Week two and our first charla

This week started out kind of rough. Inevitably, I got sick, probably from my body trying to adjust to the weather, so I slept for most of Sunday and Monday. Tuesday we were back out in El Chonco. We were putting pipe and spigots in at all of the houses in the community. It was exciting to start to see the light at the end of the tunnel that is the El Chonco water project. We are just weeks away from 1200 people having hundreds of gallons a day of clean water right at their doorsteps! Now, these people don’t have to walk miles a day for only a few gallons of water.

On Wednesday, we visited the handicapped orphanage again. Here are a few pictures of some of the Amigos crew and the Purdue group members spending time with the kids:

Yesterday, we had our first charla (“chat,” or lesson) at the school in El Chonco. The topic was handwashing, and our lesson had three components. The first was a skit about germs and the ways you can get them. I pretended to cough into my hands, Brittany pretended to sneeze, another person pretended to have a cut, and another pretended to pet their dog. We put glitter on our hands to represent the germs, and we shook hands with and gave high fives to some of the kids in the front to show how easily germs are passed.

The second part of our lesson involved a mascot, Mario la Mano, who showed us the steps of washing your hands. Rinse, soap, lather, rinse, and dry were the five steps that we went over with them. Pretty basic, but always important to reinforce for a group of kids. The last thing we did was sing a song about when you need to wash your hands (before you eat, when you touch animals, when you go to the bathroom, etc.). It was both fun and funny. A group of gringos teaching a lesson in their broken Spanish was probably sort of hilarious to these kids, but it was an all-around good time and a good start to our charla series.

We were hoping to do our charla in each classroom (so maybe six times total), but the whole school was together in one room to celebrate Mother’s Day. The best part was that all of the moms were there. They were super supportive of us and even participated when we asked questions (which may not have happened if it were just the kids). It was an unexpected blessing, I think, because it was great exposure for us. Now more of the moms know that we’re here.Hopefully it will help our attendance levels when we start to have afternoon charlas for adults!

Here are some pictures from our time at the school yesterday: