Monday we spent the afternoon making santa and elf hats! They turned out quite well don't you think?
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Chile Forever...I may never come home
Katelin and I in Brasil!
Dear Friends,
I´m getting close to my 4 month mark here in Chile, and I´ve decided, that I may never come home. I promise you, this is not because I feel negative feelings towards the US, I´m just in love with my kids, feel like many opportunities are being presented to me here, and my Spanish is improving!
Within my organization, I quickly moved from a full time volunteer in my institution, to a coordinator (still full time volunteer but 2 days are spent in the office, 3 in my institutution) which is the position I have been working in for about a month. I´m the coordinator of the Arts and Sports programs so I organize sports and art materials in the office, I coordinate and plan sporting events and art events for our kids to attend, evaluate the programs, come up with field trips, etc.
And now in January, I will be starting a new position I just applied for, recieved and accepted. I will be the Assistant Director of Operations of VE-Global!
This is super exciting for me because first of all, I will receive a stipend (about 400 USD a month, very little but very helpful) which means I can stay in Chile for longer than the 8 months my budget would have allowed. Second of all, I will hold a lot of responsibility in a really incredible organization making concrete positive change in the lives of the children we work with every day. I am also excited about this work because I will continue to be with the children one full day week, then in the office I will be working with the volunteer relations side of the organization and I will continue in program coordinating as well.
So that´s my big news.
In other news, I just took a really incredible trip. I traveled with my friend Katelin (from Guilford) who has been doing the English Open Doors program here in Chile. We went to Las Cataratas de Iguazu, (Iguazu Falls) in Argentina, Paraguay for about a day to check out the cheep electronics and to buy fun floral print clothing, and then to the incredible beaches of Florianopolis Brazil!!!!
I can easily say that the Waterfals of Iguazu were the most amazing thing I have seen in my life. There were points were I had to look away the sights were so breathtaking and powerful.
There isn´t much to say about Paraguay, but we were glad we went for the crazy shopping experience. It´s not every day you eat fresh mangos on the side of the road while taxi motercycles go zipping through the traffic and men forcefully try to sell you flash drives and socks for very low prices in a currency we really dont understand.
And then Brasil. It was "muto bien" which if I remember correct in portoguese, means it was very good. Actualy it was amazing. We stayed at what I like to call a Hostel Resort, becase this was not your ordinary hostel. They had advertised "free towels, 100% cotton linens and a big healthy breakfast" so we decided to check it out. And were we glad that we did!
They also had free internet, surf boards, and 1 fancy drink a night at the bar they had just built with the most incredible view ever.
Katelin and I relaxed to our hearts content, we layed in the sun, surfed, went for morning runs on the beach, drank real coffee, ate fresh fruit and we even squeezed in a night of Samba dancing before we left!
All in all, an incredibly restful and wonderful trip.
And then I was happy to return to Santiago, to my kids at te Jardin, and to the Christmas festivities in Chile!
At the Jardin, we´ve had some highschools and elementary schools come visit us to give our kids little christmas parties, gifts and sweets. At first I thought this was just an overwhelming experience and would probably give the kids lots of cavities. However, on Monday the second "colegio" (elementary school) that came was very small and they brought one gift for each child. (This first group had just brought games and snacks, no material gifts).
I had heard stories about these groups coming in, leaving toys, then booking out of there, that sort of charitable giving that people like to do at Christmas but that doesn´t leave much longstanding impact. However I was pleasantly surprised.
Our children sat in a circle while children from the Colegio called out their names one by one and gave them their gift when they came forward. I will never forget the faces of my kids as they were handed giftwrapped packages often larger than them, and quickly unwrapped them with a little help.
I realized that these children very rarely are given a brand new toy that is their very own. In the Jardin we have toys, but they are all slightly broken, drawn all over, and it is always stressed that the toys are the Jardins and no child can take ownership over it because the toys have to be shared among all the kids.
In my anti-materialistic mind I think this is great, but to see the kids faces when they unwrapped their brand new baby doll or their toy car, I saw this incredible excitement of a chile receiving a gift that they were going to treasure for as long as possible and it was just for them; they did not have to hand it over to some other kid after 5 minutes.
After a moment, I became worried because I saw how some toys were bigger than others, and I worried that the kids would begin fighting because they wanted something bigger, more exciting like what another kid had. However, they were so amazed by their own toy, they only congratulated their friends and went back to their own new backpack or game, their very own christmas gift. I realized they may never have received a brand new gift before in their lives, and this could very likely be the only one this year.
