Happy Thanksgiving!

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food,

For love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

 

                                         - Ralph Waldo Emerson

After being away from the comforts of home, family and friends for almost a year and sharing this year with the most amazing children I have learned to be thankful for the littlest things. This year more then ever I am thankful for friends, family, love, shelter, education and all the opportunities I have been blessed with over the years. 

Here is to...

FRIENDS--new and old!

 FAMILY---near and far

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

Presenting....Dentista Nadia Cortez

This past Friday a bunch of us from NPH took the day off of work and made our way into Guatemala City to be there with Nadia and cheer her on as she graduated and officially became a dentist. Nadia has been doing her practicum at NPH volunteering in the clinic and living with all of us crazy volunteers in the volunteer homes. Over the past year Nadia has provided dental care to the children here at Casa San Andres as well as others from the surrounding towns. She has been traveling back and fourth to the capital to complete her school work and finish up her six years of studying-- awaiting her graduation day. 

When the day finally arrived we all awaited patiently with huge grins as Nadia came down the aisle, escorted by her parents and older brother. The auditorium was full of people there to support Nadia and share in her success. She spoke in front of all of us thanking those who have helped her get to this point in her life and answering questions about her thesis, took an oath, put on a robe, signed a form and voila....dentist.

Eloquently answering questions about her thesis!

Here comes the official robe!

Signing the paper!

It was amazing to be able to share in Nadia's accomplishments and of course the delicious lunch after as well. Felicidades Nadia-estamos orgullosos de ti!!!!!

So happy for the dentist--love and hugs!

One Big Family

This past week was a week full of family projects and my LAST family project since in December and January we work in the sections and do not have project. I had the cutest family/friend project ever with Auri, Luis and Fredy. Luis and Auri are brother and sister and Fredy joined the group since he does not have any siblings. 

Sam and I had planned on taking the kids to Parramos for ice cream, but the rain put a damper on that so we ended up making pancakes, dancing, reading, coloring and swinging on the hammock. It was a perfect project and the kids had a blast. Here are some pictures from the afternoon.

Mixing the pancakes.

Swinging on the swing in the middle of
our living room.

Cooking the pancakes--group effort.

Time to flip

Sam helping Fredy and Luis flip the pancakes.

Yum these are good!

All three on the hammock may have been a tight squeeze.

Brother and Sister!

Different Shades

The topic in the section tonight was how pale my skin is and how many freckles (pecas) I have--fun topic right. The girls wanted pictures to prove it--as if it is not obvious enough here is the evidence.

Can you guess which hand is mine?

Which girl below is not Guatemalan?
(crazy faces were also a hit tonight--as you can see)

Familiar Faces!

Jane was in Guatemala and stopped off at NPH to check it out and visit for a few days. It was so nice to see a familiar face from home and to hang out--the kids loved it too!!!!

Jane visiting my section (photo with me, Linda and Luisa)

Pamela and Jane: Pamela took it upon herself to help Jane improve her Spanish. They
started off simple with a little kids book about animals and then they advanced to a book
on puberty--two girls with a large language barrier talking about puberty=extremely funny!

Anniversario--The Games!

Our team's flag--Mantenimiento!!!!

Saturday was day two of the 15th Anniversary at NPHG---the day of games, which has left me sore and unable to do much today. All of the teams met on the soccer field at 7am and we received our schedule of games for the day--the schedule was packed until 5pm. Everyone came just as animated and excited as the night before--chanting and flags waving representing the 15 departments at NPH. We participated in games such as finding nemo which involved jumping into a huge hole with muddy water and looking for plastic fish, to obstacle courses which involved doing the army crawl through mud and dirt, to peeling and eating bananas as a team without using our hands.

By the end of the day we were covered in mud, extremely wet, tired, but very happy. The day ended with a big family dinner and dance---exhausting as it was it was an amazing anniversary.

Happy Anniversary NPHG---15 YEARS!

Before the games on Saturday--all the team flags!

Glenda riding the "toro loco"!

Felippe-relay races!

Finding Nemo (looking for plastic fish)---so gross.

Obstacle course---army crawl.

Final game of the day--tug of war, but if you lost you
 fell into a whole full of muddy water.

