January and February Proyectos Familiares

Here it is again, folks, everyone's favorite recurring blog post about the proyectos familiares! In case you've somehow forgotten what they are, I'll refresh your memory really quick. A proyecto familiar (AKA "family project") is something a volunteer has to do twice a month with different sibling groups within the home. Among many other smaller ones, the main idea is to create a space for the siblings to spend time together. Proyectos can be a pain to organize sometimes, but they are almost always a lot of fun during the actual event. Here are my proyectos from January and February!

The "Proyecto Amistad"- It's always a lot of fun doing proyecto with our special needs kids, and in January I got to do a friendship project (because these two don't have siblings in the home) with two beautiful young ladies and another volunteer. We chopped up some banana, pineapple, and watermelon to make a delicious fruit salad and then just walked around outside in the sunshine. What a success it was!

stir it up, girl!

my wanderer :)

friends <3

The "Bros" Proyecto- I had proyecto with these boys a few months ago and I really enjoyed it. Thus, I was thrilled when I saw I had proyecto with them again! The brothers are now living in different places because of their levels of schooling, so we all met up in nearby Chimal for some ice cream in Central Park. We had a nice time catching up since the last project. They are good guys.

don't smile now or anything guys, really.

The "Newbies" Proyecto- NPHG had received some new families into the home recently, and I was lucky enough to be able to do their first proyecto with one family. I was stoked- I got to make the first impression about how great and fun and awesome proyectos are! There was quiet an age range between the four brothers, and I really appreciated how patient and attentive the older siblings were to the younger ones. We played with Jenga blocks for awhile and then nommed on a brownie we had baked. This was a milestone proyecto for me as well because I was "training" one of the new volunteers on how to do them. I remember when I was paired up with an old volunteer for my first proyecto, and it was pretty crazy to somehow suddenly be on the other side of the experience.

bigs and smalls!

teaching the new volunteer the ways of proyecto

That's it, ladies and gentleman. Stay tuned for more proyectos familiares in the months to come!

Earth Lodge Salida

NPHG gets a new wave of volunteers in January and July of every year, so we had just received a group of newbies last month. Traditionally, the old and new volunteers go away for a weekend to spend time together and get to know each other a little better. When I was new, we went to the beach in Monterrico. This time though, we headed to a place called Earth Lodge, an avocado farm up in the mountains about a half hour outside of Antigua.

Overall, it was a really great weekend. I had seen appealing flyers for Earth Lodge throughout the year, so I was thrilled to be going at all, let alone with so many great people. We got to get reallyyyyy close... because 8 of us (about half the group) were crammed into the super tiny dormitory! ;)

ittttty bittttty living space

What I did that weekend was basically a lot of... nothing. Earth Lodge is a place to relax, chill, and hang out. I spent a lot of time soaking up the sun in a hammock with a book. Mixed in with the quiet time were lots of good conversations, card games, and DELICIOUS food. Seriously, the food was fantastic and almost entirely vegetarian. Let me tell you, the avocados from the farm were superbbb. I felt healthy, full, and happy with life.

logging hours for mandatory "hammock time"

All the great food and comfy hammocks aside, I think my favorite part of Earth Lodge was the view. Perched high up in the hills, Earth Lodge looks out over the Antigua valley, which is decked out with volcanoes on each side. It was pretty nice, especially first thing in the morning while the sky was still clear. Given our spectacular vantage point, we could even see the plumes of smoke from when Volcan Pacaya erupted one morning while we were there. Cool, dude, real cool.

the view. niiiice.

watching the volcano erupt

The weekend was quiet, relaxing, and peaceful. It was also a great opportunity to spend time with the other volunteers. All in all, I was very satisfied with our trip to Earth Lodge. And with that, I can add another thing to the "been there, done that" list!

Volcan Pacaya

Since living in Guatemala is like living in Volcano Land, I'm trying my best to climb a few of them while I'm down here. It had been quite awhile since we hiked the monstrous Volcan Acatanango, and a few other volunteers and I were itching to climb another one. Thus, this month we organized a day trip to hike Volcan Pacaya, one of the three active volcanoes in Guatemala. It worked out really nicely because we had just received a new wave of volunteers so it was a great group bonding activity for us.

