The first of the third wavers arrived on Wednesday this week, along with a surprise visit from NaTaya's sister Brieana. We have two sisters, Teresa and Shayna, and a handsome young gent named Kory. They are already fitting right in, except I think we need to feed Kory more! They have already started working on projects like Health Fair and the Orphanage. Welcome to Belize!
Soilet
This week, on the Soilet, we finished the construction at the school on Bullet tree and have started our third construction site out at Duck Run. The team really pulled through this week with offering manpower. We finished a month’s work of digging and building in three days. Next week Kweku and the documentary team come to start filming out at Parrots Nest. We are excited to have them here and hope to get just as much accomplished next week as we did this week.
Leadership Seminars
Calvin, Cyd and Whit spent the week recruiting participant’s and planning lessons for the leadership seminars that will begin this upcoming week. They also had a meeting with Kalai who was last year’s Belize Entrepreneur of the Year award. She will help us teach business classes and offer her expertise and insights in the leadership seminars. We are very excited to be working with her.
Conflict Resolution
This week we started a conflict resolution camp and it has been a really great experience so far. The camp runs from 9-12 Monday through Friday. Boys and Girls ages 8-11 come and learn and participate in different activities all relating to solving conflict. The first day, the main idea was peacemakers/conflict—t he difference between the two, as well as different ways that we can create the two. The second day we learned about setting a positive identity and belonging. How we view ourselves and how we want others to view us etc. The next day’s topic was fairness. How we can be fair in social situations as well in family and everyday life. We focused on being fair to both ourselves and those around us. Thursday we focused on Values. We watched the movie “The Emperor’s new groove” and would stop the movie at different parts to discuss the different values each of the characters held. Finally, we finished up the week on Friday discussing Goals and dreams. How we can turn our dreams into goals and what steps we need to take in order to achieve our goals. All in all, we have a great group of kids who are all hard workers and have the desire to learn and succeed both inside and outside the classroom.
Expressive arts camp
This past week Cydnee and Whitney taught singing while Melissa taught dance to a group of 40 students ages 5-10. WE taught in Belmopan at an Elementary school called Our Lady of Guadalupe Primary School. The kids rotated through five sessions: Recorder, Drama, Singing, Dance and Drums. Melissa taught the waka waka while Whitney and Cydnee taught a variety of songs. On Thursday the students had a performance where they sang “I just can’t wait to be king” and a “Popcorn Popping” . It was so exhausting but super rewarding in the end.
Orphanage
This week at the Orphanage we taught the kids how to make bracelets on Monday and then just played with the kids. The cutest story was how Chris and Dj fell asleep on Chris’s shoulder. Friday, Lisa, Mary, Shawney, Breanna, Kory, Shayna, Teresa, Chris and Kristin all went out and started reading with the kids. Some read to them. Then we did a craft with tissue paper which the kids loved!
Literacy
The George price Literacy camp is full swing! For 2 hours Monday through Friday, Sarah, Mary, Shawney, and Nataya read and practice spelling with a small group of 5-8 year olds. Each of us are so happy to see our students improving their reading already. Each of the students are involved and enthusiastic. We really feel like we are helping to eliminate poverty by teaching the vital and necessary skill of reading.
Dunford School
On Thursday morning Calvin, Lisa, Shawney and Kristin went to the Belize City chapel to help the Dunfords teach their Summer school. Calvin and Lisa had prepared string and Kristin, Calvin, and Lisa taught the 10-11 year olds to make bracelets. Shawney and Kristin taught about the solar system. The students represented the planets with the various fruits. They then made their own paper model of the solar system. We also played outside and read to the 5-6 year olds. At the end of our 2 ½ hours there, the children were so grateful for the things they had to learned that they didn’t know before. They were so happy to learn and to get an education even during the summer!
Night English Class
Shawney, Nataya, and Stephanie have all had experience in teaching English to Mirna. She is progressing quite nicely and now knows how to introduce herself in English. ( name, age, family, job, hobbies etc) She is also learning about negative how to give directions, the weather, and subject/verb agreement.
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