World Travelers Camp....oh and it's my one year in country today! eek!

A little while ago, I had what I consider to be my most successful project in site! I had mentioned earlier that I was doing a world traveler camp for kids this summer and it was just suchhhhh a success! Two other G-mates and I, Arianna and Bonna, decided to work on this together and then travel to each other’s sites to help out at their camps. It was so awesome to see other people’s sites and to watch them in action! We started off in Arianna’s site which is a lottt more campo than mine. She lives on a crazy dirt road, and it takes about 45 minutes (even though it’s like 10k…) to get to the nearest pueblo. Most of the people spoke guarani, so I was obviously completely lost the whole time, but it was amazing to see Arianna just killing it with her conversational guarani! We went to Bonna’s site next which is considered to be a large city. It was so interesting to see the differences in how each site’s camp was run. Then we made the 9 hour trek to my site. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, we only had to clean up my school a little bit because the “lindo-factor” is VERYYY important. Wednesday finally showed up and I was a little nervous no one would show up, it being summer and all and considering that that’s happened to me before. My first day had 8 kids, which at first disappointed me but ended up being a blessing in disguise because it was only me and Bonna working the camp in my site and three people are absolutely essential for a larger camp. I was really able to get to know my kids on a more one on one basis and the second and third day everyone camp back plus a few more!!! It was awesome because I was able to meet some new moms in my community and they seem very enthusiastic about working with me more in the future! Many of the kids even begged me to continue the camp after we had finished! What an excellllent feeling!

 

Here’s what we did:

First we made each kid a little homemade passport that they wrote their names on. Each day we would “travel” to 4 different countries around the world. We would start by showing them “where we are leaving” and putting that flag up on the wall and then a “where we are going” spot too for the next countries flag to go. We used a large world map and explained what continents are and what the 7 names are and then started with our countries for the day. One day 2 and 3 we would do a little review of where we traveled the previous days. Next we started our mini-presentations. We had a powerpoint for each country that gave little facts like the name of the capital city, what it’s money looked like, what language they speak, and then a few slides of the notable cultural things of that specific country. After this little lesson we would do either an art project or a physical activity correlating with that country. The kids obviously loved this part the most! Then we would have them line up and we would put a “stamp” (aka little paper squares that said the country name and had a cute little picture on it) in each kid’s passport and then we’d move on to the next country!

Day One:

Egypt – Toilet paper mummy race

Japan – Origami boats  

Iran – we played a game where one person hides 5-10 coins outside and all the kids have to find them (this was a favorite!)

Mexico – colored Day of the Dead sugar skulls

Day Two:

India – They colored a large elephant and then we played pin the tail on the elephant

Kenya – we went on a mini safari throughout the school’s patio! (Thanks Bonna for taking on that one!)

Peru – Llama art project, they colored the llama and then we had them glue on cotton balls for fur

Greece – Olympic games (we did three legged race, egg on the spoon relay race (holding it in your hand and also later in the mouth), wheel barrow races and a relay race using oranges)

Day Three:

China – we taught them how to hold chop sticks and then we made up a game where there were two teams, and each team had a pile of 15 leaves and 2 pine cones (extra points) and they had one minute to use the chop sticks to bring as many leaves over to a bowl that Bonna and I were holding a distance away. At first they thought it would be SO easy but then realized it was pretty tough and ended up loving the challenge. One of the most successful activities!

The Netherlands – Painted handprint tulips

Australia – decorated cardboard boomerangs then had a throwing contest where they had to throw it into a box

USA – Freeze tag and we also made chocolate chip cookies for the kids since it was the last day!

 

This was an amazing project! It was so exhausting but super successful!

 

  
 

Bonna's kids!

Elephant in Arianna's site

 

Sugar skull masks in Arianna's site

 

the LOVED musical chairs

Finished toilet paper mummy!

 

During the mummy race

Lindo origami boat!

 

Leti and Alma came to help on Day 1



egg race concentration!

team work coloring the elephant!

pinning the tail

the group!

Tulip handprints

 

PS. Today is my official one year in country! I CANNOT believe it! 15 months to go. I’m having a weird range of emotions where I’m so shocked I’m already at a year but also like…oh my god, it’s only been a year and I’m technically not even fully half way! Allllll of the feeeelingsss!

