December of course was full of fun and excitement with Christmas upon us!
Volunteers for the month were Mathias, Eva, Amy, Cristof and Lynda with the addition of 5 new volunteers - Kristen, Jacob, Freda, Sam and Anna with a very special appearance from Pancho (but more on that later!).
For Club de niños we had some special activities. With the arrival of Anna also came the arrival of new books from the US - the kids were very excited and we gave them plenty of free time to read them. We also started reading our new book 'Ralph'. Christmas tree decorations were made out of salt dough, baked and then painted and decorated for the upcoming tree. Paper chains were made out of strips of paper which the kids decorated and which we then used to hang in the Clara Luna house. Reindeer masks were also a popular craft which the kids loved. Dominos were a hit along with very special activity - Bailoterapia! A local dance instructor came to play music and show the kids some moves - they loved it!
For Intercambio we played games in groups - 'Who am I', 'Unscramble the sentence', Charades and an inventive game of 'Describe the picture'. Each team were given the same picture. One person was blindfolded and had to draw the picture using only the instruction from the rest of the team - in the opposite language. Lots of fun and some interesting results!
English lessons were taught by Kristen, Christof, Lynda and Jacob and Yoga lessons with Lynda continued. We also had Sea Turtle patrols, with Amy and Jacob conducting night patrols at La Playita and Eva, Amy, Jacob and Lynda conducting the morning patrols on Puerto Lopez beach. Throughout the month is was disappointing to see some Sea turtles washed ashore that had died - due to ingesting rubbish. Thankfully we also saw some baby turtles rushing to the ocean - an amazing sight!
With the Sea turtles in mind we conducted another two beach clean ups with the volunteers and also some help from the locals. Once again sacks of rubbish were cleared and made a visible difference once we were done. Big thanks to Victor Hugo who provided a well deserved beverage once we were done!!
So with lots of activities completed it was high time to party!! We had two parties for the volunteers - one at Sol Inn (with much thanks to Darwin, a local who has given much support to us, for hosting) and another at Doña Elsie Restaurant where we had our Secret Santa. We each made a special gift for our secret friend and talked a little about that person - the rest of the group had to guess who that person was. Some real creativity and really touching sentiments. Such a great group of volunteers and a wonderful time to celebrate all of our successes!
Finally - a big party for the kids!!! First off, time to colour some christmas themed pictures followed by...cake!!! The kids devoured the cake and banana milk and then it was time for the big event...Santa!!! Pancho, a local friend, had grown his beard all year for just this occasion!! We painted it white, dressed him up and he entered the party with music blaring. The kids were excited (and possibly a bit shocked!) and gathered together to wait patiently for their gifts.
We were very excited to give the kids as part of their gifts a copy of 'La Casa de Alberto'. With illustrations throughout the book drawn by Eva and the front cover illustrated by Sam, the book looked wonderful and it was great to give the kids something to take home, re-read and hopefully engage in some discussion with their parents about how important it is not to litter. Also note the amazing photos of the party were taken by Sam who is a professional photographer. They turned out great!
After gifts it was time for dancing! We really turned the music up and the kids quickly got into it. It wasn't long before a conga line started!! After numerous round of this, we all quite exhausted from all of the activity and took a well deserved rest.
And so marked the end of another great year at Clara Luna. Thanks so much to all of the volunteers who participated. So much great work completed and lots of special time spent with some amazing kids.
