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!

Juegos de Expresiòn

The Expression activities that we used this week were drawn from Theatre of the Oppressed, developed by Augusto Boal, and taken from the Joker´s Guide, developed by David Diamond. Thank you Rianne for sharing them with us!

Actividades: Semana Nueve

Melcocha

Esta semana, Anita va a enseñar los niños como a hacer un postre típico se llama melcocha, encima de una fogata. No podemos esperar para aprender. Yum!

Ejercicios de Expresión
En jueves, Rianne va a facilitar algunas actividades para mejorar expresión personal:

Juego de Nombres

Contraimagen
Vamos a formar equipos de dos personas. Los dos van a imitar las acciones del uno al otro mientras mantienen contacto visual.

Hipnotizador
Otra vez, vamos a formar equipos de dos personas. En este juego, una es el hipnotizador y la otra está hipnotizada. Cual quiere el hipnotizador hace con su mano la otra debe hacer con su cuerpo.

Miedo y Protector

Cada persona elije dos personas en silencio. Una representa "miedo" y la orta representa "el protector." Cuando el jeugo empeza, todos tienen que andar para mantener el protector entre sí mismo y el miedo.

Vampiro
En este juego, todos tienen que cerrar los ojos y caminar con los brazos cruzados. Cuando la facilitatora se pellizca el hombro de una participante, el/ella tiene que chillar con voz muy alta. Siguiente, el/ella extende los brazos y continuar caminando con los ojos cerrados. Ahora, el/ella es un vampiro. Cuando los vampiros se chocan con alguien, ellos tienen que pellizar los hombros de la otra persona. Esta persona es un vampiro también. Si la facilitadora se pellizca un vampiro, el/ella tiene que se aliviado con voz alta y cruzar los brazos otra vez. El ciclo continua con gritos y suspiros al azar por todas partes de la cancha.

Máquina

Los participantes construyen una máquina con sus cuerpos y sonidos. Nosotros eligimos un tema, cual quiere. Por ejemplo, el tema es "paz," entonces, esta machina hace paz. Una persona empeza y otras se unen uno por uno con acciónes y sonidas repetitivas.

Selva

Todos se hacen en el suelo en un círculo con los cabezas juntos como una estrella. Ojos cerrados. Hacen sonidos! Cual quiere sonidos!

Dar un Paso Adelante Entre el Círculo

Todos forman un círculo y alguien dice algo verdadero sobre sí mismo. Por ejemplo, "el medio ambiente es importante para mi." Si esta afirmación es la verdad para otras, ellos tienen que dar un paso adelante hacia el círculo y dar un paso atrás. Ellos pueden dar pasos muy grandes o pequeños para expresar como verdadadera es la afirmación para ellos.

Activites: Week Nine

Melcocha

This week, Anita is going to teach the kids how to make Melcocha, a typical Ecuadorian treat, over a bon-fire. We can´t wait to learn how to do it ourselves! Yum!

Expression Exercises

Rianne is going to facilitate several activities on Thursday that are used to encourage expression:

Mirror Image

For this activity teams of two will pair off. The children then face one another and experiment with mimicking each others´ movements while maintaining eye-contact.

Hypnotist

Again, teams of two are formed. One child is the hypnotist and the other is the hypnotized. Whatever the hypnotist does with his/her hand the other must do with his/her body.

Vampire

All of the participants close their eyes and walk around with their arms crossed. When they bump into each other they must let out blood curdling screams and then put their arms straight out in front of them. These people are now vampires. They continue to walk around with their eyes closed but when the vampires bump into people they let out a loud sigh of relief and recross their arms. The cycle continues with random screams and sighs from the transformations taking place all over the field.

Week Eight Review

Again, we have been blessed by good weather. It seems like summer might finally be taking hold here in Quito!

The children were great this week. Since we were working on team-building activities it was essential that they work together patiently and respectfully. Despite the immense amount of energy the kids have in them, they were very patient and thoughtful. This could be seen especially during the mine-field exercise. We were really impressed by their communication and listening skills as well as their tenacity.

The rope activities demonstrated just how bright the Equipo Verde kids are. We expected them to take 30 minutes, at the very least, but they were done in under 5! We had to adjust it just to make it more challenging for them.

 

We can't wait to do more activities that challenge their individual and group mentalities because they have certainly impressed us so-far.

We like to send out some special thanks to our volunteers this week.

Tuesday: Nelly & Anita (Guápulo) and Mark (England)

Thursday: Nelly (Guápulo), Mark (England), and Rianne (Canada)

Thank you all so much! This project wouldn't be what it is without you!