Semillas de Amor: Meet Sarah

February 1
By Sarah MacCarthy

Hello. My name is Sarah MacCarthy and I am a new volunteer here at Semillas de Amor in Turbaco, Colombia. The second week of my internship has just come to an end and it has been an amazing learning experience thus far. This past week at the foundation our focus was about demonstrating our talents and learning about the talents of our classmates. The week started off with a basic discussion on talents and by the end of the week all the kids have practiced up for the big TALENT SHOW! 

I would like to highlight one participant in the talent show named Dayre. He is a rambunctious little kid that not only demonstrated his many talents to us but he also displayed to me that he understood the lesson. Near the end of the talent show, he asked me if I was going to sing and I explained to him, "singing is not my talent." He then politely asked me what my talents were and we had a good discussion. I thought this was a perfect demonstration of the lesson and what we had been talking about during the course of the week. Dayre has a lot of energy and he was able to use his energy to sing and dance for us this week. It was a successful week at the foundation and I look forward to more positive learning experiences in the future, for both the kids and myself.

 Uris introducing Dayre's act in the talent show.

 An artist demonstrating his talents to the group.

 These two young ladies danced, danced, danced.

The cheering section.

El Bichito: A busy ending

January 21

By Sunny Hicken

We made toothbrush holders out of plastic beverage bottles—a big one for el Bichito and smaller ones that each child could give to their family as a Christmas present. They finger-knitted a strap to hang it by, and we provided toothbrushes. (You can see some of them hanging from the pole in front of the white board.) We learned a fun song about brushing teeth—you can watch it here:

Christmas party! Eliana, a previous intern, came to help, and Melchora and Feliciana all helped put on a grand “chocolatada” with treats and games. We played musical chairs, a custom bingo game with everyone’s names on it, and danced to music.

Sierra’s 4th grade class in the United States had done a book drive, and books arrived just before we left. We skyped each other and got to say “Thank You!”

Along with the book drive, we received some donated funds that we used to build a bookcase and reading bench. Now el Bichito has it’s own reading corner to curl up in.

And Alida’s graduation! Congratulations Alida! Brent got to act as her “padrino” and attend the festivities. She received the dress as a gift from Eliana and looked beautiful! Alida is a hard worker and has been recognized for her studies at the local school.

El Bichito: Local volunteers

December 2
By Sunny Hicken

Something that has been great at El Bichito this last month or so is the help we have been getting from the local people. Some days I’ll have a mom come in to help with an activity, and other days we’ve had volunteers come help in other ways.  Here is a neighbor, Rosana helping with reading.

Gloria is a teacher we met who came to play math games with the kids. A woman who used to be a teacher has been coming on Tuesdays and teaching jewelry making and sneaking in some other lessons as well. One week she left a book and asked all the kids the read it.

 The next week, she brought her kids, and they put on a puppet show about the story, and she gave out small prizes to kids who could answer questions about it. It was awesome. We had a great group of kids all paying attention!

Another ongoing activity the kids enjoy here is jumping rope. Some kids come asking for a jump rope (“Una soga, por favor!”) before they even eat, but we tell them they have to eat and do homework first. Then when we get out the jumpropes, I ask them if they want me to say the rhyme in Spanish or English when they jump, and now several of them can say it in English themselves. It goes like this:

Tell me how many fish
Are there in the ocean:
1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

This way they practice counting in English. When they stop jumping, we ask what number it was in the other language. Here is the rhyme in Spanish:

Dime cuantos peces
Hay en el océano
1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

(To give crédito where crédito is due, I learned this rhyme from a bilingual song tape—yes, I got it a long time ago, it’s a cassette tape—called “Lyric Language” by Family Circus. It’s still around, I think.)

