Thursday, June 12, 2008

Feliz Navidad

Ok, it has been a week, and so I will try my best to update thoroughly but quickly!
Thursday and friday we did more orientation and planning with Jorge, and friday night we played football with a couple of Jorge´s friends... very fun!
Saturday we slept in a little, and then went on a mountain hike in chocco, organized by previous Hampy volunteers. We seriously hiked for 4 hours! But it was beautiful, mountains, river, etc. Then in the night Marcela (our host sister) and her friends took us out to a little discoteca called Muki (ketchwan for troll), and we just danced the night away haha. Very fun.
Sunday among other things we played football with a few of Marcela´s friends (it was girls against guys, and we won! and I got the first goal! heck yes!), then basketball, then in the night we had more dance lessons. We´re getting pretty decent!
Monday morning we met with the municipal government to talk about our environment project, and got 50 trees donated for planting! It was also our first official volunteer day, and we taught English to all of the kids in the school. It went awesome, and then loved it, but the director cancelled the class! We were so mad! Because he´s just really stubborn and traditional and afraid of change, and by traditional I mean old fashioned... and by old fashioned I mean the kids are not allowed to talk in his class, and we saw him hit one of them on the side with a meter stick, but there was nothing we could do about it. And now we can´t go back in his class, so we were just really frustrated. I probably made that sound worse than it is, but I just do not love that profesor/director man. However, the other teacher is awesome, it´s just too bad that he has to work under the other man´s direction.
In the afternoon we stopped by a clinic for kids with disabilities that volunteer aborad works with and decided to work there monday and wednesday mornings (since we don´t have English anymore). It was a beautiful clinic, but they are extremly understaffed.
Tuesday we met with a recycling plant, and got some garbage cans and bags donated, spent the day planning, and had dance lessons before supper. After supper we had our first meeting with the youth of Chocco regarding our photo project, and it went awesome. They seem like a great group, and we were pumped to see Juanamaria out!
Wednesday we went to the clinic from 9-1, and it was awesome! We just went into a room with about 12 kids all under 4 in wheelchairs, and spent 3 hours playing with them! They were adorable, none could really talk and only one could walk, but they had the hugest smiles and were so fun! One kid that I was playing with did not seem content with anything, and no toy would please him. So finally I just picked up a little pump that was on the floor to blow up beach balls and started pumping air in his face, and he died laughing! Suddenly I was sorrounded by kids who wanted to have air blown in the faces, it was so funny! After playing, we took them out and fed them, which was a little harder because they did not always want to eat, but still fun. After the clinic we went to the Plaza and planned our environment class for tomorrow, then came back and got a gazillion environment crafts ready haha. These kids are going to love the environment, I´m telling you!
Anyways, I believe that is all, and I am very tired (you can probably tell by my writing) sO I better get going!

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That "air in the face" incident reminds me of the air gun here and Cedric freaking out whenever it even came into the room! Happy you did not have the same response!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoMom
ps...Isn't dealing with beurocracy fun?!

7:32 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

first goal haha :)...
caitlin i cannot believe how you are changing the world! i was telling ashley about your environment crusade and she pretty much cried-- that is so beautiful! and that stupid man who hits kids and hates English, give him a little meter-stick-slap for me...
you are gunna have to teach me those dance moves eh?
and OMG THAT PLACE W/THE KIDS w/DISABILITIES, caitlin that sounds UNREAL, iw as crying read about how great you are with those children :) i am so proud you of skinutz :)
xoxo
maria

9:26 a.m.  
Blogger kady brown said...

I LOVE UPDATES!!! yay!
i'm reading this at work and it took so much not to laugh out loud! i love the kids/air story! CUTE!
i miss you and love you like a nerd loves calculus!

3:47 p.m.  

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