Our first week of work has blown to a windy and dirty end. Today at about 5 we all left Guardaria Samuelito for the weekend. It has been a hot end to the week and today was incredibly windy. There is nothing like dirt in every place you would never even imagine possible. We have spent the last few days moving piles of dirt into an expansion for the daycare, helping in the kitchen and splitting up to spend time and help in the classrooms. Yesterday, all 5 men went to a different location, a camp just outside of Santa Cruz where they help move and organize beds and furniture. We will be entering a different format of work next week where we will split up into three groups of 5. Five will head to a different village called Los Tajibos each morning to help paint a church, five will continue at Guarderia Samuelito and five will go to a nearby church to help improve the building (it is the church that used to house Samuelito).
Our evenings have been spent with our respective families, visiting markets and whatever else a typical evening with the family in Santa Cruz looks like. The physical work of the day often leaves of tired and ready for a shower and good night of sleep.
Tomorrow we take off bright and early for our weekend adventure. I can´t say how much I´m personally looking forward to breakfast before we leave. Salteñas!! YUM! We will then make the 3 plus hour trek to Samaipata to enjoy the beautiful little village, see ruins and have a grand time.
It has been a week full of learning, working, eating!!! and becoming aquainted with the city. It is exciting to look forward to the weekend and following week ahead.
p.s. I wish I could provide pictures but at this point I am unable to upload them...
Friday, July 30, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Los Primeros Dias
Hola Amigos y Amigas! We have all arrived safely and are together in Santa Cruz Bolivia! On Saturday afternoon four of us gathered in the hot and humid city of Miami, Florida. Sabrina, Kelsey, Alison and I (Jill) all made our trek south for a day of getting to know each other and preparing for the 2 weeks in Bolivia. On Sunday morning, we were sent off with a beautiful blessing and prayer by a Spanish Mennonite church in Miami. At 3:00 in the morning we arrived in Bolivia after a fairly uneventful 2 airplane rides and were greeted by Daniel Lobo, one of our very gracious hosts/friends in Santa Cruz. After a morning nap we all met up with the group of 11 from Fresno Pacific University for lunch and a day of getting oriented to the city and work. The students from FPU have already been in Bolivia for almost 2 weeks with a learning tour from MCC. It has been nice to see the way that they have integrated the rest of us into the group quite well and are teaching us what they learned in their travels.
Today was our first day "on the job" so to speak. Having been in Santa Cruz last summer for the same trip, though a different group, I am in total awe to see the tranformation of Guarderia Samuelito, the daycare we are working at from last year to this. What was still a dream of half built walls and freshly poured cement floors with many more loads of dirt and layers of bricks ahead has now turned into a sturdy, beautiful and colorful home for the daycare. To see Yuneth, the daycare director beam when she shows me each room and her very own office brought chills to me. The children, who last year, were cramped into tiny rooms and had to spread outside just to have room to play, eat, learn, shower, brush teeth, etc, now safely inside clean rooms with large indoor beautiful bathrooms and space for all of their belongings is unbelievable. There really are no words to do justice to the difference I have seen and the contentment I feel among the daycare staff. There are at least 30 more students, for a total of 75, than last year and yet the same staff. The construction for more office and gathering space is going at a fairly good pace but it is hard to say if that momentum and the funds will continue.
Our work today was varied. We washed windows, sanded boards, helped children, cooked, washed dishes, organized classroom toys and items, hauled dirt and generally had a pretty good time. We enjoyed getting into a pretty intensive study of the book of Amos as a group and it was really good to see the participants start to think about ways to approach social justice. We followed up the day at Samuelito with a meal together and icecream so we can continue to get to know each other as a group.
We are divided up into about 8 different host families. Some host 3 and others 1 or 2. Being in host families is one of the joys of the time in Santa Cruz and there should be stories ahead of that. For me, at the moment, I am just excited to be back among friends in Bolivia. To see Bolivia through fresh eyes of a first time visitor is great but to return is better than I had even expected.
-Jill
p.s. for a good story, ask me how I and 2 other participants plus 2 Bolivian friends spent our late night hours last night...
Today was our first day "on the job" so to speak. Having been in Santa Cruz last summer for the same trip, though a different group, I am in total awe to see the tranformation of Guarderia Samuelito, the daycare we are working at from last year to this. What was still a dream of half built walls and freshly poured cement floors with many more loads of dirt and layers of bricks ahead has now turned into a sturdy, beautiful and colorful home for the daycare. To see Yuneth, the daycare director beam when she shows me each room and her very own office brought chills to me. The children, who last year, were cramped into tiny rooms and had to spread outside just to have room to play, eat, learn, shower, brush teeth, etc, now safely inside clean rooms with large indoor beautiful bathrooms and space for all of their belongings is unbelievable. There really are no words to do justice to the difference I have seen and the contentment I feel among the daycare staff. There are at least 30 more students, for a total of 75, than last year and yet the same staff. The construction for more office and gathering space is going at a fairly good pace but it is hard to say if that momentum and the funds will continue.
Our work today was varied. We washed windows, sanded boards, helped children, cooked, washed dishes, organized classroom toys and items, hauled dirt and generally had a pretty good time. We enjoyed getting into a pretty intensive study of the book of Amos as a group and it was really good to see the participants start to think about ways to approach social justice. We followed up the day at Samuelito with a meal together and icecream so we can continue to get to know each other as a group.
