year 2013. The following is a post from Anna, a new intern at El Bichito:

January 23
We have been focusing on hand washing as a healthy habit in El Bichito this week, so we have taught lessons on the subject and have devised games involving hand washing. Some of the kids drew signs about "lavando las manos para proteger su salud," and they enjoyed playing various games.

The kids' favorite game, however, involved a cultural event that is currently happening in Cajamarca-- Carnival. Carnival occurs every spring, and it mostly involves enormous water fights. The kids had been begging us to let them play carnival for days, so we decided to incorporate a water fight into our hand washing lesson. We told them that the water balloons were "globos of bacteria," and every time that they were hit, they had to wash their hands to get a new balloon. The game worked for several minutes, but it quickly just turned into a full-out water war. The battle peaked as we ran into the middle of it with the kids' confiscated water guns yelling, "INFLUENZA!" and drenching them with water. They loved this... mostly because they had every excuse to soak me and Anna, the other intern. 

We had an excellent water fight, but we were even more pleased with the results; the next day, many of the kids washed their hands on their own before eating, and all of them did after we asked! We hope to keep instilling these types of healthy habits in the kids as we work with them in El Bichito. 

To learn more about becoming an intern, click here.

El Bichito: Sewing Hope

Another blurb about one of our holiday expeditions:

In the hustle and bustle of trying to finish as much as possible on the drop-in center, I was worried we would not have enough time to start teaching the ladies at El Bichito some sewing lessons. Finally on our second to last day, we had some time in between projects to whip out the sewing machines. We gathered all we could and headed downstairs. “I have something special for you”, I told Feliciana, they lady in charge at El Bichito. We took out two of the three sewing machines and started to assemble them.

 

After a little bit of Macgyvering we were able to make the two machines work. Sheri and Kaylynn started showing the ladies, pointing and using simple vocabulary. I was convinced that we were not going to get anywhere. My problem was I didn’t know how to sew and especially didn’t know how to translate sewing words like “bobbin” and “cross-stitch”. To my surprise the little Andean ladies had some familiarity with sewing in secondary school. They told me that they use to have vocational courses but they now charge lots of money to take a class like sewing. Within minutes of sitting down they were sewing zig-zags, making pouches, and a backpack.

 

Within one hour the ladies understood each other. Not because of language, but because of experience, they were able to communicate the whole process of sewing bags, money holders, and patterns. I felt so happy to feel useless as these women from completely different backgrounds and cultures learned and worked together. By the end of the first class we had a small group of villagers watching intently as the ladies sewed.

 

We are excited to have our interns continue these workshops with more ladies at the center this year! The local ladies told us that a local hotel has contracted a group of women to make napkins for their dining rooms. The ladies at El Bichito have hope that learning to sew will help them grow personally and help support their families.  

Chris Jensen

To learn more about our expeditions, click here.

El Bichito: All A's!

The following exchange happened during a holiday expedition: 

As I was running around coordinating things for the expedition I ran into a few boys from El Bichito. I noticed they were all carrying a sheet of paper that looked important. I asked them what the paper was for. “It has our grades for the year”, they replied. I asked Reuben, one of the boys I knew from when my wife and I were interns, if I could see his grades. He agreed. It had listed each subject and next to it had the grade of “A”. “All A's!!!” I exclaimed. “Yep, all A's”, Reuben replied. Reuben later shared with me that the interns have helped him a lot this year at El Bichito and that helped him in getting all A’s.

Chris Jensen

To learn more about expeditions, click here.