Semillas de Amor: Halloween

October 31
By Colby Thomas

This week we had a giant Halloween party for the kids at the foundation. Not only did we serve the regular lunch, but we had dance competitions, sing-offs, and played a few games with the children. Ben tried to teach the kids "We are the Titans" except he changed it to "We are Colombians." I did my best to help out but for the most part I couldn't stop laughing. It was so funny to Ben and I how the costumes in Colombia are no different than the costumes in the states. The girls were all Disney princesses, and the boys were a superhero of some sort. Their imaginations ran wild as they took some of the unused clothes from the clothing drive and dressed Ben and I up. Ben got to be some Greek God with a sash and a sword, and I was a nurse. I'm not bitter or anything, but I feel like the kids pulled rank on me since I've been here a month less :p At least I had a sweet afro. We also pulled together some money to buy the kids some cake, ice cream, soda, and candy. Too bad for their mothers though, as we sent their already hyper kids home even more energized. It was no doubt an exhausting day, but to see the happiness and joy on the children's faces made all the effort well worth it.

Semillas de Amor: Meet Yuladis

November 21
By Colby Thomas

This week I would like to highlight a special little girl named Yuladis. This little girl is extremely quite and shy, but perhaps the most polite child Ben and I have the pleasure of working with. She has the most beautiful smile, and if you can make eye contact with her, she can't help but laugh. She comes everyday, is always polite, and always does as her sister tells her to do. We're trying to get the other kids in the the foundation to behave and act like she does. We are so grateful to have such an awesome example. She will definitely be one of the hardest children to say goodbye to. For me, the greatest joy of working in Semillas de Amor is seeing children from bad backgrounds have a reason to smile and show their creativity in an uplifting environment. What might be a few hours of chaos for Ben and I everyday is a much needed way of relieving stress, energy, and emotion for these children--and when we look at our work through this lens, it helps us stay motivated. Yuladis is shown above with her trademark smile :)

El Bichito: Finger knitting

October 28
By Sunny Hicken

We continue to be as busy as can be here at El Bichito. Everybody’s minds and fingers have been busy as after each child completed homework, they could choose a ball of yarn and learn to finger knit. It was hard at first, but the kids caught on and started helping each other out. These kids love crafts. Our jewelry volunteer, Senora Tely, came again this Tuesday and brought all the materials for the kids to make bracelets. Later in the week we started making Math Machines—we’ll show some pictures of those next week as we finish them up.

We were able to have a few more house visits this week. I love getting to know these families better. Ana Maria and her brother Junior live just down the street, and Rodrigo and Nelida’s houses are close as well. I love having not only the kids now call my name when we walk through town, but the moms as well.

El Bichito: Crafting and computers

October 21
By Sunny Hicken

This week a woman who lives down in Baños del Inca volunteered to come teach a jewelry class. She brought all the materials and had a separate set of beads for the boys and girls to all make necklaces. I’ve never seen so many kids here and have it be so quiet! They were all working hard and absolutely loved it. She promised to come back this week again and bring materials for bracelets—but only for those who’ve done homework! (She used to be a teacher, and it shows. Hooray for teachers!)

We’ve taken some of the empty toilet paper rolls and boxes from juice and such and the kids have created a marble run, taped to the wall with masking tape. They bring marbles from home, but I hope to find some marbles in the market to give out as prizes because the kids love playing with it. And I would like to see them create more, as it involves so many great planning and engineering skills.

My husband was able to get one of the old laptops here running (after taking two of them into a shop and ordering parts and buy a new cord, etc.) It won’t charge, but if we leave it plugged in, the kids can use it. A contest is going on in El Bichito as we are using it with a typing game and Kai is keeping track of scores and teaching them how to type. We found that even the older kids typed with just two fingers, and we know that will hold them back. My husband works with a dentist, Dr. J. Tim Modic in Maryland (http://www.mechanicsvillefamilydentist.com/), who is donating three laptops which Eagle-Condor will be bringing down in November. Then we’ll really have our computer lab up and running! (As you can see, we even have a mom here learning to type!)