July flew by at Clara Luna and brought with
it a new round of volunteers blown in from all over the United States, England
and Scotland. Chelsea, Ashley and James ended June on a high and kicked July
off with fun and games, getting the ball rolling before passing it on to seasoned
pros, Pat and Amy.
This patient pair also spent the month
enjoying/enduring the company of Grace and Vicky – who may have only met here in
Puerto Lopez but are already each other’s top Snapchat friends, which basically
means true love.
The month’s activities at Clara Luna were largely divided into:
Wednesday night language exchange and twice-weekly ‘Club de Niños’ with all the gang; English lessons with
Vicky; as well as the many home visits and community outreach projects led by
Paola at the Foundation and supported by professional speech pathologist Amy,
and Grace, speech therapy student.
Not
forgetting Hammock Duty, one of the more serious obligations, requiring daily
practice to perfect.
But seriously, being just five minutes away
from the beach made for a many a lovely siesta/fiesta
together, enjoying stunning sunsets and a little evening exercise – or at
least, watching others enjoy it…. cerveza
fría in hand, of course.
Beer for the beach, but when it came to the
(adults’!) language exchange, it was time for the volunteers to try their hand
at making canelazo, a delicious
Andean drink made of hot water, passion fruit (in this instance), spices, oh
and a dash or ten of the aptly named ubiquitous local spirit, aguardiente. Meanwhile, the Ecuadorian
half of the exchange ‘got their country on’ and prepared a rendition of ‘This
Land is Your Land’ to wow the Clara Luna judges (Paolo and Josef – Paola’s two
lovely assistants/offspring) and to make Pat and Amy almost homesick.
Other
language exchange antics included: Scottish country dancing (Vicky the resident
Scot had a good time, if no one else!); spirited rounds of Taboo and Jeopardy
and agony aunt sessions to practise giving and requesting advice (which were not
agonising at all, honest….). The competition started to heat up with a cooking
lesson complete with vocab quizzes (we should all now know our cuchillo from our cuchara, isn’t that right Grace?!), homemade guacamole and even
entertainment in the form of another song: ‘Qué bonita es esta vida’, performed
by the ‘equally talented’ singers of the volunteer camp…
Over
in Club de Niños, art therapy
was buzzword of the month.
Activities included pinwheels and mandalas,
moving on to the more technically challenging (for the volunteers anyway!) papier
mâché balloon-masks and the emotional rollercoaster that is Pictionary.
The hectic-cum-hilarious highlight for all
was perhaps the trip to the beach – which never gets old it seems, even for these
coastal kids. And neither does good old ‘Tag’ or its sister-game ‘Stuck in the
Mud’ (ask the children of Puerto Lopez for instructions if unsure of this
highly complex feat of leisure time ingenuity). ‘Stuck in the sand’ may have
been more appropriate as the games turned to Wheelbarrow races and the likes….
Of course, Club de Niños isn’t just about getting (more) sand into
kids’ shoes but about getting books into their hands.
Stories that were read this month include
La Serpiente de Siete Cabezas, El Regreso and El Viaje.
Making reading fun and accessible is the
name of the game and this month we were lucky enough to be gifted some
Ecuadorian folk tales from the Ministry of Education with enough copies for all
the kids to actually each take one home.
Last but not least, English lessons in July
focused on encouraging enthusiasm for class by generating team spirit and a
sense of fun. Think: superheroes, songs, crafts and lots of games.
The
older students were introduced to the parodic powers of Weird Al Yankovic,
while the younger kids …
… made jellyfish…
Very important vocab lesson right there.
And that was July in a nutshell!
Ciao for now!
