Final Week Review

Not surprisingly, the last day, the fiesta, the planting, playing, joking, laughing day was amazing and will not be forgotten for the rest of our lives.

We started out with just a handful of the participants (as per usual) who were all eager to help set up. They immediately got to work helping the volunteers prepare the pinatas, food, and planting materials. They then set to work planting flowers and veggies in the planters that they made on Tuesday, running to water them as fast as they could.

When we thought just about everyone had arrived we ate brownies and fruit and then set to work on the pinatas, forming two big circles of children foaming at the mouth for the candy. We didn't anticipate that the kids would be so zealous at going after that candy and a few conflicts broke out. Of course, they had been waiting for the fruits of their hard work on those beauties for a couple of weeks. We then sat the kids in a circle and talked with them about what it means to be a member of Equipo Verde and why it is important that we work together as that is our one hope at making a real difference.

At the end of the fiesta, all of the participants got their own Equipo Verde t-shirt. We had just enough for everyone there(50). Not ready for it to end, we all decided to go to the cancha and play a couple of games of capture the flag which turned into a giant futbol game with some of the community members.

The kids were literally dragging us back to the field when we were going to leave. It was an emotional goodbye.

They all signed, drew, and wrote messages on our t-shirts and we returned the favor feeling like unlikely and undeserving celebrities.

This week's volunteers were:

Tuesday: Maria (Guapulo), Anita (Guapulo), Nelly (Guapulo) Mark (England), and Charley (England)

Thursday: Maria (Guapulo), Anita (Guapulo), Nelly (Guapulo), Mark (England), Charley (England), Mina (U.S.), Rianne (Canada), Marten(England) and Dan (U.S.)

Actividades: Semana Doce

No podemos creer que esta es la semana última! Estamos encantado con este programa y muy triste porque está casi terminada.

El martes de esta semana, vamos a decorar botellas plásticas con papel de color y lápices de colores. Después vamos por la cancha para jugar captura la bandera! 

El jueves, vamos a tener una fiesta con nuestras piñatas, juegos, y pasteles. Además, vamos a plantar flores y legumbres en nuestras botellas con tierra que los gusanos hicieron!

Review Week Eleven

What a successful week. On Tuesday it was sunny and windy and the kids were patient and diligent in making their homemade kites. They flew beautifully, albeit for only a short time before ripping. But thats half the fun. We will be passing out the instructions for all of the kids so that they can make them again in their homes.

On Thursday, we painted the remaining piñatas and made god´s-eyes in the plaza next to the police station. The kids were fanatics for the god´s-eyes and continued to work on them well after the session ended. We had a lot of new faces. We are always psyched and overwhelmed by all of the energy the kids bring with them.  We would like to thank the community for allowing us to use this space for the activities.


This weeks volunteers were:
Tuesday - Nelly (Guápulo), Marten (England), Charlotte (England), and Maria (Guápulo)
Thursday - Anita (Guápulo), Nelly (Guápulo), Maria (Guápulo), Mark (England), Rianne (Canada), and many other Guápuleño community members who joined in on the fun.

Thanks for all of your hard work, smiles, and ideas!

Actividades: Semana Once

Esta Semana vamos a hacer cometas y ojos de dios en la cancha.

Para las cometas, vamos a usar palos y periódicos para ver que mas podemos hacer con cosas recicladas. Esperamos que habrá viento!

Los ojos de dios son signos religiosas de personas indíginas de Mexico y Bolivia. Están hecho con lana envuelve palos. Los ojos de dios representan ojos de dios mirando las vidas de todos con cariño y son para ver las cosas inconocibles. Cada esquina represente un elemento aire, agua, viento, y fuego.

Review: Week Ten

This week we held Equipo Verde in La Casa Comunal in our neighborhood. We would like to give a big thanks to the community for allowing us to use this space for making the piñatas.

We made around 30 piñatas this week for the big party we will be having on the last day of Equipo Verde. The kids got pretty creative with their designs, using balloons, newspaper, and cardboard to make them. We´ve got a lot of big grinning faces, spiders, stars, clouds, and many others.

Thankfully, we had a warm indoor space for Tuesday when it rained almost the whole two hours.

This week our volunteers included Maria (Guápulo), Nelly (Guápulo), Mark (England), Mina( U.S.), Charlotte (England), and Rianne (Canada). Thanks so much for helping out! We couldn´t do this without your participation!

Actividades: Semana Diez

Esta semana, vamos a hacer piñatas con materiales reciclados como periódicos, cartón, y papel brillante y cualquier que los niños traen!

Review: Week Nine

It happened. We jinxed it. It rained on and off all of Tuesday's EQ session. The kids refused to leave so we toughed it out, sharing umbrellas and playing soccer to stay warm and have fun until the melcocha was ready. The language barrier had its most dramatic effect on the results of an activity to date when I (Gretchen) stirred the sugar and water mixture when I shouldn't have and ruined the first batch! This was, of course, after waiting two hours for the syrup to reach the perfect consistency. It was still yummy delicious, just NOT melcocha. 

On Thursday the weather was much better AND we had Rianne come and play expression games while the melcocha was brewing. The kids were very shy when we started but slowly climbed out of their shells as we moved from game to game, culminating with "La Selva," in which the kids produced a chorus of jungle sounds into the sky like a seasoned theatre troupe. It was beautiful! 

The melcocha was more successful this time around. We learned a valuable lesson though: It's hard to make melcocha over a bon-fire in the middle of a field with a large group of sugar-fiending children running around. 

All things considered,  it was another great week.

We'd like to give a big special thanks to our two volunteer facilitators:

Thank you Anita (Guapulo) for making the melcocha on Tuesday and Thursday & Rianne (Canada) for facilitating the games!

Also big thanks go to Mark (England), Mina (U.S.), and Charlotte (England) for being big-time troopers and so helpful this week!