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!

While kids in the States are returning to school after their Christmas vacation, children in El Salvador are just getting ready to start a new school year. Classes here start in mid January and run through mid November. 

Preparing 25 kids for 9 different schools is quite an undertaking. Everything from uniforms to backpacks to notebooks must be purchased, wrapped, labeled, and organized. Lists of supplies vary from school to school, specifying not just the size, but also the type of notebook to be purchased and the color in which it must be wrapped. And that’s just for starters. 

Having been through this before, we planned ahead and got some help. Rotary District 6650 took advantage of back-to-school sales at home in the States this past August and donated backpacks with supplies (markers, crayons, dictionaries, rulers, pencils, pens, permanent and dry erase markers), water bottles, new school shoes, tennis shoes, and sweaters for each child at the home. We then sent the supplies down with teams and visitors in order have it all in time for the start of the school year. 

With the basics taken care of, we then needed to tackle each school’s specific requirements. Mandy created lists for each child to track our progress, and our volunteers got to work assembling each child’s bag of supplies. It took 5 trips to the store over 3 days to find and collect everything we needed. Including:

• 16 different types of notebooks (each kid needing an average of 5 different kinds)
• 40 rolls of colored craft paper
• 49 rolls of toilet paper
• 55 yards of plastic for covering books
• 30 yards of colored paper to cover notebooks
• 4000 sheets of white paper
• liquid hand soap
• hand towels
• placemats
• different kinds of tape
• toys for a piñata
• plastic construction items
• baby wipes
• clear bookbags
• and more!

There were also 180 textbooks and 300 notebooks to be wrapped. Many of the books and notebooks had to first be wrapped in a specific color paper before then be wrapped in plastic which had to be ironed onto the book. Altogether our team of volunteers put in over 100 man-hours just on wrapping books!

School started last week. All the sorting and wrapping is behind us.

Until next year. 

Every Thursday we hold a capacitación (in-service) to provide continual training for our Salvadoran staff. Over the past sixteen weeks an organization called the Children First Foundation (Fundación la Niñez Primero) has come to the Home and taught the tíos and tías the importance of structured play with our kids. The sessions include interactive games that have everyone up and moving! They are wonderful because they combine learning with play, so our Thursday mornings on the terrace are full of laughter, teamwork and encouragement.

December has been an exciting and busy month as we’ve had many donors and supporters generously provide us with Christmas parties, activities and gifts.

A few weeks ago, Alma and Romero, a Salvadoran couple who started supporting us over a year ago, threw us a party at a local McDonalds. This exciting celebration included lunch, games, piñatas, dancing elves, a beautiful Christmas cake, and a Santa who handed out presents to every child. After the party, the older girls received a special treat when Alma took them shopping at the mall. And, as an added bonus, a Cinemark employee who attended this party gave us free movie passes for a free movie the following week!

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About a week later, the employees at TACA airlines sponsored a pizza party at our Home. Before the party, they had asked each of our kids to write a letter to Santa asking for a specific Christmas gift. While this seemed a lot of work at the time (you’d understand if you’ve ever tried to get over twenty kids to complete a project), it was worth it because Santa also attended this party and gave each of the kids exactly what they asked for in their letters. It was unbelievable, in a very good way.

We have felt God’s love, peace and joy through our sponsors’ overwhelming generosity. We praise God for His incredible blessings and are grateful for our local sponsors and everyone who provides for us during the Christmas season and throughout the year. May God bless you this Christmas and in the coming year. ¡Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!

Today’s post comes from Executive Director Kelly Moore:

The Salvadoran school year starts in January and ends in November. The two months in between leaves much room for other learning experiences. During the break the tios and tias teamed up to create a series of workshops to teach the kids skilled trades such as cooking, sewing, car mechanics, knitting and more. Two of the girls even took an interest in cosmetology and are attending classes three days a week during the two month vacation.

Last week I had the opportunity to teach the kids how to sew drawstring t-shirt bags and jean purses on the sewing machine. Sewing is special to me because my grandmother taught me how when I was very young and I have been able to create my own clothing and quilts since then. The boys found an old t-shirts and the girls used old jeans to create their finished product. After millions of questions and crooked lines, there was a smile on everyone’s face for having experienced something new.

I am impressed by the teachable attitudes of these kids. Everyone wants to participate, learn and have fun at the same time!

Our friends at Operation Blessing gave us an early Christmas gift – tickets to the Rojo concert! Rojo is a Christian rock band from Mexico that the kids, especially the older girls, love. Their worship music is upbeat, energetic and inspiring. We had a blast dancing and singing along. Here’s what Brenda had to say about our Rojo experience (translated from Spanish):

“Attending the Rojo concert was a dream come true since I’ve always wanted to go. It was the best. I didn’t like it…I loved it! Even more because I was able to spend time with friends from the church, from outside the Home, the workers from the Home and the kids, too. But what I liked best was praising my Creator, Father, Savior, Provider, Friend…my Jesus. I really enjoyed sharing this experience with those that came with me. It was wonderful praising God and enjoying the beautiful moment. I am very happy we were able to go and am grateful to Tati and Tony for getting us the tickets. I enjoyed this beautiful experience.”

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1

While the rest of El Salvador continued business as usual, we spent the day celebrating a traditional American Thanksgiving with our employees, neighbors and missionary friends. The kitchen was alive with joy, love and laughter as we ate mounds of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, caramelized carrots, buttered rolls, homemade cinnamon rolls and peanut butter fudge.

In order to educate the kids about the history behind and significance of this holiday, they were asked to complete an educational project to share with our guests. The boys re-enacted the pilgrims’ journey to the New World, their friendship with the Native Americans and the first Thanksgiving. The older girls each created a Power Point depicting what they are thankful for. Both the drama and presentations were wonderful and helped make our celebration more meaningful.

As we look back upon this year, we are humbled and grateful for God’s wonderous love and blessings on our Home and children. We also send a special thank you to our family, friends and supporters – we couldn’t do it without you. God Bless!

Love & Hope is never a dull place to be as we are always welcoming new visitors and making new connections. In early November, Augustus “Gus” Harper, an artist from L.A. (www.gusharperart.com), stayed for day, leading the kids through several drawing and painting projects. The older girls especially enjoyed learning to draw faces, as the younger kids did their best to paint not only their canvases, but the terrace floor, too.

On July 16th, Mark Zimmerman ran the Buckeye Trail 50k to raise money for a new truck. After a long search, we finally found it. This new truck helps us run errands around town, pick up kids from school, go to the market, and make it through some of the rough roads here in El Salvador. Thank you to Mark and everyone who contributed to Love. Hope. Go the Distance. 

Once a month Gloria, our Social Worker, organizes a night of fellowship and fun for the kids. Our first night was Costume Night. We were highly impressed by all the creative and ingenious costumes, most of which were made with whatever we had laying around the house in our craft baskets and storage areas. Gloria acted as the evening’s MC, while Rachel, Justin and Amanda presided as the judging panel. We gave out prizes for each age group and also for the Tios and Tias. 

We had a firefighter and Batman.

A giraffe.

A princess.

A hula girl. 

A caveman.

Wednesday from The Addam’s Family. 

A crazy clown. 

Several Harry Potter characters. 

Little Red Riding Hood.

And many more. 

Our second night was Foreign Food Night. Each room was assigned a different place (China, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Africa) and prepared traditional food as well as a short presentation. Of course, there were more costumes as well.