Feliz Navidad and Año Nuevo!

Haven’t blogged in a bit because I was on a fabulous vacation with my best PC friends! We started our vacation with a bang, and by “bang” I mean that our bus to Buenos Aires was 6 (YES…6!) hours late. Just picture Jen and the Rubias sitting outside of the bus terminal waiting and waiting and waiting some more and then it just kept not coming. Every time a Sol del Paraguay bus would pull up our souls would be crushed a little more each time that it wasn’t for us. But, por fin, it finally arrived a little passed midnight. We took the 15 hour bus ride to BA, then hopped on a ferry to Uruguay. We finally made it to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, and got to our hostel. It was beautiful. We spent a few days there exploring the city, eating DELICIOUS paella, going to the artisan market, walking next to the ocean, etc. Next we headed to the beach town of Punta del Diablo (also in Uruguay) and it was beautiful! I loved every single second of it! There was nothing better than spending our days lounging by the beach! We spent Christmas there and it was a very different experience for all of us because none of us had ever spent Christmas away from family. But, it was really great to at least be able to spend the holiday among friends. We ate very well the entire vacation. Those of you who know me know that I did NOT participate in the cooking (unless anyone wanted to sandwich, then I was their girl! Haha) but I did a lot of dishes to make up for it hahaha! After a week at the beach town, we continued our journey and headed back to Buenos Aires for the New Year. Our hostel was awesome, and we met a lot of cool people, and even took a tango lesson (which I’m not super great at, I realized ha). We, again, explored the city and generally had a fantastic time and ate fantastic food. On NYE we brought in the New Year at the planetarium drinking champagne and watching fireworks and meeting other tourists from all over the world. It was awesome! I also spent my “fake birthday” which was the 2^nd of Jan in BA. We decided to give me a fake birthday because we left before my real birthday and who wouldn’t want to celebrate with friends in Argentina?! That morning we went on a walking tour of the city and later had a delicious lunch on a cute outdoor patio where there was a tango show and fabulous wine. I had roasted rabbit with a white wine sauce and it was to die for! Then I finallllllllly got my hair done (hadn’t cut it or anything in over a year….oops) and then we went on a pub crawl that we found out about at our hostel. It was such a great day! Then it was time to return home to Paraguay.

ALL PHOTO CREDIT GOES TO MY GIRL CANDACE!!!!!

 

Montedvideo, Uruguay



i'm on a teeter-totter!



the cutest little bookstore in a plaza in Montevideo

first time near the ocean in a lonnnnng time!

beautiful hostel in MVD

same beautiful hostel in MVD

beautiful hostel in  MVD

just being Paraguayan and enjoying a little terere break!

awesome indoor market in MVD

cuties!

paella....YUM!

yep. I ate that little guy!

 

Punta del Diablo, Uruguay

 

our cute little Christmas tree



our beach house

the adorable patio and grill

SO ready for the beach!!!!

strolling to the beach

the sun is so strong we had to completely cover up!!!

gorgeous!

the oceannnnnnn

lovely...look at that beach hat!



Feliz Navidad photo shoot



Jen and the Rubias was reunited! :)



Christmas Day breakfast!

I just celebrated my real birthday (24 woot woot) and it was a wonderful day. I made pancakes for breakfast because I finally have syrup in my possession (thanks mom and dad!) so that was super rico. Then Jen, Candace and I went to beach and drank some beers and just relaxed. I must say, I do enjoy having a summer birthday. I’m so used to living in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin that I’ve never experienced a HOT bday. Sweet. Then we made our way back to my casa and prepared some delicious potato salad, which actually turned into delicious mashed potatoes, to bring to my host family’s house for the asado that they prepared for me! It was soooo good! My family definitely knows how to make rico asado!!!!! Best in all of Paraguay, hands down. They bought me my first terere equipo and I LOVE it. Just in time for the scorching heat. We drank wine and just hung out and they sang Happy Birthday to me in FIVE languages (English, Spanish, Guarani, Portuguese, and Ukrainian!) I also learned how to cut a cake Paraguayan style. So that was fun.

And now it’s back to reality. I’ve been preparing for my World Traveler Camp with Bonna and Arianna and we just started today and it was awesome. (I’ll commit a whole blog post to this once we finish next week!!!)