So i´m learning some things this about the meaning of giving and receiving, materialism and the christmas spirit. I´m not completely sure what this all means yet, but I was just so happy this colegio came to give gifts to our children, and it did have a positive impact on their lives whether it will have longterm impact or not, Im not sure.
To close out this lengthy post (i´m trying to make up for lack of posts the past few months) I´m going to ask you all to help out my new employer in this season of giving!
We are working on our campaign of the year, Unite.Act.Engage! My personal goal is to raise $300 USD and I have already raised $130! So thanks to those who already donated and If you would make an alternative christmas gift and donate to VE. A donation of $15 would make a big difference in the life of one my kids, a girl in one of the hogares or a child attending an after school center. Dec 31st is the last time to donate for it to be tax deductable for the year!
Within my organization, I quickly moved from a full time volunteer in my institution, to a coordinator (still full time volunteer but 2 days are spent in the office, 3 in my institutution) which is the position I have been working in for about a month. I´m the coordinator of the Arts and Sports programs so I organize sports and art materials in the office, I coordinate and plan sporting events and art events for our kids to attend, evaluate the programs, come up with field trips, etc.
And now in January, I will be starting a new position I just applied for, recieved and accepted. I will be the Assistant Director of Operations of VE-Global!
This is super exciting for me because first of all, I will receive a stipend (about 400 USD a month, very little but very helpful) which means I can stay in Chile for longer than the 8 months my budget would have allowed. Second of all, I will hold a lot of responsibility in a really incredible organization making concrete positive change in the lives of the children we work with every day. I am also excited about this work because I will continue to be with the children one full day week, then in the office I will be working with the volunteer relations side of the organization and I will continue in program coordinating as well.
So that´s my big news.
In other news, I just took a really incredible trip. I traveled with my friend Katelin (from Guilford) who has been doing the English Open Doors program here in Chile. We went to Las Cataratas de Iguazu, (Iguazu Falls) in Argentina, Paraguay for about a day to check out the cheep electronics and to buy fun floral print clothing, and then to the incredible beaches of Florianopolis Brazil!!!!
I can easily say that the Waterfals of Iguazu were the most amazing thing I have seen in my life. There were points were I had to look away the sights were so breathtaking and powerful.
There isn´t much to say about Paraguay, but we were glad we went for the crazy shopping experience. It´s not every day you eat fresh mangos on the side of the road while taxi motercycles go zipping through the traffic and men forcefully try to sell you flash drives and socks for very low prices in a currency we really dont understand.
And then Brasil. It was "muto bien" which if I remember correct in portoguese, means it was very good. Actualy it was amazing. We stayed at what I like to call a Hostel Resort, becase this was not your ordinary hostel. They had advertised "free towels, 100% cotton linens and a big healthy breakfast" so we decided to check it out. And were we glad that we did!
They also had free internet, surf boards, and 1 fancy drink a night at the bar they had just built with the most incredible view ever.
Katelin and I relaxed to our hearts content, we layed in the sun, surfed, went for morning runs on the beach, drank real coffee, ate fresh fruit and we even squeezed in a night of Samba dancing before we left!
All in all, an incredibly restful and wonderful trip.
And then I was happy to return to Santiago, to my kids at te Jardin, and to the Christmas festivities in Chile!
At the Jardin, we´ve had some highschools and elementary schools come visit us to give our kids little christmas parties, gifts and sweets. At first I thought this was just an overwhelming experience and would probably give the kids lots of cavities. However, on Monday the second "colegio" (elementary school) that came was very small and they brought one gift for each child. (This first group had just brought games and snacks, no material gifts).
I had heard stories about these groups coming in, leaving toys, then booking out of there, that sort of charitable giving that people like to do at Christmas but that doesn´t leave much longstanding impact. However I was pleasantly surprised.
Our children sat in a circle while children from the Colegio called out their names one by one and gave them their gift when they came forward. I will never forget the faces of my kids as they were handed giftwrapped packages often larger than them, and quickly unwrapped them with a little help.
I realized that these children very rarely are given a brand new toy that is their very own. In the Jardin we have toys, but they are all slightly broken, drawn all over, and it is always stressed that the toys are the Jardins and no child can take ownership over it because the toys have to be shared among all the kids.
