Amo La Tierra

Because of fear of the Flu H1N1 school has been cancelled in all of El Salvador... A little scary, but since no teachers will be coming to the Hogar the Hermana asked us to be the subs! How exciting! (side note... today 40ish kids were sick and quarantined. Still don't know what they are sick from. They have flu like symptoms)

One of our classes this week was about keeping the earth free from trash. There is a problem with littering in most 3rd world countries. No exception here in El Salvador. Anyway, we bought all the kids in the class (19) a bag of chips and gave them a cup of water. While they were eating we taught them about keeping the earth clean and green. Once they finished we put some tape on their empty bags and cups. I had a drawing of the earth on my shirt and we told the kids that I represented Mother Earth. We asked them what the earth would look like if it was full of trash. We then told them to stick their trash on me. This is what I looked like...



We then taught them to throw away their trash and that when they saw trash on the ground that they should pick it up and throw it away. It was a really fun class and the kids enjoyed it!

Chusita & Xiomara

This week we had Chusita and Xiomara up for the Noche Especial. They have been really excited about it for awhile now (and so have we). We found a no-bake recipe for cookies online and decided to make them for the girls. They didn't turn out like we are used to but they were still really good! They were extra gooey and we had to eat them with spoons!

One thing that Chusita always says when you ask her what she wants to do is make bracelets! She LOVES it. So that's what we did with them for our activity. Well it was just me. Andrew wasn't in the mood to make a bracelet so he just talked while us girls had fun!

Uno

We had another Noche Especial with Roberto and Geovanny and we decided to have a birthday bash for them. Roberto turned 18 on June 18 and Geovanny turned 27 on June 23. We had a party for them on June 24 (which, I should mention that Geovanny has been telling us that his birthday was coming up since the first day we arrived on May 9. We knew we HAD to do something for him, since he was so excited to turn 27). We ate some cake, gave them each a small present and played uno. And yes, we did get a sweet video of Geovanny saying "uno".


I forgot to mention that we did eat some spaghetti as well (which has been Andrew and I's dinner specialty for the last 2 months....not bad). Roberto told us it was his favorite food, and I think you can definitely tell.

Geovanny with the beautiful cake. Seriously, beautiful...and tasty. From Frooty Kake down the road.

The "uno" video. We love Geovanny!

Light writing

Andrew and all of the other men at the Hogar received a sweet pen with a laser and LED light on it for Father's Day. Andrew and I have been wanting to get an LED light so that we could do some "light writing" with my camera. Basically, light writing is using an LED light (or some kind of smaller light emitter) to draw a picture in the dark. It's hard for me to explain, so I'll show the pictures in just a sec. Anyway, so since we finally got one (for free!), we decided it would be fun to do with the kids, and it was. Check out their creations:

Woof Woof

There is a really cool program called "4 patas" which is a dog therapy group that comes to the Hogar every Saturday morning MUY temprano (can you tell Andrew and I are not morning people?). They usually come around 8 and end at about 10:30. Anyway, so Andrew and I just started attending about 3 weeks ago and we love it. The dogs are kinda crazy (I'm not much of a dog person), but the kids LOVE it. Here are a few pictures for you check out:


the boys showing off their muscles...walking dogs takes strength


Okay, so the pictures and video don't really show what dog therapy is...but I assure you there are dogs and it is a lot of fun! And Walter is awesome on the drums and I love when he plays them:)

Benefit Concert

About once a month The Foundation Hermano Pedro throws a huge concert to raise funds for the Hogar. The Foundation and the Hogar are pretty much the same organization but The Foundation just raises money for the Hogar. Anyway, these concerts are a big deal. Anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 people come each month. They play great music and everyone LOVES to dance. They just get up from their seats whenever they want and just dance in the aisles. Its fun... just ask Andrew and Xiomara.

One of the kids took this picture but its of the orchestra/stage

Not all the kids can go but usually about a hand full or so of them are able to go. Whenever they go though they always have a great time. These kids love to dance and sing! (If you haven't noticed)

Juan is another kid that is always singing to the music playing. He is the one we made the spiderman t-shirt with. Great singer!

We have been working with the Foundation a lot lately with some of our ideas to help raise money and we put the slide show (the one Juan is singing to) together with them using some of the pictures we've taken. Everyone loved the slide show at the concert. It was played 3 times and people started clapping once it started playing! Really amazing feeling!

For more information about the Foundation and the Hogar check out their website. (Even if you dont know Spanish check it out. Just click on the icons below the pictures. They have links.)

Its a bird! Its a plane! No, its Supertooth!

The other day we had this really fun activity/class with some of the kids (about 15). We taught them all about hygiene. We brought hand sanitizer to wash everyone's hands and taught them to wash their hands before every meal and after using the bathroom. Plus, we brought some child toothpaste (bubble gum flavored with bob esponja on the front) and taught them how to brush their teeth and how often. Then we put some toothpaste on their fingers and they brushed their teeth. We had other things there like lotion, baby wipes to wash their faces, and baby cologne. It was fun!