We are divided up into about 8 different host families. Some host 3 and others 1 or 2. Being in host families is one of the joys of the time in Santa Cruz and there should be stories ahead of that. For me, at the moment, I am just excited to be back among friends in Bolivia. To see Bolivia through fresh eyes of a first time visitor is great but to return is better than I had even expected.
-Jill
p.s. for a good story, ask me how I and 2 other participants plus 2 Bolivian friends spent our late night hours last night...
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Our Assignment in Santa Cruz, Bolivia
From July 26 until August 10 our Youth Venture team will be partnering with the work of Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Boliviana in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Mennonite Mission Network has had a long standing relationship with the church in Santa Cruz. This will now be the third year that the Youth Venture team will be working with a daycare on the outskirts of Santa Cruz, Guarderia Samuelito. The Mennonite churches of Bolivia have been supporting this daycare for several years now. They started it to provide a place for children to be cared for during the day while parents worked or so that parents could work. With the help of two previous Youth Venture teams they have been able to build a new center and now serve more than 75 children from the neighborhood, ages 6 months to 6 years old. We will also be partnering with a couple of other community development projects in the area.
Our schedule will look a little like this:
On Monday, July 26 our group of 15 will meet together for the first time for lunch at the Sinai Mennonite church and them visit Guarderia Samuelito to learn about their work.
Tuesday through Friday, July 27-30, we will be working at Samuelito with some outdoor/construction work to create a grassy playground area. There will also be opportunities to work in the classrooms and kitchen.
Over the weekend of July 31 and August 1 we will visit Samaipata. Samaipata is 118 km from Santa Cruz and is a town that was inhabited by the Chane indigenous group. It has many amazing archaeological sites.
The second week of our visit, August 2-6 we will split up into three groups to continue the assignment. One group of 5 will work in the daycare, one group of 5 will paint and do other construction in the nearby church that used to house the daycare and now is the location of another community development project, and one group of 5 will help with improvements in nearby villages of Los Tajibos and La Tejeria.
The final weekend we will enjoy our final days in the Santa Cruz community and learn more about the region. And we will all depart on Tuesday, August 10.
We will be splitting up in pairs of 2 or 3 to stay in host families which provides for fantastic stories during our time together and so many beautiful experiences.
Our group is 15 strong this year! Eleven from the group come from Fresno Pacific University in Fresno, California. They are going to be in Bolivia about 11 days before the Youth Venture assignment begins for a learning tour with Mennonite Central Committee. These 11 are: Elizabeth Cortez, Erica Cuellar, Esther Rosales, Gonzalo Villegas, Kevin Lott, Kris Melban, Maria Rosales, Rosana Zamudio, Samuel Kelly, Valerie Chacon with Ivan Paz as the leader.
Joining this group on July 26 are: Alison Stauffer, Millersville, PA; Kelsey Schrock, Wellman, IA; Sabrina Lengacher, Loogootee, IN and Jill Schmidt, Newton, KS as the leader.
Please follow the adventures and work that we will be part of in Santa Cruz and pray for God's protection, guidance and understanding during our time of learning and serving.
I, Jill Schmidt, will do my best to keep this blog posted with the latest activities we are engaging in.
Our schedule will look a little like this:
On Monday, July 26 our group of 15 will meet together for the first time for lunch at the Sinai Mennonite church and them visit Guarderia Samuelito to learn about their work.
Tuesday through Friday, July 27-30, we will be working at Samuelito with some outdoor/construction work to create a grassy playground area. There will also be opportunities to work in the classrooms and kitchen.
Over the weekend of July 31 and August 1 we will visit Samaipata. Samaipata is 118 km from Santa Cruz and is a town that was inhabited by the Chane indigenous group. It has many amazing archaeological sites.
The second week of our visit, August 2-6 we will split up into three groups to continue the assignment. One group of 5 will work in the daycare, one group of 5 will paint and do other construction in the nearby church that used to house the daycare and now is the location of another community development project, and one group of 5 will help with improvements in nearby villages of Los Tajibos and La Tejeria.
The final weekend we will enjoy our final days in the Santa Cruz community and learn more about the region. And we will all depart on Tuesday, August 10.
We will be splitting up in pairs of 2 or 3 to stay in host families which provides for fantastic stories during our time together and so many beautiful experiences.
Our group is 15 strong this year! Eleven from the group come from Fresno Pacific University in Fresno, California. They are going to be in Bolivia about 11 days before the Youth Venture assignment begins for a learning tour with Mennonite Central Committee. These 11 are: Elizabeth Cortez, Erica Cuellar, Esther Rosales, Gonzalo Villegas, Kevin Lott, Kris Melban, Maria Rosales, Rosana Zamudio, Samuel Kelly, Valerie Chacon with Ivan Paz as the leader.
Joining this group on July 26 are: Alison Stauffer, Millersville, PA; Kelsey Schrock, Wellman, IA; Sabrina Lengacher, Loogootee, IN and Jill Schmidt, Newton, KS as the leader.
Please follow the adventures and work that we will be part of in Santa Cruz and pray for God's protection, guidance and understanding during our time of learning and serving.
I, Jill Schmidt, will do my best to keep this blog posted with the latest activities we are engaging in.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)