Month: February 2012

Two weeks ago we celebrated El Día de Amor y Amistad (Love & Friendship Day) or, as the gringos call it, Valentine’s Day. In El Salvador the focus of this holiday is just as much on demonstrating appreciation for friends as it is a day for romantic love, so each child had to bring a snack and a regalito (little present) to school for class parties and gift exchanges.

The Americans showed their love for the kids by decorating the kitchen…

and making extra special treats – waffles for breakfast…

heart-shaped Rice Krispies treats for snacks and heart-shaped cakes for dessert.

Our patient cook and tías also used a cookie cutter to make heart-shaped sandwiches for lunch!

The Valentine’s Day festivities continued on Friday night when Jodi, Anne and Amanda cooked a delicious lasagna dinner, complete with salad and pan francés sprinkled with garlic salt.

The kids really enjoyed it all!

After eating, the kids participated in a scavenger hunt. The boys, led by Jodi, formed one group, and the girls, led by Anne, another. Both groups began in the kitchen.

The girls’ first clue led them to the roof, and the subsequent nine clues led them down, a floor at a time, until they reached the empty volunteer rooms at the back of the house.

The boys’ clues followed the opposite route, starting downstairs and ending upstairs.

The girls buzzed with intensity from the start. They spread out, combing the roof and terrace for clues. When they found and decoded one, they emitted ear-splitting, high-pitched screams as they tore through the house, searching for the next clue.

The boys were a little slower on the uptake. Not that they weren’t interested; they just struggled a bit when with their first few clues.

While they were standing on the stairs trying to decode their fourth clue,

the girls, located on the level above the boys, discovered their fifth clue and decided their next move was to go down to the little girls’ room. They ran down the stairs, screaming like banshee, almost trampling the stunned boys.

After that the boys, having caught the girls’ contagious energy, started moving faster, and both groups discovered their treasure – bags of candy – at the same time.

A special thanks to Anne and Jodi for creating the scavenger hunt and to Mandy for sending the candy and heart-shaped pan!

The little boys have recently learned to play War and they can’t get enough of it!

“I want to kill those roosters!” is the phrase that inevitably escapes the mouth of every long-term visitor to Love & Hope.

Movies and cartoons depict roosters crowing in the morning, in sync with the dawning of the sun.

FALSE.

The truth is roosters crow whenever they darn well feel like it, but especially between the hours of 10:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m.

The roosters we used to gripe about were a couple hundred yards up the road. While walking to La Puerta del Diablo we’d see them in our neighbor’s yard and think I wish I could get my hands on that rooster. I’d like to wring its neck!

In October we were given twenty-two chicks, meant to grow up into egg-producing hens and housed in a coop on the yard’s first terrace below the office windows. We were so excited. The chicks were cute, the kids loved them and all seemed right with the world.

Fast-forward to January: our used-to-be-adorable chicks grew up and half of them turned into loud, noisy, annoying roosters that crow and crow and crow and crow.

But as awful as the crowing is, it’s also rather humorous. Every morning, our roosters have a competition with the roosters up the road. The neighbor’s rooster “cock-a-doodle-doo!”, there’s a five second pause and then two of our roosters will simultaneously return the call “cock-a-doodle-doo!”, followed by another five second pause and the rooster up the road responds with another crow, starting the cycle all over again.

Our chickens and roosters are also professional escape artists. We built up the fencing around the chicken coop so they have room to wander outside, but don’t have access to the entire back yard. Despite these precautions, we wake up every morning to find chickens and roosters outside the fencing, prancing around the terraces and steps, creeping dangerously close to the missionary rooms. And then a missionary or a few kids will run around flailing their arms, yelling and chasing our fowl back into their pen.

Here comes the point where vegetarians and anyone with a weak stomach should stop reading.

Over the past two weeks, because of coop overcrowding and because we decided we had one (or ten) too many roosters, we’ve been living out the fantasies of every visitor, volunteer and missionary who has silently cursed the roosters for denying them precious hours of sleep. We woke up one morning to find the tias and cook doing this:

Goodbye sleepless mornings – hello dinner!

On the menu that day: sopa de pollo (chicken soup) and pollo a la plancha (grilled chicken).

It was delicious. 🙂

Robert Gray is a retired physical education teacher for special needs children. He resides in Maryland but spends one month every year in El Salvador. Robert met Tonio several years ago and this year he tracked down Tonio at our home for a visit! Robert has a heart for Tonio and for making exercise fun. He has many ideas about how to create the best exercise methods to help children with special needs improve their strength and balance and make it really fun at the same time! 

While Robert was only planning for an afternoon visit with Tonio, it turned into a whole week of surprises! All of the kids took to Robert immediately because of his unique ways to have fun and connect with the kids. He was able to get each child involved in some type of activity whether it was connecting pieces to a race-track or using a power tool to screw on wheels.

The first project was parallel cables for Tonio. Tonio will be able to walk in both directions, jump and do exercises such as squats to help build his core muscles. The unique part is that the cables are loose which will challenge Tonio’s balance and teach him much more than just walking.

The next project was fun for all! A simple bottle top on a string provided much entertainment and bicep exercises for the kids!

The third project led to the women handling the power tools! These pieces of wood with wheels underneath served as little “skateboards” for the kids to slide around on their stomachs. Robert assured us that having to push themselves around with their arms and playing tag at the same time would be an excellent workout. Check out the video Robert made during his visit.

The grand finale is a masterpiece. Robert took apart a bicycle so that Tonio could pedal it by sitting in a chair. The exciting part is that it is attached to a race track and the power generated from the pedaling makes the car go around the track. The even more exciting part is how it levels the playing field for a typical child and a child with special needs to compete with one another.  This decked out bicycle is a crowd favorite! Click here for a video of Tonio using his new exercise equipment.

A big “muchas gracias” to Robert for his heart, time, energy, education and generosity to the kids at Love & Hope Children’s Home! We look forward to his visit next year!

Jodi and Anne, our newest volunteers, started teaching karate lessons last week. To maintain momentum and capture the kids’ interest, they organized “Ninja Night” on Saturday.

After dressing like ninjas…

…and Little Red Riding Hood?…

We played the Ninja Game.

Then we watched the amazing classic: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.

Of course, the night wouldn’t have been complete without Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael’s favorite food: Pizza!

Thanks to Mark Zimmerman and his team for providing this fun treat.

The boys loved TMNT II so much that they watched it again on Sunday afternoon.

COWABUNGA!