Some other HELP volunteers (Taylor and Alicia) were here to help so we were able to teach a lot of kids. After teaching them all about hygiene we had a little scavenger hunt. Taylor dressed up with a black bandit mask on to be "Mala Diente." She jumped out and scared the kids. Then she stole a tooth from Alicia because she did not brush her teeth. Taylor and Alicia were really good with the kids and really funny. Andrew was the superhero "Super Diente" and gave the kids clues to be able to find Alicia's tooth. We didnt get many pictures because we were too busy with the kids, but here is one of Andrew.

Andrew with the 1st clue

Dia del Papa

Hey yins. It's been a week (plus some) filled with fun and laughter. I have VIDEOS! I had so much fun watching and subtitling the other video of Roberto, that I've decided that videos are definitely the way to go. These kids are really entertaining, so why not share the love?

Alright, so I'm going to post a video of Memo singing and dancing. This kid is hilarious! He is chubby, often whips his shirt off to belly dance, and goes to music school so he sings reallllly loud and plays the drums. He reminds Andrew and I of Jack Black (more when he used to have longer hair) because he's a total ham. Anyway, one night before Andrew and I went out to eat pupusas up the road, we got a little treat from Memo.

More videos (there are two more, I think...definitely worth watching though...definitely)
The first is of Roberto singing with headphones in. He's singing "te quiero" which is a popular Spanish song. It's sung by Flex so look it up if you want to get the full effect of this video of Roberto here. He is such a cute kid, we love him! I don't think he completely realizes that we can't hear any of the music while he's singing (and he sure is singing loud too!)



Okay, below are the videos and pictures of our all day festivities today. The kids had a race around the Hogar and played Handball. It was definitely a REALLY fun day! (the workers had a race in the morning as well, and we also played softball and soccer tournament style. So much fun!)
Videos and pictures of the kids and their handball game



the race before it began


Team Galactic (above) Maritza, Roberto, Carlos, and Geovanny

Team Magma...I made those shirts baby...woo!...Ivan, Antonia, Nahum and Memo

tip off!

Champions!!!

I made this shirt here...such art work!:) The others made their own (me and Memo)

Andrew and Roberto juntos:) Best buds.

Noche Especial

A year ago, Laura and Sam Webb started "Noche Especial". It's one night out of the week where we take two kids up to our house for a night of fun. We can do whatever we want as long as it's fun and we're enjoying ourselves. We, of course, kept the tradition alive and started noche especial 3 weeks ago. We have already had Carlos and Ivan, Maritza and Antonia, and Roberto and Geovanny. We only took pictures with Geovanny and Roberto (we forgot to take pictures before...oops).

The noche especial that just happened was great. We ate hamburgers (YUM!!), drank Coke, ate Doritos and played UNO. What an American night, no? Roberto and Geovanny loved it, and so did we.

look good? Made it myself. Pretty proud of myself since it was my first time. Woo!

They liked them too

washing his hands of Doritos cheese fuzz

Uno...we LOVE when Geovanny says this word. It's one word that he will say (another word his says is rojo), and good thing too or else he'd never win! He totally got Roberto by saying "uno" when Roberto only had one card left and forgot to say the word first, haha:)


Roberto hanging out, listening to music. He loves to sing. We'll show you...


haha!! Don't you just love it? We did! (PS- sorry for my Spanish...) And I have to mention that I didn't ask him to say any of this. I just told him that I was going to take a video so he stood up, said his name and told me his favorite bands/singers. Haha! Love this kid.

Fotohunt

I might as well update on many other things. We did a photo hunt one night for fun.

RULES: 1-two teams.
2- EVERYONE has to be in the picture (minus the one taking the picture)
3-a picture must be taken of everything on the list within 30 minutes
4- whoever finishes first and obeys all of the rules, wins. OR if not finished in 30 minutes, whoever gets the most pictures within 30 minutes.

10 things we had to take photos of:


Padre Vito Guarato

camera

red flower

beans

Nike shoes (sorry this is sideways...I forgot to spin it and can't now that I've uploaded it)

a cross

a ball

a ninera (a worker who cares for the kids)

a toilet

a dog

It was girls vs. boys. We called it a tie. They took the pictures faster, but they broke the rules.

Partidos de futbol

I am behind on posting. I'm going to begin by posting pictures of our most recent activity. In a few weeks (one actually) there is going to be this big, fun activity day. Everyone (and I mean everyone...kids and workers and American volunteers alike) are going to be playing futbol, softball, and running on the morning of June 18. It seems like it's going to be a big deal because it has been the talk of the Hogar for the last week or so. We have successfully been asked to play on a softball and soccer team. We can't wait!

The kids decided to make their own uniforms for their handball teams (4 players per team), so we have been spending the last couple of nights painting t-shirts.


This is Carlos and his shirt...he was very excited about making his shirt...he was definitely the mind behind this activity. I think his face is great in these next two pictures because he was cross-eyed to be funny. And it was.

