October and November Proyectos Familiares

October and November held some great "proyectos familiares" (family projects). Here are a few pictures and a quick blurb about each of them.

The "Something New". 1 brother, 1 sister. I had my first project with some of our special needs kids. It was great! I got to work with another volunteer and we cooked up some delicious pancakes that were enjoyed by all.

happily doodling

pancake-y joy.

The "Challenge". 2 brothers, 1 sister. The boys had a lot of extra energy that they apparently decided to burn off during proyecto, but we got through it. Jenga and brownies, a classic proyecto combo for me!

even though the brother in the middle refused to take a good picture...

...we still had a good time :)

The "BIG ONE". 6 brothers. We played Spoons using Uno cards and Jenga blocks with another volunteer who was helping out. I know, I know, soooo creative and resourceful ;) At the end we all nommed on a delicious brownie. These brothers are all so nice and polite. I had a great time!

non-traditional Spoons

brotherly love

I really, really like each of these boys.

The "Mature Proyecto Amistad". 2 amigas in high school. If a pequeño doesn't have siblings in the house, they do a "friendship project" instead of a "family project" with another pequeño of a similar age without siblings. I went to Chimaltenango to meet up with these two young ladies and had a great time munching on nachos in the park, chatting it up, and just hanging out. The little baby pequeños are cute, but the nice thing about older pequeños for proyects is that you can connect with them and actually have really nice conversations. I like the variety that comes with proyectos amistades/familiares.

That's all I've got to say! A few months full of some great projects... Keep 'em coming, NPHG! :)

Torneo Internacional de Futbol

Although there are many traditions within the NPHG home, there aren’t so many traditions between the NPH homes from different countries. One tradition that we do have is an annual soccer tournament, and the Guatemala home was lucky enough to host it this year! The homes from Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and of course Guatemala each sent a boys’ and girls’ team to the tournament. In the weeks leading up to the tournament, everyone in the house was anxious with anticipation trying to prepare for all the visitors we were about to have. We were busy, but we got the job done. The house looked great- fresh paint and trimmed bushes all over the place!

The week of the tournament was a blur of activity, fun, and newness. A lot of my “work” that week consisted of sitting under the first aid tent handing out water, ice packs, and band aids while watching the games. During the games, our kids ran around with big drums and shouted chants to cheer on the Guatemala teams which kept me laughing while I rolled my eyes at how overly dramatic some of the boy players were!

Men at play.

Si se puede, vamos equipo!

The scoreboard- I loved how simple it was.

There were lots of fun activities in the evenings with the extended NPH family too. We had a cultural exchange night with dances typical of each country, lots of piñatas, and a “posada”, which is an event that recreates the nativity story.

swing batta' batta' swing

the mad scramble after the piñata finally breaks

La Posada- it was beautiful at night.

Perhaps the highlight of the week for me was when the Guatemala girls’ team won the championship, WOOOOOHOOOO! It was an exciting moment for the whole home, and I believe it was the first time they had won the tournament.

so much tension. Don't let them score, Maria!

YESSSSSSSSS! VICTORY!

Everything I just described almost didn't happen because NPHI didn't have enough funding for the tournament this year. Cuuuuue the Rossi family! The Rossi family lost their son Ryan Rossi to cancer in 2011. Ryan was a soccer player in college and very passionate about helping children in need around the world. After Ryan passed, his parents decided to carry on his legacy by continuing to support his passion for helping children. By pure coincidence and the grace of God, the Rossi family accidentally stumbled across the NPH Nicaragua home (while already there for another charity project) and asked about a picture of the tournament from the previous year that was on the wall. The crew at NPH Nicaragua explained what NPH and the tournament are and how unfortunately the tournament wasn't going to happen this year. Given the background of their son, Ryan, the Rossis decided to change that! The generosity of this family was incredible and it was a joy to watch them experience the tournament and everything that NPH is while they were here that week to see their donation carried out. Now, the Rossi family has already vouched to help sponsor the next year's tournament in Mexico and are helping NPH make some big connections back home in the States. It's very exciting and, for me, an awesome example of God at work in the world.

