Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Day 2 -- Stephanie and Armish

Hello everyone!

Day 2 of our trip has been eventful so far! Everyone was really excited in the morning to finally start our service project(and to eat the delicious food!).

We started off the morning with a yummy breakfast followed by some bonding activities outside!
After slathering ourselves with sunscreen and bug lotion, we headed off to the school where we were going to work together with the community to build a new classroom.

This is what the worksite looked like when we first started! Hopefully it will be done when we leave!

We were separated into two groups. Half of us worked on the site, mixing cement or measuring and preparing wood for the classroom. The other half joined the children in the classrooms and helped the teachers with them. Our group was in the classroom first with four year olds, and lemmie tell ya, it was crazy! As soon as one of us pulled our cameras out, the kids went nuts and wrestled each other to take cute pictures of each other. We also read short stories to them and colored with them. They were not at all shy with the crayons! (Meaning they were chucking them at each other, so cute!)

Some cuties!
At around 10am the kids had recess and we spent about half an hour playing with all the kids in the field outside the school. Some children were very shy but others had no problem chasing after us and taking our cameras to take selfies! Some of us played tag with them, and believe us when we say... these are pretty fast runners! They sure did make us sweat... more than we already were! But these are really adorable kids.


Climbing in the trees!!

Already taking selfies and modeling for each other!
 

After a very fun-filled break, the groups rotated "jobs". Now it was our turn to work on the site. I (Armish) was working with Lisa(still sounds awkward not calling her Ms. Bastedo) and some other girls on making weird wood things that are apparently columns for the classroom. Basically we were measuring and nailing. I (Stephanie) volunteered for making the cement for the walls of the classroom - much more difficult than I thought! The upside is that now I know how to make cement, and am sure I'll have stronger arms by the end of the trip (because all I feel now is soreness!).

At around midday we all went for lunch - another delicious meal. Then we freshened up after all the hard work and being all sweaty and sticky... We then regrouped and played some more bonding games. After those, we did a scavenger hunt focused on learning about global issues that affect the community (such as electricity, water, community needs, etc). We walked around the village to learn how the community works and what issues they face. Some also asked for suggestions on what they need to make a potential project for next year. It was an interesting experience and opened up doors as to how we can help them improve what is needed.

Now it is about 4:30pm and we are going to gather up, have some activities, followed by the long-awaited dinner!

Don't worry... we're still alive and hopefully we can survive this humidity (by the way, if you think that Houston's humidity is bad, think again.)!

Thanks and we love you!
Stephanie and Armish

4 comments:

Siraj said...

Glad to know you guys are having a great time. Love you, Armish, and miss you.

Unknown said...

We are happy to hear you are having such a wonderful experience. We enjoyed reading your blog and all the beautiful photos you posted it. We can't wait to hear more! Stephie, we MISS YOU sooo much here in Houston and we are happy to see you are having a great time in Belize! WE love you and can't wait to READ more about Belize! Muchos besitos!!

Unknown said...

Hi Stephie,
Lovely photos and cute kids! Looks like it's been lots of fun and hard work so far.
Je t'adore, Papa

Anonymous said...

Hi Armish

Missing you in Calgary. Hope you are working hard and having fun too. Cute pictures.

Luv u
Khali

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