Antonia made her shirt special. She loves making things look girly and wouldn't dare make her uniform JUST like everyone else on her team. Haha:) She definitely had fun making her shirt.



here are (from L to R) Geovanny, Roberto, Carlos and Maritza (TEAM GALACTIC! They got the name from a Pokemon game that Carlos plays on his sweet nintendo gameboy type thing...except it's way cooler)

Andrew helped out a few of the kids who had a harder time painting their shirts. He was VERY proud of his work, if you can't tell.

TEAM MAGMA (from L to R) Ivan, Nahum and Antonia. Memo is also on this team, but is not pictured.


Oh, and I should mention that they say "TEAM Magma" and "TEAM Galactic" in English rather than in Spanish (which would be El equipo Galactic or El equipo Magma). They love using English words.

Project Hogar del Niño

Hey faithful readers out there. Wow, been a while, eh? Not five months at least! Sorry for the lull...I can´t blame it on not having time to update because...well...I have had time. I just haven´t remembered. Please forgive me.

I haven´t much to say, other than Andrew and I are working on a project here for the kids, the Nuns, and everyone else in the San Salvador area. I am a photography major at BYU and am working on a photo project for the kids. I am attempting to take a portrait of every resident at the Hogar and make a book of photos of the kids to give to the Nuns, the administration that runs all of the fundraising for the Hogar, and a few others. We are also planning on making calendars, cards, buttons, etc to provide for the administration to sell at their monthly benefit concerts to help raise money. I am VERY excited about this project. I can´t say I really planned it out...it just kind of happened and Rachel has helped me with fundraising ideas.

Anyway, so I have my own personal blog where I have already started to upload my project pictures. If you´d like to see the pictures (along with small bios that I wrote up from my experience with the kids), just click here. That should take you right to the protraits. I hope you enjoy them, and spread the word about the project. If you, the reader, are interested in seeing the final product, give a shout out. I´ll make sure to post it here for you to check out (and maybe you can buy a copy!! We´ll see...).

Who are the readers out there anyway? Comment if you are (just do it) and spread the word about the blog! Let everyone know about these kids so they can see how awesome they are and how great this program is!

Until next update!


Just a taste of the portraits. Go check out the rest and get to know the kids!

Bocce Ball

Gotta love internet connections south of the boarder. Well, I wrote a substantial entry...and then everything disappeared...literally disappeared and then some note popped up saying ¨lo siento¨. Oh well, I guess.

I said something along the lines of: we played bocce ball, it was fun. We ate cake (with fingers...woo! A child´s dream, my friend. No need for forks here!) and made bracelets.

There you go. Sorry you couldn´t experience the excitement from the original entry. Just enjoy the pictures. Who really cares about the words anyway?


above is the bocce ball crowd...it was pretty popular

Edwin...he is the man. He has cerebral palsy, but is a smart guy. He is also incredibly happy ALL OF THE TIME! Both he and his brother, Geovanny, are awesome. Anyway, he liked to throw his ball like this...actually, he liked to pull his arm further back than what is shown and stay like that as a ¨joke¨. haha! Ohh Edwin.


And here is Geovanny throwing the ball. Those balls are heavy too...they are filled with water. Geovanny kicked trash at this game. You can see in the picture below that he ALWAYS seemed to get his ball really close to the white ball (okay, so in this picture his isn´t the closest, but most times it was. Efrain´s is the yellow ball. Efrian and Roberto had to the two best throws. Roberto won once with his ball touching the white ball! Roberto and Efrain are pictured above in the first picture. Roberto is in green and Efrain is in red beside Geovanny).


Here is Walther (pronounced Walter). He is funny. He was eating his cake nicely when a ninera came along and ¨helped¨ him to get the spots he missed:) Haha! Walther is funny. He talks a bunch, and pretty loudly...I rarely understand him, but he loves bubbles. I brought them down once, and since then he always asks for them.

Alright, update number one of many.

Buenas!

It has been 5 months since this blog has been updated, but there is no need to wonder when it´ll have fresh pictures and videos again! Andrew and I arrived last Saturday and we´re still settling in and getting things going. I´ll have to bust out the camera soon and take some pictures to share. We are PUMPED to be here and to blog about our time at the Hogar. I already feel comfortable with a lot of them and I can´t wait to get some projects going. So...keep a look out for more posts with pictures!! Maybe even a video or two..:)

The biggest project we have been working on since we have been here is taking pictures with the workers and the kids. Our intention was to give the photos to the workesr in a decorated border with the help of the kids so that they could have something to cherish at their home as a memory of all the hard work they do for their job. The kind of work that is required to keep this place running and clean (or as clean as it can get) is very demanding. We are very grateful to them and thought this project would be a good idea to show our gratitude. After lots of hard work of decorating frames and taking pictures of over 90 workers, we finally finished! This week we have been distributing the long overdue photos and the workers have been so excited about it. Throughout our time here they would ask us once in a while when the project would be finished. When we first came down with the basket load of all the photos, they all crowded us to try and find their own, it was crazy. Now they can´t stop smiling at us and thanking us for them. When you think about it, it is just a little gift, but to them it means a lot. We are so happy that this project turned out well and that they have appreciated it. We still have photos to give out and a couple more to print before we completely finish, but the majority of them already have theirs.