Overall, I really enjoyed the tournament week. I loved seeing the different countries and meeting lots of new people including important executives from NPHI and leaders from different NPH homes. I took two things away from the tournament. Firstly, it was the sense of "la gran familia" that NPH really is. It was the first time I really felt or saw it, but yes, it's true! Even though our homes are scattered across countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, we're all united by a common mission, striving for the same goal, and connected by this idea of unconditional love. Secondly, it was Ryan Rossi's phrase of "just love it", which is what Ryan said while he was in the stages of his terminal illness. No matter what life gives you- even if it's cancer- just love it. That's all you can do. Great life lesson. If you want to learn a little more, check out this page dedicated to Ryan and his concept of "just love it": http://justloveit.me/Justloveit/Home.html.

The tournament is a wonderful event for NPH and I am so glad the Rossi family is helping us keep it going. The tournament continues in December 2014 at NPH Mexico- buena suerte, Guatemala!

El Aniversario

Part of the many traditions NPHG has at the end of the year is a celebration of el aniversario, or the anniversary, of the house. NPHG opened in 1996, so this year we were celebrating its seventeenth anniversary. It’s a big ordeal- everybody, and I mean everybody including the littlest babies to our boss man national director, gets involved. The first step is to get assigned to a team. This year the theme was professions, and I ended up on the Zapateros (Shoemakers) team. Pretty exciting, I know. Quite intimidating.

fellow Zapateros

one of my favorite little Zapateros!

There were a lot of things each team was responsible for. You had to paint flags, design costumes, create clever chants, make giant papier-mâché mascots, write a skit, and choreograph a dance. It was kind of intense… Despite my enthusiasm, I ended taking a backseat in a lot of the planning because I was never quite sure what was going on or what we were supposed to be doing. It was only my first anniversary, you know!

For two hours three days a week for three weeks, the teams would get together and write/rehearse/craft. At least in theory, that is. Often times it was a lot of waiting around and doing nothing buuuuttt that’s okay. It was tiring, but by the time the actual weekend of the anniversary came around, the Zapateros were ready!

The anniversary weekend was a two-day shindig. On Friday, we basically took the day off from our normal jobs and did last minute preparations with our teams in the morning. In the afternoon, every team showed off their hard work in the comedor for several hours. It felt like a pep rally. Everyone was jumping up and down in their costumes screaming their chants and waving their flags. I think perhaps the thing I liked most about the anniversary was that truly every child was involved. For example, it was a pretty cool sight to see the babies or special needs kids being pushed around in toy cars so they could participate in the dances.

pep rallyyYYYyy

There was even a live goat at one point, oooo. So NPH.

yay babies!

The next day on Saturday, we continued the anniversary celebrations with what was basically a field day competition amongst the teams. Starting bright and early at 8 AM, for about 7 hours we crawled through mud, passed soapy sponges over our heads, tossed rings, and did a variety of other goofy things. It was another great day for all!

Although the anniversary was a very tiring thing to prepare for, overall it was quite a fun event. As I said, everyone gets involved and there are lots of opportunities to showcase the different talents of the kids. So, 17 great years of helping kids down, many more to go. Sigue adelante, NPHG!

¡Feliz Aniversario!

Festival de Sumpango- Barriletes Gigantes

Every year on All Saints' Day (November 1), there is a big event called Festival de Sumpango. Festival de Sumpango is all about showcasing giant kits (barriletes gigantes), and it has been a tradition for more than 300 years. The kites really are GIANT. In the biggest class, they can reach up to 20 meters in diameter! All the volunteers had the day off work and were really excited to go check it out. Luckily, it was close to us, so after a few short bus rides we were there at this crazy cool cultural event like it was no big deal!

