Friday, January 28, 2011

Planning the Scouts Camping Trip

Next weekend we will be taking the Guias y Scouts older kids on their first ever camping trip and we are all super excited. I think it's really important that we get going on the camping and get the kids a little more familiar with what the Scouts do. At this point we tell them things like they need to have a flag for each troop and each troop needs to have their own call, but I think it really is one of those things that you have to see first. Needless to say the kids are a little lost, so, hopefully camping with a more experienced group will help them to find their way. Also, we want them to start feeling like a team, a family and there is no better thing than a sleep over for that. I'm hoping lots of kids can make it. We were originally going to make it up to Los Patos the national park entrance, but had to change at the last minuet to the beach (not a shabby change). We'll still go up towards the park with just our kids, but it works out easier this way with the other group. This and filling my application for an extension of service and getting organized on the new playground for Guadalupe have kept me pretty busy.

On a personal note, Deivin and I celebrated our one year anniversary on the 25th, but he had to work all day and had his computer class until 9:00pm so there was not much of a big celebration, just a nice dinner at home and some ice cream sundaes. Next year we'll have to plan something a little bigger, but for now, ice cream and dinner were just fine. We haven't really heard anything on the visa for a while which is fine. We won't hear anything for a while assuming everything is going well, no news is good news for a while anyway.

I have a request from a while ago to write about Mandy and Danny's trip. We did so much that I'm going post a different blog. It feels like so much happened that it's hard to capture it all, I'll post that soon and highlight some of our best adventures...

Also, you will notice that my English is horrible now. My brain is working mostly in Spanish these days so while I'm writing in English sometimes I'm using Spanish grammar. I'm sure it will go back to normal when I get back to the States... Anyone wishing to learn another language and have some fun adventures, consider the Peace Corps, you can't help but learn the language and there is no escaping lots and lots of adventure.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Update on me

Laura Update...

Many people know that over Christmas I got engaged to my boyfriend Deivin. Here's the low down on the day...

After spending Christmas eve day in Guadalupe with Mandy, Danny and Deivin and his family we made our way back to La Palma. It was late (8:00pm) and Mandy and Danny were done for the day. I knew that Deivin really wanted to do our gift exchange at the beach. I've been trying to get him to go to the beach at night with me for months, so I was up for it. The moon was almost full so there was lots of light and it was a beautiful night. So, we jumped on our bikes and headed to the beach, to the place were we had our very first date. It was so perfect, the moon was huge over the gulf, he lit a candle and there was no one anywhere. So, I gave him his present, a pair of shoes. He liked it, but I had a feeling that his present for me was going to be waaaay better. So, he hands me a little handmade wooden box. When I opened it up there was my engagement ring and he asked me to marry him. It was a beautiful night with a perfect ending. We stayed there for a while and then we rode back to La Palma. We have been working on the fiancee visa for a while now and just this week I got word that it was being processes and had been moved from one facility to another. Originally we had hoped to leave at the end of May for the U.S. But due to some unforeseen complications we have changed that plan for the end of July. What are two more months anyway? I'm working to extend my Peace Corps service for those 2 months. While doing the clinics this past week I got some new ideas for projects that will need funding and you can only get funding if you have a certain amount of time left. With the added two months it should be enough. I want to see if we can get a playground for the school in Guadalupe. At the moment they only have 8 car tires that are half buried. Not cool. I'm hoping to get a playground and maybe even a basketball hoop. They already have a flat slab of concrete in the school yard, why no get a hoop and some basketballs and the kids can shoot hoops...

That's it for me. Deivin and I are happy and excited to see what the future brings.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Adopt a Family with Guias y Scouts

This is a post from 12-20-2010, I'm a little behind...

Shortly after the teleton success the leaders of the scouts group decided that they wanted to participate in the Scout Navedeno, which is basically adopt a family. Anna one of the newest leaders (dirigentes) was yet again the driving force. I think I'm so wrapped up in all of the other organizing stuff that I just don't have it to be thinking of extra things to do. Anna was very insistent that we do it and I said sure, I'd participate and do whatever, but they had to tell me what to do, I did not want to be the lead. Which, I'm happy to say Anna did a great job. I'm beginning to see her as a real leader and someone with a lot of confidence, something that wasn't there before. So, we all said that we would buy a gift and go around to the stores in town to see what they would donate.

Real quick let me tell you about the family. They are a family of 5 kids and a dad. The mom left them a few years ago so it's 4 girls and 1 boy and the dad. The dad has only one functioning hand. The other is kind of there, kind of not, but it doesn't really work. The boy Simone is 9 years old, but cannot talk or walk and has really serious needs. He will never be able to be left alone. He can walk a little, but as we saw, he has no balance and if someone is not there and paying attention, he could seriously hurt himself. There is a 16, 13, 12 and 7 year old girl. They are all just so tiny, but you can tell that their dad had done a really good job of taking care of them because they were all very clean and were wearing cloths that didn't have holes in them. The house that this family lives in is falling apart. The dad was careful to tell us not to lean on the one wall they had inside the house because it was about to fall apart. Their kitchen floor is made of dirt, but it got wet and is now fairly muddy. The dad can't work because he cannot leave the little boy for very long, he does work on occasion, but it's not steady. When we arrived and explained that we were there to bring gifts and things for the house the dad saw the food and said “may God pay you for this, please, go into the kitchen, you'll see that there is no food in there”. So this takes me back to the end of the first paragraph. We had gone to the supermarkets and asked shoppers if they would be willing to donate any food, soap, toilet paper, etc to this family and it was incredible! Two separate people donated $40 dollars worth of food! There was something like 5 big bags of rice, a bunch of beans, oil, sugar, coffee, everything. We had people donate sanitary pad for the older girls, lots of nice smelling soap, people donated body sprays (everyone here wears perfume of some sort), it was just amazing to see how much people were willing to give! The kids, the dad, everyone was excited. We had cloths for everyone, toys for the younger kids, a pair of shoes for the dad. They all loved their gifts, but soon the interest turned to the food and they all wanted to see what food they were going to be eating that night.

Even with all the food that we brought and the cloths and the toys, it just wasn't enough, it's just not. We found out that they don't have enough money to pay the registration fees for the two girls in high school, they missed the first dead line because they just don't have the money. Thankfully, at that moment one of the dirigentes present took their names and said that the next day she would pay for both girls. It's something like $12 for both, but they just don't have that. I saw their bedrooms and for 5 people there were only 3 twin size beds. These beds didn't have sheets. We plan to get them sheets! I have seen people in the US that are poor by US standards, but this is different. This is a whole different level. As a scouts group we plan to continue helping this family with their needs, uniforms for all of the kids for school, continue to buy them soap, food, sheets, etc. Once you see how bad it is and how unfair it is, you have to try to do something.

Someone actually said to us “Gracias a Dios que hay los Scouts en la palma” or “Thank God that there are Scouts in La Palma”. I'm just happy that there is a way for those who want to help other to do it. If you are thinking about giving, helping, something this holiday season, do it. People aren't poor because they are lazy, sometimes life throws you something like a very handicapped son and there is nothing you can do but love and take care of him the best that you can.