In my anti-materialistic mind I think this is great, but to see the kids faces when they unwrapped their brand new baby doll or their toy car, I saw this incredible excitement of a chile receiving a gift that they were going to treasure for as long as possible and it was just for them; they did not have to hand it over to some other kid after 5 minutes.
After a moment, I became worried because I saw how some toys were bigger than others, and I worried that the kids would begin fighting because they wanted something bigger, more exciting like what another kid had. However, they were so amazed by their own toy, they only congratulated their friends and went back to their own new backpack or game, their very own christmas gift. I realized they may never have received a brand new gift before in their lives, and this could very likely be the only one this year.
So i´m learning some things this about the meaning of giving and receiving, materialism and the christmas spirit. I´m not completely sure what this all means yet, but I was just so happy this colegio came to give gifts to our children, and it did have a positive impact on their lives whether it will have longterm impact or not, Im not sure.
To close out this lengthy post (i´m trying to make up for lack of posts the past few months) I´m going to ask you all to help out my new employer in this season of giving!
We are working on our campaign of the year, Unite.Act.Engage! My personal goal is to raise $300 USD and I have already raised $130! So thanks to those who already donated and If you would make an alternative christmas gift and donate to VE. A donation of $15 would make a big difference in the life of one my kids, a girl in one of the hogares or a child attending an after school center. Dec 31st is the last time to donate for it to be tax deductable for the year!
To make a contribution to the Unite.Act.Engage campaign, please click here http://www.ve-global.org/support-ve/?utm_source=Active%2BVolunteers&utm_medium=All&utm_content=Donate&utm:campaign=AV2010. And please send me an email letting me know if you donate so I can keep track of my personal fundraising!
My only negative news, is another chapter of my electronics saga here in chile, after a non working camera battery charger, a broken computer and now a lens error i´m getting on the camera with ALL my vacay pictures, so I promise, pictures to come very soon.
Thank you all so much for your love and support.
Faith
My only negative news, is another chapter of my electronics saga here in chile, after a non working camera battery charger, a broken computer and now a lens error i´m getting on the camera with ALL my vacay pictures, so I promise, pictures to come very soon.
Thank you all so much for your love and support.
Faith
Monday, October 11, 2010
And now it´s been a month
Dear Friends,
I have been in Chile for a month and a half now, and I can´t believe how quickly the time has passed.
I have fallen in love with my kids at the Jardin, and finally, I took lots of photos of them for you all to see! I´m working on a flicker page as well, if you want to see them allllll.
My pattern at the jardin is starting to feel quite natural. I have an hour commute, first the metro, then the micro (bus), and then a ten minute walk to the Toma. The other Tias and I eat breakfast together and drink tea and coffee while the children arrive and eat their breakfast as well.
We have circle time, where we sing all different songs in Spanish and I recognise almost all the tunes, but not the words. Then the kids go out to the patio to play for about a half hour, followed by an art project led by the Tias, either painting or drawing. Then back out to the patio until lunch. The pattern is pretty much repeated in the afternoon, except for about one day a week when we go to the park!
I´m working on some small programming for the kids. There are very few books at the jardin, and the ones that are there, are missing pages and have scribbled drawings all over them. There are small amounts of money alloted to all volunteers to buy supplies for programing, so I hope to buy some board books to teach the kids how to care for books, and to start having story time once or twice a week.
We are also at the beginning of this years fundraising campaign! If anyone is interested in donating please let me know or go to the website, www.ve-global.org. We are trying to be very creative in our fundraising and as volunteers we are trying to raise $30,000 by the end of the year (our internal campaign)! So if anyone wants to hold an event wherever you are, that would be greatly appreciated, easy and creative ideas are encouraged.
I am currently applying for a new position within the organization, a coordinator position. This would mean I would spend a little less time with the kids and more time doing work for the organization and being in charge of a committee of volunteers (kind of like being a quaker committee clerk) . I would feel a little more balanced this way, because I become easily exhausted when I spend all day every day only with los niños.
Thank you all for reading and I'll keep you posted!
For more pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038
200&id=55100930&l=67baf34ae8
Sunday, September 19, 2010
My first 2 weeks in Chile
Queridos Amigos,
Two saturdays ago I successfuly flew from Raleigh/Durham to Santiago Chile, in a little over 24 hours (including a short stay in Tampa Fl). Yesterday marked 2 weeks that I have been living in Santiago, Chile.