The festival was spread out on several big hill sides. When we first walked in, we could only see people sprawled about everywhere, mostly chilling on blankets and having picnics with their families. Vendors were stationed sporadically selling food and cheap-y kites. It was pretty cool to look up and see about 40 to 50 kites flying high in the air (these were normal-seized kites, made out of tissue paper or plastic). After walking for a few more minutes, we stumbled on to the glory- the GIANT kites!

BOOM. Kites. We have arrived.

It was quite a site to see. Even in the smallest category, the kites were still taller than me. Every kite was absolutely beautiful, truly a work of art. There were all soooo colorful. There was was so much for my eyes to take in! We walked through row after row of kites, admiring each one. Here are some pictures...

Roommate bonding :D

Do you see how little the people are next to the kites?!

awesome sauce all over these kites.

GIANT and COLOR. YES.

One of the most giant giant kites :)

After I had snapped so many pictures that I felt like my finger was going to fall off, we reached the end of the display. The view looking back at all the kites stacked one after another was pretty incredible.

special memories :)

By that point, we had spent a couple hours at the festival on our feet in the sun. Now, we were HUNGRY. Everyone found some comida de la calle (food from street vendors). This is the kind of food you should avoid eating because it puts you at a higher risk for food poisoning/parasites, buuuuut when in Guatemala... Not gonna not. ;) It's fun to live on the edge a little bit and just be a local. We even found the ice cream man!

happy, well-fed volunteers

In the afternoon there was a competition to FLY some of the kites from the smaller sized categories. It was completely unsafe because there was zero crowd control/partitioning of safety areas. We all just stood on this giant open field while the teams tried to launch their massive kites. The kites were all constructed out of giant wooden spikes, which made it terrifying when they came crashing down to earth (which was happened frequently). The thrill of dodging death was... fun? ;) It was an experience haha! Believe it or not, many of the kites did eventually take flight, even if it took a couple tries to get them up in the air. It was pretty cool to see those massive things just soaring around, waving their color all over the sky. I have to say, I was pretty proud when the kite from the all-female team cleaned house in the competition. #girlpower

Who would've guessed that it could actually fly?!

ahhh pretty :)

Festival de Barriletes was aweosme. I just kept thinking that I will probably never, ever be able to see something like this in my life again. If I have to be away from home for a year, at least I'm stuck in a place that has an incredible culture!

Casa de Miedo

As the end of October drew nearer, Halloween was of course on the minds of many volunteers, especially the Americans. We decided to do a casa de miedo, probably better known to most of my readers as a haunted house. The theme was based on a Guatemalan legend called La Llorona (llorar= to cry, so translate that along the lines of “the wailer”). In the legend as I have heard it in Guatemala, a woman drowned her children and now wanders the night crying out for them and bemoaning her actions. Guess who got to be La Llorona? Jess Heintz, that’s who. The idea was that the kids would hear the story of La Llorona at the beginning of the haunted house and then walk through “searching” for the lost children. Ummm, let it be known that we absoultely killed that haunted house.

For starters, we set it up in a fantastic location. There is a large room on the NPHG campus that is just used for storage. It is filled with metal bed frames, mattresses, industrial mashing machines, shelves, wheelchairs, and other random things. A few volunteers arranged everything into a path in the afternoon the day of. We put out a ton of tea light candles and it looked incredibly creepy in the dark. To keep with the theme, we also dismembered some dolls and hung them randomly throughout the maze. Again, pretty creepy in the dark.

As you entered the maze, one volunteer told the legend in this eerie, whispery grandma voice hunched over in a wheelchair. Then, there was me, honestly acting like a freak. As the story was told, I would cry out at a certain parts. The kids thought that was all I did… until they passed me and I jumped up screaming in their faces and scared the living daylights out of them hahahahaha. (“QUIERO MIS HIJOS!!! DÓNDE ESTÁN MIS HIJOS???) Seriously though, I screamed like my life depended on it! I honestly could go on and on for paragraphs about how great everyone did in their various roles in the haunted house. Shoot, we even had one person hanging above a door! Everyone just really got into character and played off each other. Grammy award winning performances, all around. Good work, team.

