Hello everybody!

Well we have been busy busy busy this summer.  The last group of the summer just arrived last Thursday.  They are finishing house number 6 in El Canal today. 

Other exciting news… One of the groups from Ohio helped me out fixing up my little school house.  They also were able to join in on a couple of camps!  It was great having them help out!   Here are a few photos of us fixing up the school.

 

The local kids were ssoooo excited to help out. I had to find lots of little jobs for them to help the group with.  We walked up the street to my house to grab the tires I had been collecting for the playground.  Here is a photo of them walking/rolling them to the school. 

The kids of La Sabana were thrilled to be helping out.  Here is a group shot of the group from Ohio as well as the kids who helped out.  And here is a huge THANKS going out to the group!!! J

And  of course I couldn’t have a preschool without a sand box!!! J  (Thanks Teresa for the sandbox toys!!!)

My branch of “The Village” Mountain Mission is the C.A.R.E. Project (Children At Risk Education).   The little girl in this photo is Robaisi.  She is 3 and comes to camp with her 2 year old sister and 5 year old brother.  She has become my shadow and whenever I get up to walk around, whether I’m passing things out or leading a game, she is always right behind me.  And as soon as I sit down, she plops herself right into my lap. Haha! 

Camp has been going great!  For the older groups of kids, the 7-10 year olds, Anna and I have been trying to get them thinking.  We keep the themes the same, but when the little ones learned the Itsy Bitsy Spider, we had the older kids draw a spider and on each of the 8 legs they had to write 8 different ways to be a good friend.  Also when the little kids decorated stars,  we explained what reaching for the stars meant, and they wrote what they wanted to be when they grew up in the star.  They then pasted strips of paper coming off of the star and on those strips, they wrote how they were going to get there.  It was great listening to their hopes and dreams. 

This week is our last week of camp.  We have lots of fun things planned for the kids! 

2 weeks ago Kendi turned 8.  His family received a house from VMM in 2009.  Anna and I took him and his family to the beach for his birthday.  When we went to go pick them up the kids came running out to the car yelling “La Playa, La Playa, La Playa!”  They were singing it the whole ride there and squealed with joy when they saw the beach.  It’s their excitement that fills me!  We had a great afternoon! 

Last week was Ana’s 6^th birthday.  Her family received a house from VMM also in 2009.  Anna and I took Ana and her family to the River for her birthday.  Again, the kids were squealing with excitement.  Here’s a photo of Anna with the family.

And…… Saturday night was a big night!!!  Our cat had kittens!!! J And Sujer, a girl who works with me, had her baby as well! J

 Can’t wait for my mom to come down in a couple of weeks!!! J

Good bye for now!

I am going to start off apologizing to the parents who check my blog daily to hear that all is well!  All is well but extremely busy!  Anna and I are running camp in 4 villages with 2 separate age groups in each village.  We have just under 200 kids.  The first couple of weeks have been very successful! Anna and I create activities around the theme of the week.  The first week our theme was dinosaurs.  The kids made dino head bands, built villages with blocks for the toy dinosaurs, read dinosaur books, and played a dinosaur game.  We put sand in a big bucket along with cut up dinosaur pictures.  The kids had to dig for their color dinosaur, find all the pieces, and put the puzzle together.  They loved it.  We did all of this as well as play with the parachute, sing songs, and of course dance.

Here are a few photos of all of that from different villages.

For the past 2 weeks our theme has been the ocean.  The kids made paper plate fish, used ocean stamps, played a fish memory game, and had a blast with some water relay races.  The camp in La Sabana is held in what used to be a little block house.  We let the kids in that camp draw all over the walls inside and out with chalk.  We have some giant fish, sea horses, and star fish all over the walls.  The kids thought it was hilarious we were letting them draw on the walls. 

As far as groups and the construction goes,  the 2 Bermuda groups completed one house and almost finished the second house in a village called El Canal.  The Jersey group started 3 houses in El Estrecho Abajo.  Most of the group had been here before so they flew through the construction.  We just had a group from Goshen, CT.  They finished 2 of the houses in El Estrecho Abajo.  I’ll have to run around and grab some photos of the houses with the families to post on here next time.   We had a group fly in late last night from Ohio.  They are going to be fixing up my little school house in La Sabana.  Come September that is going to be where I bring my class to.  I can’t wait to have one central location to be teaching out of. 

Having the staff and all of the groups here has been fantastic!  I have been trying to spend as much time as my schedule allows with the groups (which unfortunately sometimes isn’t as much as I’d like).  As many things are down here, it is a blessing and a curse for me.  I love having the company and meeting and visiting lots of new people, but it is also hard to then see them go.  To those who have come and gone, I am looking forward to seeing you again next year!  To those who haven’t been down here yet, what are you waiting for?!?!? J

Well that is all for now.  Buhbye!