We all rolled out of bed bright and early one Saturday morning and left NPH at 5 AM. An hour or two crammed in a shuttle later, we had arrived at the nearby Volcan Pacaya. We were assigned a guide who dubbed us "Team Tigers" (hahaha) and got started with our day. Surprise, surprise, but we were greeted with some pretty extraordinarily views. SOOOOO unlike Guatemala, being beautiful and whatnot, right?! ;)

so breathtaking!

lava slide WOAAAH sick, dude.

All the great views aside, my favorite part was when we were actually right at the base of the volcano walking on the hardened lava. I felt like I was in the Elephant Graveyard from the Lion King or something. It was eery and beautiful at the same time. It was also pretty sweet to look up and see the smoke and steam billowing off the volcano. You know, all that fire and brimstone stuff cause it's ACTIVE WHAAAAT??!!

"Look, Simba. Everything the light touches is our kingdom." WORD.

It's ALIIIIIVEEE.

Towards the end of hike, we got to check out the "Lava Store", complete with the Titanic theme song playing in the background (because obviously when I think of volcanoes I think of Titanic). Then, our guide dug a little hole in the hillside. We could see the ground was literally steaming under the top layer and was warm to the touch. It was pretty cool and definitely a new experience for me.

checking out the random Lava Store

Steaming hot ground!

I'll admit that the experience was a little too touristy for me. Lots of people were trying to sell stuff and the hike was hardly challenging. Especially in comparison to the 10-hour ordeal of Volcan Acatanango, Volcan Pacaya felt like a stroll in the park. I was also just a teensy bit bummed that I didn't get to get within five feet of RED HOT LAVA or something like that. (Gotta live on the edge a bit, you know.) Nonetheless, it was still a really enjoyable (tame) adventure filled with gorgeous views and beautiful weather! How could I not hike Pacaya one time when I'm so close to it? Sometimes even us volunteers have to play tourists :) And, how cool is it that I can now say I've been on an active volcano?! WAY COOL, that's how cool it is. :)

February Kermes

The first weekend in February brought with it another Kermes (the big all-house acitivity the volunteers plan) to NPHG. While I have always enjoyed Kermes, it meant a little more to me this time because I was on the planning committee! Normally, a group of 3-4 volunteers step up to do the majority of the planning for Kermes. I still hadn't helped with one yet, so I was happy and eager to volunteer for the February Kermes. We brainstormed a lot of ideas, but we ended up settling on a scholastic theme because the school year had just started a few weeks ago; all the activities were based on teamwork to motivate the kids a bit.

There were four "classes" in this Kermes: art, gym, math, and "general knowledge". Art was the main activity. Before Kermes started, a few others and I outlined a giant "EXITO EN ESCUELA" ("SUCCESS IN SCHOOL") on the court in front of the school. Each section of kids from the home was handed a box of chalk, assigned a letter, and told to get busy filling in the blank space. The idea was that we would have a beautiful, colorful mural that we could take a picture of with everyone at the end of Kermes. It didn't quite turn out like that, but nonetheless the kids seemed to enjoy drawing with the chalk in the beautiful weather. Here are some pictures of the kids working away...

 

Gym was an activity with a hula hoop. Each section had to link hands and then try to pass the hula hoop all the way around the group as quickly as possible. The faster the time, the more points the team got.

Math was also a pretty fun class! The volunteer in charge would say a simple mental math problem out loud and the kids would have to run up and slap the correct answer on the wall.

I didn't get a picture of "General Knowledge" because I was busy leading Art outside, but it was trivia in the library and I heard it went well. At the end of the morning, everyone got a chocobanano (chocolate-covered banana). All the volunteers were happy because the Guatemalans complimented us on how good our first-time chocobananos were!

Planning Kermes was a rewarding experiencing and I'm glad I finally got around to taking my turn. I'm always impressed  at how much we can do with so little! It wouldn't be possible without the help of the whole volunteer group though, so I'm grateful to be working with such dedicated people :)