So far, the haunted house has been my favorite large-group activity with NPHG for a lot of reasons. I loved that it was something the volunteers did on their own that was not obligatory. I loved that it came together in the end (I will admit, I was a doubter at first because it was all a bit last minute). I loved that we did it so well. I love that the kids loved it! And, I honestly just had a blast with it. Man, there is so much more I could say about this event but I am still very behind on blog posts! (MUST. MOVE. ON.) I’ll close with saying it was better than any Halloween I had in college, hands down, and I wish all my family and friends could have seen it! <3

 Enjoy the photos...

hair and makeup, ladiezzz

drop dead gorgeous, really.

Jessica #1 and Jessica #2

Looking awesome and whatnot.

some of the set up

creepy creep creepy

BOO!

My decrepit partner who told the La Llorona legend

Whatcha' lookin' at, bro?

"Don't worry, she's already dead muhahaha!"

"No, we're not scared!!!" LIARS.

San Simón y Maximón

NPHG is really close to a town called San Andres Itzapa. San Andres is home to the temple of San Simón (St. Simon), also known as Maximón. Every year on October 28th there is a huge fair/celebration in honor of San Simon, and a lot of volunteers were really curious and eager to go, including myself. Let me preface this by saying San Simon was a pretty questionable dude. He is a folk saint and the Catholic Church does not approve his veneration. Nonetheless, this was a HUGE cultural opportunity that I did not want to miss. What an incredibly interesting blend of the Mayan religion and Catholicisim! So, a group of us headed out after work to check out the festivities…

When we arrived around 5:30 P.M. on a Monday evening, it was already QUITE the party. I felt like I was at a state fair. Food stalls lined the walkway, vendors meandered through the crowds hawking junk, and people were everywhere. One of the first things in the main fair area was a booth with about 50 types of tequila. Some were very exotic- one even had marijuana leaves in it! I just mention that to help paint the picture. (Let’s remember that we were at a fair to celebrate San Simon, a “saint” associated with debaucherous things, after all…) A few volunteers got a teensy bit excited about the cheap prices haha ;)

options.

We slowly squeezed our way through the masses and reached the shrine room of San Simón. Lots of candles, lots of people.

la gente...

burn baby, burn!

THE (creepy) shrine.

After snapping a few pictures, we headed back out into the open air… and made some new Guatemalan friends! They were very “happy”, if you catch my drift, and oh so friendly! All they wanted to do was dance with us… (One woman vehemently told me, “HE’S A MAYAN PRIEST!!!” And then she told me the same thing about seven more times hahaha.)

Dancing Mayan priest on the loose.

And hand us free beers… (The same woman opened the bottles with her TEETH! I cringed just watching.)

Double fisting. I did learn something in college... ;)

Overall, Maximón was a really cool, interesting event. While I do not jive with what San Simon is about, I am glad I experienced such a unique part of Guatemalan culture. I really appreciated the friendliness of our Guatemalan acquaintances. (So typical of them!) They were so open to talking with us and teaching us about this event. They really helped get us into the, ahem, spirit… ;) It was memorable, and that- making memories- is something I'm about!

Turning 23

An inevitable part of spending a year in one place, I celebrated my 23^rd birthday in Guatemala this month! My birthday (October 13^th) fell on a Sunday this year. I wanted to do something with my section a few days in advance, so on Thursday I went down to the section with brownies, cake, and bingo. It was a great night with so many boys I love so much!

"Boys can we take a NICE picture please?" Nope, guess not haha.

