Crafts with the Kinder group!
Ellos hicieron búhos...
and they got pretty creative!
The Church group did a Spider Web teambuilding exercise with a web made of yarn.
The objective is to get each person from one side to the other, but they must go through different openings in the web and without touching the web!
The kids loved it and we even fit one of the volunteers through at the end!
Each day, we give out a snack during VAP. It looks like this day was a tortilla with beans (a mini baleada).
One of my FAVORITE children's books!! My parents used to read this to us all the time and there is a song inside: I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.
The Church group read it one day and then I got to read it to the group at PEP. I love this book and think that now is a good time to thank my parents for being so wonderful <3
The Church group did an activity where they all stand in a circle holding hands with a hula hoop on one person's arm. Then, they try to pass the hula hoop around the circle without letting go of each others' hands. You must get everybody to step through the hula hoop in order to make it around the circle.
The different groups started to really show their team spirit by making up group names (Los Lobos Locos, Los Pumas Peligrosos, y Los Monos Musculosos).
Aquí, un niño del grupo de la iglesia está pintando la bandera.
We still go to the church to help them feed the kids on Wednesdays. This time, they got tortillas with rice and beans--¡delicioso!
The other Carly :) A volunteer from Canada
They always get something to drink--usually a juice mix with lots of sugar, but it's better than soda.
Check out that spread!
Before the feeding, they often sing a few worship songs :) I asked that they write out the words so that we can join in with the kids!
With some of the kids after feeding
It's obvious why we keep going back <3
I've started to help out teaching the Adult English Classes. During this class, we taught them directions and drew a map to practice getting from one point to another.
I had the opportunity to translate for a meeting at the Dental Clinic in El Porvenir. The dentist is Juan Carlos and his practice is in La Ceiba, but he also spends time every week seeing patients in El Porvenir. Anne Fowler is the director of the PEP program that teaches English during the school year and she runs many other projects in the area as well. Anne set up the dental clinic and she brings dental brigades to the community every year.
Juan Carlos (dentist) and Anne Fowler (founded the dental clinic).
The meeting was about doing some construction to improve the dental clinic and I was there to help translate for Anne, Juan Carlos, and our Honduras Children Director (Charlie). Charlie will be overseeing much of the construction on the dental clinic :)
Anne lives in El Porvenir for about half of the year and spends the rest of her time in Canada. She is a huge support for the volunteers and has hosted several of our big dinners at her beautiful house.
Jim checking out the pump to drain the water and put it on the right settings so that we could make the drills work faster!
Space Week with the PEP group: They read books about the solar system and one craft involved making rocket pictures.
They worked hard decorating their paper mache planets!!
They hung the solar system from the ceiling :)
As a finale to Space Week, the volunteers made a rocket and shot it off in the soccer field!
In honor of No-Shave November, the volunteers had a Mustachio Bashio.
Before the big shave...
After...
And the girls got in on the fun too :)
This is Emma, a newer volunteer from Scotland <3
On our way to go white water rafting near La Ceiba!!
All suited up :)
Two of our instructors riding in the rafts on the trailer!
Everybody is excited!
A perfect activity for a rainier weekend, although the sun popped out at the end!
Raft Safety 101
Practicing...
This was the part where the instructor made me jump into the water to practice a rescue... at least I didn't fall in!
This is how they celebrate making it through the big rapids!! Our guide was awesome and I was in a boat with Sarah and Jennifer--none of us had been rafting before :):)
Yoga on top of a cliff <3
My back and neck were pretty sore from rafting, but my chiropractor would be proud that I'm doing yoga down here!
This was right in front of the Jungle River Lodge where we stayed for the night and it was an incredible place to relax :)
We had jumped off of these rocks earlier in the day on a break from our white water rafting (wearing a helmet and life jacket, of course).
Jungle River Lodge :)
We rafted in classes 1-4 rapids
The dog at the lodge was really cool
Carly caught a tiny gecko in her hands!
7 of us slept in one room, camp-style sleepover :)
The restaurant area where we ate and hung out for the weekend
The view from the ledge of the restaurant: left...
center...
right.
Jungle River Lodge was a great place to raft and I recommend it! The equipment was in great condition, the guides were fun, and they even transported us to and from La Ceiba.
I thought this sign on the side of the road was pretty cool :)
The Kinder group painting their flag!
And the finished product, love it!!!
Each of the groups has come up with a chant or song for some team spirit. Here is the Kinder group's chant to the tune of "We Will Rock You."
A little time leftover to goof around :)
The Church group came up with an amazing idea to have a Hall of Fame with awards for the following categories: Most Helpful, Most Respectful, Most Improved, Best Attendance, and Best Listener.
The crowd at the talent show! This picture doesn't do it justice because by the time we actually started, there were people sitting on the floor and standing outside of the glass doors peering in. The municipal building was kind enough to let us use their large meeting room and they were also kind enough to not complain about all the noise we made!
Girls from the PEP group singing
Kids from Kinder group singing and dancing...
the duck song!
Girls from PEP group bailando
La clase de la mañana de la iglesia bailando
Jim was helping them with their motions from the floor :):)
Some girls from the PEP group even modeled!
La clase de la tarde del Kinder cantando y bailando
Parents and siblings came to the show :) This little girl was especially cute as she clapped along <3
The "judges" held up encouraging signs at the end of each performance! There were no winners or losers. I'm going to be extremely cheesy here, but my elementary school physical education teacher used to say, "If you had fun, you won" and I still like to go by that motto :):)
Kids from the PEP group dancing la bachata (a specific partner dance done to a certain type of music)
The 3 "judges"
Our MC for the day and one of our big supporters, Señor Funez! He did a great job announcing at the talent show and he is always willing to help the volunteers. Oscar Funez is a teacher in El Porvenir and he runs a store in the middle of town. His son, Dani, is also a friend to the volunteers and the two of them do so much to help our organization <3
Kids from the Kinder group dancing :)
At the end, the volunteers did a big comedy skit and the kids loved it. The talent show was a huge success and it was obvious that the volunteers and the kids had worked extremely hard to prepare during the week leading up to it!!
Here are some videos of the VAP Talent Show 2011 <3
The younger kids from the Church group singing la canción del elefante!
Two little boys (twins) from the PEP group did a lightsaber fight to Star Wars :):)
Three of the older boys from the PEP group did some break dancing and flips!!!
