Semillas de Amor: Field trip update

April 2

By: Sarah MacCarthy

It has been two weeks since I left Turbaco, Colombia, but I am eager to share the story about our field trip to Cartagena with sixty-five children and twelve adults. Saturday morning, March 15th, we all woke up early and prepared ourselves for a fun-filled day in Cartagena. We put on our Colombian soccer jerseys and headed to the corner where the bus was going to collect us. We loaded up and the adventure began! The children were so incredibly excited, as many of them had never been to the city before, let alone seen the ocean. Eager eyes stared outside the bus as we rolled through the busy, traffic-filled streets en route to the city. Music was playing, and the kids were singing loudly.

The bus came to a stop outside the ancient-walled city, and the kids unloaded into the park. We carefully escorted the children through the streets and arrived at "La Universidad de Cartagena". This was the first and probably most important stop on the tour. We attended a presentation, interacted with the staff, watched two short videos and explored the library. The kids were engaged and interested the entire time. At the end, everyone snacked on hot dogs and soda in the beautiful university plaza.

The tour continued as we split the group into two smaller groups. This allowed us to take half of the group to the gold museum and and the other half to the Palacio de la Inquisición, a common tourist stop in Cartagena. We toured both facilities, and the kids enjoyed both experiences. After well-guided tours and several short videos, we headed outside to Bolivar Park. The kids were able to run around and burn some energy before the pizza arrived. We ended the field trip with pizza in the park.

As you can see from the pictures, there were many smiles, many firsts and overall the trip was a success. The trip to the university gave these young, impressionable minds a look into the opportunities ahead. The trip was invaluable, and I was glad to be a part of the experience.

Thank you to Eagle Condor for making this trip possible.

El Bichito: Field Trip to Cajamarca

Abigail, an intern at El Bichito, tells us about their recent field trip to Cajamarca: 

Last week we had the opportunity to take our very first fieldtrip with the kids!  We organized a trip into Cajamarca to help the kids learn more about the history of the city and the Peruvian people.  Our first stop was to a cathedral near the Plaza de Armas.  

Our guide taught us about the architectural and usage differences between that cathedral and the one across from it.  Next, we visited the Cuarto del Rescate. This is where the last Incan king, Atahualpa, had his ransom collected while he was being held captive by the Spaniards. The room is the last surviving Incan ruin in Cajamarca. 

 

Third, we visited a museum a block away.  The museum was an operating hospital until 1962.  It holds many artifacts from Cajamarca as well as areas all over Peru.  Last, we went to Santa Apolonia where we hiked up what seemed like thousands (but was probably just hundreds) of stairs to a beautiful overlook of the city.  It was an awesome experience for us and the kids to see its beauty from the top of the mountain.  While we were up there, we ate our packed lunches and enjoyed running around in the grass.

Abigail and a few of the boys resting

 Noelle and Luiz Fernando

Brittany and Alex 

Playing at the playground

We are so grateful for the opportunity we had to take these kids out to learn and have fun!  It would not have been possible without the help of many people from Eagle-Condor as well as the amazing Feliciana and Merchola here at El Bichito.

Learn more about helping these orphans by visiting our website. Learn more about El Bichito by visiting the page or viewing past posts.

La Aldea Infantil: Pool Field Trip

Lauren, an intern at La Aldea Infantil, tells us about their recent field trip:

This week, the kids ended up going on a field-trip to a pool. While there, the people who are in charge put together a bunch of games and relay races for the kids to participate in before lunch and swimming.

These games included volleyball, futball and tug-of-war (in which the girls totally dominated). The relay races here trying to get as much water from one end of the line to the other through sponges. It was so much fun to watch them run around and just have fun.

After lunch, it was time for the pool. It didn't seem to matter to them, like I've come to realize that it does in America, if they don't have swimsuits. They just jump right in and start playing away. They can be in leggings or jeans, in the long run it doesn't matter to them at all.

Learn more about helping these orphans take field trips. Read more about La Aldea Infantil by viewing past posts and viewing the Aldea Infantil page.

El Bichito visits Senati

SENATI is a techinal training college located just outside Banos del Inca for technical careers such as electricians, machinery and engineering. Our awesome interns took the El Bichito kids on a field trip there to help them see the benefits of education. Thirty-six kids were in attendence!




The director took them on a tour of the facility and explained each study program offered by the institution. The director encouraged the students to stay in school and pursue a career.

To complete the tour of SENATI, the kids were taken to eat ice cream in an ice cream shop. Eliana said she loved seeing their happy faces, many of them had never visited an ice cream shop before this.

Once they were back at El Bichito, the children were asked to share their experiences and Eliana said she was happy to hear that many of them want to be future mechanics or engineers. It seems as though this experience has had a great influence on the lives of these children. The interns plan to take the children to a hospital next!

Also, Eliana got SENATI to install a water heater at El Bichito for free! Way to go Eliana!

Thanks to Eliana for the photos and description of this awesome field trip!

El Bichito visits Granja Porcon!‏ (Cynthia)

8 kids, 4 leopards, 2 lions, 7 monkeys, a few thousand fish and 1 great day!

We had the opportunity to take a group of kids from El Bichito to Granja Porcon, a successful evangelical cooperative a couple hours outside of Cajamarca. We had a pretty crazy bus ride up the mountains with all those kids and we had the great opportunity to just sit and talk (or sing or play peak a boo in the curtain

Once we arrived at Porcon, the first thing we noticed were all the pine trees! Something of an irregularity- the mountains of Porcon are covered with millions of pine trees, an entirely man made forest. The surprises didn't stop there though, Porcon was a beautiful and clean place with plenty to see. We started off our trip walking through some of the artesian shops where we saw carpenters and other craftsman hard at work.

We then hiked to the zoo and saw lions, bears and ostriches. Alvierri said his favorite part of the trip was the monkeys because they were so "cute". Junior liked all the different types of birds and Ana Maria liked "everything"!

These kids were so full of energy the whole day and the only time we stopped running was to play on the slide.

We ate our lunch in an open grassy area and the kids got some of their energy out playing soccer.

Next we visited the trout farm and some even tried their hand at fishing. It was so interesting to see the progression of the baby trout in the tank to full grown fish in the lake. The kids were sad when it was time to leave and it took a little convincing to get back on the bus. It was fun to ask what they all enjoyed most and we are sure they will remember this trip in days to come.