The Christmas Play
As many of you already heard from manna mail, we put on a
Christmas play just before the end our first work term. The Hummingbird Kids Foundation awarded our site with a grant to help fund the Creative Arts program and really helped make the performance possible. The play consisted of a traditional nativity story and some songs. The PD's also put on a little skit that we all acted out in Spanish,
which was just as much fun as it was funny.
One of my favourite parts of working on the play was that every single one of the Program Directors were involved in this project. A lot of the work that we do on programs is normally in small groups of 2 or 3 PD's, so to be able to work on something all-together was really cool!
Here are some pictures from the night.
The costumes all ready for the kids.
Norman (a member of Nicayda, a NGO that we work with) helping teach the children a new christmas song.
As with all kiddies, group photos can be tough.
Out of 4 or 5 of them
this one by far is the best.
Even Santa came to the play!
Me and the boys.
One of our little Kings, Walter.
Trent handing out some snacks.
Sisters, Sara & Emily.
The cast getting some well deserved treats.
Fabricio and Norman from Nicayuda.
Santa's clothes aren't exactly practical in Nica.
Will was pretty happy to get the jacket off.
MUCHAS GRACIAS
HUMMINGBIRD
KIDS FOUNDATION
We couldn't have done it without your help!
WOMEN'S FITNESS
Bi-weekly the women of Cedro Galan meet and have an hour long fitness class.
The women come to class in the same clothes that they wear during the day: knee-length skirts, jeans, and sandals (which they often slip off for class, participating barefoot) and they never complain. Before they knew that we had a set of free-weights they suggested we fill old plastic water bottles with rocks for weights. Their enthusiasm and willingness to learn how to exercise continues to inspire me to plan new work-outs and different fun ways to get in shape. We do a mix of cardio, yoga/stretching, and muscle work in class. I remember the first class when I tried to get the ladies to do some sit-ups, and it just wasn't going to happen. But, recently we've started doing up to 50 sit-ups in one class! They may not be the most co-ordinated group of gals, but I've seen them improve drastically in the past 4 months.
Back home I played with my university's Women's Ultimate Frisbee team named the UVixens (the short form of my university's name is UVic). Last week they sent over a box of donations (shoes, sports bras, shorts, t-shirts) for the women that participate in the class and we gave them out as Premios last Wednesday.
A Premio is a reward/prize that we give out to people that participate in our programs regularly. A Premio will often be a thing that a person needs for the program but can't normally afford on their own. For example, shorts or running shoes for fitness class. It was so great to be able to reward the ladies for all of their hard work with some much needed exercise apparel!
¡MUCHAS GRACIAS UVIXENS!