The first week was spent in orientation, and I barely had a chance to breath. To give you a brief sketch of the week, myself and 13 other volunteers arrived from all over the world, US, England, Austria, New Zealand and Norway and spent the week living in a hostal and getting to know eachother and the organization of which we are now members: VEGlobal (Voluntarios de esperanza global, www.ve-global.org).
Everyday we woke up and took the metro to the office in the center of the city and spent all day in charlas (talks) with the directors of the organization. We've learned about childrens rights in chile, chilean culture, we've bonded and played lots of get to know you games, eaten lots of delicious chilean food, visited the institutions were we will be working and LOTS more.
First I was going to be working in a home for girls, but the new president in Chile, Sebastian Pinera, is speading up a process of trying to change the current system, moving away from group homes and towards increased adoption. Major funding has been cut and homes are closing, so I have a new placement. I am working in a "jardin", a nursery for children ages 2-4.
This jardin is very unique because it is located in a "Toma", a piece of land where people with out homes have come and set up temporary housing, shacks really, made out of whatever they could find. It is illegal, but the government is currently letting the people stay there because they are supposed to be looking for permanent housing while living in the Toma. The Toma is enclosed by a fence and there are probably a couple hundred folks living there, and lots and lots of children.
Speaking of housing, I am quite lucky to have found a wonderful little room in an apartment in an area called Bellas Artes, (in the centro of Santiago) one of the nicest parts of Santiago (I think). There are a lot of young people here, lots of art, cafes, bars, etc and it is a very safe area as well. My room is tiny, and there's no closet and only one shelf, but i almost moved into an apartment with no kitchen sink...
I live with 2 chilean boys and one girl from California. They are all super nice and helpful in terms of speaking lots of spanish and telling me about Chile. I also live within walking distance of all the other volunteers (some volunteers live with each other and some live with other chileans like me) and the VEGlobal office, so the location is perfect.
Thank you all so much for your support, I love getting facebook messages, emails, etc. Love you all so much, missing you and thinking of you. More pictures to come soon.
Two saturdays ago I successfuly flew from Raleigh/Durham to Santiago Chile, in a little over 24 hours (including a short stay in Tampa Fl). Yesterday marked 2 weeks that I have been living in Santiago, Chile.
The first week was spent in orientation, and I barely had a chance to breath. To give you a brief sketch of the week, myself and 13 other volunteers arrived from all over the world, US, England, Austria, New Zealand and Norway and spent the week living in a hostal and getting to know eachother and the organization of which we are now members: VEGlobal (Voluntarios de esperanza global, www.ve-global.org).
Everyday we woke up and took the metro to the office in the center of the city and spent all day in charlas (talks) with the directors of the organization. We've learned about childrens rights in chile, chilean culture, we've bonded and played lots of get to know you games, eaten lots of delicious chilean food, visited the institutions were we will be working and LOTS more.
First I was going to be working in a home for girls, but the new president in Chile, Sebastian Pinera, is speading up a process of trying to change the current system, moving away from group homes and towards increased adoption. Major funding has been cut and homes are closing, so I have a new placement. I am working in a "jardin", a nursery for children ages 2-4.
This jardin is very unique because it is located in a "Toma", a piece of land where people with out homes have come and set up temporary housing, shacks really, made out of whatever they could find. It is illegal, but the government is currently letting the people stay there because they are supposed to be looking for permanent housing while living in the Toma. The Toma is enclosed by a fence and there are probably a couple hundred folks living there, and lots and lots of children.
Speaking of housing, I am quite lucky to have found a wonderful little room in an apartment in an area called Bellas Artes, (in the centro of Santiago) one of the nicest parts of Santiago (I think). There are a lot of young people here, lots of art, cafes, bars, etc and it is a very safe area as well. My room is tiny, and there's no closet and only one shelf, but i almost moved into an apartment with no kitchen sink...
I live with 2 chilean boys and one girl from California. They are all super nice and helpful in terms of speaking lots of spanish and telling me about Chile. I also live within walking distance of all the other volunteers (some volunteers live with each other and some live with other chileans like me) and the VEGlobal office, so the location is perfect.
Thank you all so much for your support, I love getting facebook messages, emails, etc. Love you all so much, missing you and thinking of you. More pictures to come soon.
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