El Bichito: Noche de las Chicas

March 11
By Alicia Platt

Friday night we had Noche de las Chicas! Fist we reviewed what 'CHICA' stands for--Confianza, Hermosa, Inteligente, Cariñosa, Atletica (confident, beautiful, intelligent, loving, athletic). We then talked about respect and how each of them deserved respect and also owed it to others. Afterwards, we enjoyed a movie and fruit salad together. They loved Pocahontas, though we did have to cover our eyes during the kissing parts...Overall it was great to get together and have some fun with just the girls!

Semilllas de Amor: Recycling project update

March 9

By Sarah MacCarthy

It has been a busy week here at Semillas de Amor. We finished the collection and washing process of all the plastic bottle caps. We will see the project come full circle this week.
This week I would like to highlight Jessy, one of the young boys at the foundation. You can see him below in the top, left picture. The art project has brought together various classroom themes that we have been working towards, including working as a team and setting goals. Jessy did a great job this week and worked well in the team environment which is essential for the completion of this project.

Our goal setting has been expanding from short-term goals, to medium-term goals and will conclude next week when we go to the University of Cartagena and think about our long-term goals.

This will be my last week in the foundation and it will be a busy one! We will keep you updated on all the excitement to come.

Semillas de Amor: Recycling project

February 28
By Sarah MacCarthy

Semillas de Amor in Turbaco has been busy collecting plastic bottle caps for our upcoming art project. The idea originally came from my cousin, who is a middle-school art teacher in Colorado. We are working towards two different goals. The first goal is to work together as a "team" to accomplish a larger project and the second goal is to recycle these bottle caps that would otherwise remain in the street. The kids bring as many "tapas" as they can to the foundation each day. In another week, we will start to wash, design and assemble a sign for the foundation.

The field trip to Cartagena is still in the works and that will be another exciting event coming up in March. We hope to tour the local university, visit a couple museums and take the kids out for pizza. It should be a great experience.

Stay tuned for more photos and updates to come!

Karen, Nohemi and Zuliney arrive to the foundation with the bottle caps that they have found.

The local Turbaco kids have been helping us with our upcoming art project.

El Bichito: All you need is “lo-vay”

February 16
By Alicia Platt

Friday was Día de San Valentín/Día de Amor y Amistad! They don’t celebrate it much here, but we did! We watched a short Charlie Brown clip in Spanish, learned Valentine’s Day words in English (thus, loh-vay), and made tarjetas de San Valentín (Valentines). There aren’t a lot of kids who come to El Bichito right now, as their school is out for their summer until March (and they don’t live close or need homework help), but the 8 or 10 who stayed made some great Valentines for their parents or grandparents.

El Bichito: February 10th update from Alicia

February 10
By Alicia Platt

Things are marching on here at El Bichito. I'm still trying to figure out a daily routine and am trying to plan better.  Even though there weren't many participants, we did have a math competition one day, which was fun, and a nutrition lesson that went really well. We also continue to lend books to kids every day, and I've been incorporating English into the FAMA or other lessons that we do, which they seem to like. Furthermore, English lessons with the college students have continued approximately 3 times a week (depending on the rain...) and I've enjoyed teaching those. My greatest feat this last week, however, was probably organizing the supply room!

Semillas de Amor: Quick update

February 10
By Sarah McCarthy

The end of the third week has come and gone quickly. This last week, we were able to celebrate several birthdays. Diego, a member of the foundation from Turbaco, turned 10 on February 5th!

This is a short update but we are in the process of planning several new projects at the foundation in the next month. Please check back for further updates soon.

In early March, we are planning a field trip to Cartagena. We hope to visit a local university in the old town as well as do a small city tour. Also, we have recently put up a good behavior chart in the foundation and each child is working towards this goal so that they can participate in the field trip!

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.