I have to say that the NPHG crew does birthdays really well. We have to since we’re all we have. Luckily, my birthday was no exception. We celebrated as a volunteer group Saturday evening by having a potluck Italian dinner. Since I eat beans, rice, and tortillas so much, I have come to really appreciate a good meal. Thus, the birthday girl (and all the other volunteers) was looking forward to this birthday dinner, especially since it was going to include so much of the luxury item cheese!

On Saturday, of course the oven in our house ran out of gas… as did the oven in our national director’s house… and the oven in one of the lounges. Thank goodness we still had two to work with! We got through the oven problems and finally the hour came to chow down. The dinner was in another volunteer house. When I walked down the steps to the house, I was surprised to be greeted by an Italian flag on the door and a big 23. When I walked inside, there were some red, green, and white balloons and even a set of candles of the same colors on the table. How thoughtful, right?! The Italian food was delicious. Just to name a few things, we had tortellini, antipasta, lasagna rolls, pizza, and oh so much more. After the meal, a chocolate birthday cake with peanut butter frosting topped with burning candles suddenly appeared. UM, YUM. Also, very American haha. The group sang “Happy Birthday” to me in Spanish, I made my wish, and closed my eyes to blow out the candles. I got ‘em all in one go! The rest of the evening was spent enjoying each other’s company, talking, and playing games. It was lovely.

Aww how fun! :)

Celebrating my birthday in Italia in Guatemala.

Ahhhh CHEESE AND GOOD FOOD.

Delicious and so American! Definitely licked my plate clean.

On Sunday, my actual birthday, I got to start my day with Mass. It was a little early for me but I was still grateful to have that be part of my day. Then, I ate breakfast with my kids. We got chocolate milk with our cereal for once! I felt like I was eating dessert for breakfast, which was totally okay with me. I walked back into the house to find several birthday cards in my door- everyone was so sweet! After breakfast, I headed off to Antigua with a few other volunteers I’m good friends with. We spent several hours window (stall) shopping in the artesian markets. I could look at all the colors and patterns of the fabric in there for hours. Everything was beautiful! After that, we went to this cute little restaurant to enjoy some crepes for lunch, which were delicious. The week leading up to my birthday had been busy. Thus, I was completely content to head back to NPHG after lunch to enjoy a quite afternoon to myself.

After many months of rain, the weather was finally starting to change and I was blessed with a day full of sunshine on my birthday. In fact, it was such beautiful weather that I couldn’t resist the urge to be outside. I decided to go for an afternoon run… during which I had several buckets of water poured on me! That’s the tradition down here in Guatemala. (It’s better than having eggs smashed on your head like they do in Nicaragua!) I got to end the evening with a good, long Skype with my family, which was exactly what I had wanted.

Splashing into 23 in true Guatemalan style!

The goodness kept on coming for several days after my birthday. At work on Monday, the doctor gave me an African violet plant, which I am actually really excited to have. I hope I can keep it alive for the year! I also got a bag of goodies from the NPHG office. Finally, on Thursday I received a birthday care package from my family that came with a visitor group. IT WAS FANTASTIC. I think my two favorite things were a headlamp and the multiple bags of chocolate chips, but there were so many good things in there. I felt the love from so many people for so many days!

It's like a pet!!!! Sort of... But I was still really excited.

Snackage from the office. Always welcome.

The best gifts ever!

It was hard to be away from my family and ND friends, but I still had such a wonderful birthday. It was very different, but then again every birthday for the last few years has been pretty unique from the last one. At the very least, this was a very memorable and special birthday. You only turn 23 in Guatemala once! I’ve really enjoyed my twenties so far… Every time I’ve had a birthday, I get nervous because I can’t see how the coming year can possibly top the one I just finished. This birthday was no exception to my nerves, but hey- I’m in Guatemala for most of the coming year. 23 is definitely going to be one heck of a year! 24, prepare yourself. You’re going to have a lot to live up to!

Again, I’m very grateful for everyone and everything that made my birthday so special. Thank you!