My team at the end of the day---still full of energy and pride!

Anniversario-Dances/Songs/Cheers

Ready for the presentations to begin--each group sat
together with their flags and their mascots.

This year NPH Guatemala celebrated their 15th anniversary! Casa San Andres has been open since 1996 and has become a family and a home to hundreds and hundreds of children, tios, volunteers and employees over the years. This weekend we celebrated the anniversary in style.

Anniversario is no joke here at NPHG--we started rehearsing in our teams over a month ago. The entire house from babies, to tios, volunteers and employees were all divided up onto 15 different teams. Each year the theme is different and this year it was the departments at NPH--so the teams ranged from la escuela (school) to la granja (the farm) with 13 others in between. My team was mantenimiento (maintenance)--with our mascots being a hammer and a nail--creative right?!? We had been rehearsing once or twice a week over the past six weeks to come up with a dance, cheers, a play and other things to represent maintenance and our spirit for NPH. This past Friday was the beginning of annviersario and the big day of presentations of the groups.

Me and Wilson--he was one of
our mascots--a nail.

We started off the day singing "Las Manañitas", a traditional birthday song here in Guatemala, to the kids at 5am. Some of the older kids got up and sang with us and we also set of bombas (small fireworks) to make sure everyone was up and ready for the day. While we were singing outside their windows the lights flicked on and all their faces appeared in the windows--it was too cute. Once everyone was awake we went up to the cancha/basketball court and enjoyed some hot chocolate.

The rest of the day was spent making sure all of the finishing touches were done on our presentations. The presentations began at 2pm and the cancha was filled with spirit--yelling, cheering, singing, dancing and laughing until around 7pm when the events for day one had come to an end. Each group was given the opportunity to present in front of the others and the judges. My group after many (not so fun) rehearsals put on a dance and a play, which all finally came together in the last hours.

Cliníca--all dressed as nurses and doctors!

José was the mascot for the clinic--the red cross.

Granja (farm) representing the animals at NPH.

Jardenaría (garden) covered in flowers.

Escuela (school) came into the cancha on their "school bus".

The day was all about celebration, love, spirit and unity and it could not have been more apparent Friday night--the cancha was on fire with all of the above.

TEAM SPIRIT!

Running of the flags--every hour or so all the teams would run
into the middle with the flags screaming and cheering.

Maná

This past Wednesday a bunch of volunteers/employees went to the Maná concert in Guatemala City. Maná is a band from Mexico who is currently on a world tour (Drama y Luz) and just happened to make a stop off in Guatemala. I did not know much of their music before coming here, but it is very popular and it has quickly become one of my most played on my itunes playlist.

The concert was amazing---we sat extremely far away, but it didn't seem to matter because we had plenty of room to sing and dance. The stadium was outside and it was a cold, but it was a beautiful night with a sky full of stars. The concert was full of energy and the crowd was incredible--everyone singing the lyrics and enjoying the show. At the end of the concert they came on for an encore and fireworks lit up the sky. This was definitely a night I won't forget.

Hand Washing Clothes for Dummies

Here at NPH all the kids and tios/tias wash their clothes by hand in the pilas , yet the volunteers have the luxary of having a washer and dryer (not necessary, but very nice). One night in my section I was talking to my girls as a few of them hand washed their clothes and I was amazed how quickly and efficiently they could get through a pile of dirty laundry. When they saw the look of awe on my face they decided it was time for me to get my hands dirty and help out. Then and there I was giving a lesson on hand washing clothes Guatemalan style.

Step 1: Go out back to the pila with soap and the clothes that need to be washed. One side of the pila is bumpy for washing clothes and the other side is flat for washing dishes.

Step 2: Place a rock or something in/on the drain and fill up the center part of the pila with water.

Step 3: Lay the item you are going to wash in the bumpy side of the sink and pour water on it until it is completely wet.

Step 4: Rub the bar of soap back and forth over the item that you are washing. The bumps in the pila help to provide friction and make it easier to wash.

Step 5: Rinse the item with a bucket/bowl with water until there is no more soap on the item of clothing.

Step 6: Ring out the water and hang the item of clothing on the clothes line to dry.

Step 7: Repeat steps 1-6 with each item of clothing!