Parramos

A closer look into Parramos.   

The streets of Parramos. The walk from NPH to the Central Park in Parramos is about 10-15 minutes. 

The Central Park. We walk through the Central Park to get to NPH or the buses but sometimes we bring our kids to the park to play. 

The local stores. Most of the families that own the stores live upstairs or behind the shop. You will see bars on every store front for protection from robbers.    

Prices:

Box of milk, 8 Q

Bottle of water, 2.5-3 Q

Bag of chips, .50-1 Q

1 liter of coke, 15 Q

Egg, 1 Q

Beer, 6 Q

There are also a lot of people who have little stands outside of their houses. Sometimes they sell pre-made food or hand made tortillas. 

The market. This is where we go to buy all of our veggies and fruits. 

Prices: 

Carrot, 1 Q

Pound of potatoes, 2.5 Q

A bunch of bananas, 5-7 Q

Pound of strawberries, 4 Q

Mango, 1 Q

Onion, .50 Q

 The buss station. This is where we go to catch the bus to go to Chimal or Antigua. It's 3 Q a ride!

Talleres

In some of the lower-level classes we have experienced students with learning disabilities ditching classes and having trouble understanding the material. In order to improve the educational process and lessen the stress of classroom learning we have decided to incorporate the kids in talleres (workshops).  

NPH has four workshops which include, carpentry, welding, sewing and baking. Due to space, instructors, classes and other issues we have started with three kids. Out of the three kids, two are placed in the bakery and one is learning how to sew. 

The idea is that the kids will learn new skills that they will be able to use in the real-world. Everything they are doing is hands-on, which makes understanding the material fun and easy. 

Two volunteers and I have been working hard to set up this program. We have had meeting after meeting with the school, workshops and the house in order to approve the idea. 

Here is Irene, myself and Bianca shadowing the bakery in order to learn what the kids would learn. 

After many months of preparation, the kids have successfully been included in the workshops for two weeks. Here we have Carmen and Jorge in the bakery.

Here's Kimberly and her instructor sewing.  

El Salvador

FINALLY Nona and I got to go to El Salvador! 

The trip from Guatemala to El Salvador is about 5 hours. To get there it took us a full 6 hours. There was a truck accent which caused us a 30 minute pit stop (in the middle of no where). The truck was slanted on an angle, taking up the whole road, causing hundreds of people to wait in the heat.    

After the ordeal with the truck, we had to get through immigration. I have never seen a line so long in my life. There were semi trucks lined up for at least 10 miles, minimum.  Good thing we had a crazy driver that just drove on the other side of the road ALL the way up to the immigration window. We ended up having to get out of the car due to more traffic and we walked across the Guatemala-El Salvador boarder. 

The beach was very refreshing after a 6 hour shuttle ride. Unfortunately we couldn't stay in the  water for long period of time due to jelly fish, but there were still a lot of people swimming and surfing. We saw people leaving the water limping and pointing to their stings. I had jelly fish less than 6 inches from my legs and I was running. 

Good thing we had a pool we could swim in without jelly fish! And when we didn't have the pool to ourselves, it was full of surfer men. Tough life. 

Our hotel was awesome. Great location, great prices and great company.  I played the role of translator a lot, there weren't many people who could speak Spanish. 

 
The streets of El Tunco. Overall prices were so cheap! A meal was about $4.00, a beer $1.50 -$2.00, a room on the water $10.00, earrings $1.00! Minus all the heat at night I was in paradise.

Club Amistad

Club Amistad Friendship Club brings children with and without disabilities together through food 19 April 2013 - Guatemala At 3:00 pm each Tuesday afternoon at NPH Guatemala, a small group of kids gathers to partake in Club Amistad, or Friendship Club. Club Amistad is an opportunity for the niños especiales, or special needs children, to share time with children from other areas of the home. The activity that brings them all together is cooking. Volunteers Katie and Irene with club members Ever and Juan Formerly known as Club Pica Pica, the club used to consist solely of special needs members. When it changed to Club Amistad, the group became a mixture of niños especiales and other children. The hope was to foster interaction and communication between the children through a shared activity. According to Katie, one of the long-term volunteers who helps administer the club, its purpose is “to integrate kids with and without disabilities and learn to cook at the same time.” A specific group of three special needs children and two or three children from other areas of the home meet once a week for a month before the group members change to a new set of children. This ensures that each special needs child gets the chance to participate in the club and that a number of kids from the Boys’ House and the Girls’ House can also be involved in the club. Irene, one of the other volunteers involved in the club, says that the children can suggest several foods they are interested in making, and the volunteers gather the necessary ingredients and cooking utensils to prepare one of their choices. In the past, the kids have made fruit smoothies, guacamole, and pancakes. Each child takes part in making the food, and they receive help from the volunteers if actions like chopping vegetables are outside of their capabilities. Sometimes the kids without disabilities even help the other club members if they cannot do a task by themselves. Volunteer Bianca believes that Club Amistad serves an important purpose at the home. She says that for the special needs kids, “there are not many possibilities for them to have contact” with the other children. Their distinct schedule includes frequent therapies, a separate class room, and eating in their own house rather than the main dining hall. While this provides the children with quality, efficient care, it can also isolate them from other kids at the home. It is too soon to know whether Club Amistad is having the desired effect, and it may be difficult to ever truly judge this. However, providing the children with the opportunity to interact, share, and communicate is a step in the right direction for those who hope to see a more integrated community at NPH Guatemala. Caitlin Zanoni    Communications Officer

http://www.nph.org/ws/page.php?path=news%2Farchive%2F2013%2Fguatemala%2Fclubamistad2013.php&lang=en