2013 is Gearing Up

The 2013 Oaxaca trip applications are due Monday.  A lot of questions are floating in my head...How many of these children at Casa Hogar will still be living there?  How tall will they have gotten?  What will be the 'personality' of the new group of travelers be? Will Mr. Werner and I have another "Amazing Race"?  What new friends will will make?

Our Last Day

On our last full day, we moved out of our Ocotlan homestay, traveled to the black pottery village (look for pieces for sale at Watkinson), and returned for a last day in Oaxaca City.  Apparently, President Obama's daughter Malia, here also on a school trip, has been a few days behind us at several sites...including the Dona Rosa's black pottery center.  A great endorsement of Oaxaca's culture, people and safety!!

While the kids are exhausted, they were amazed by the treasures in the last museum of the trip, the Belber Museum.  Lunch at the Zocalo and our last bits of shopping have kept us busy!!  But while one group of kids had gone shopping, the remainder asked to go one last time to Casa Hogar!! Rather than shopping, hanging out or sleeping, these kids could't resist the urge to make make one more trip to Casa Hogar.   So Mr. W and I took the group across the city in a bus for an unplanned Casa Hogar visit.  While Coco and most of the older kids were not there, it allowed us a few more hours of play and an opportunity to say good bye to the babies and toddlers!!

On a side note, today is my birthday and the group has showered me with love, frog themed gifts, a tres leches cake AND a mariachi band!!  The real gift has been their devotion to the work and the endless laughs they have given me!!

Tomorrow, we fly out leaving behind hundreds of children we have taught and loved!! Thank you Oaxaca for being so welcoming and awe inspiring!!

Toddlers are everywhere at Casa Hogar!!

The kids who got me a mariachi band for my birthday!!

A last visit to Casa Hogar

A final good bye with our homestay family in Ocotlan

Really, they enjoyed the museum!! 

Benito Juarez and Ocotlan

After a long week with Casa Hogar, we headed up the mountains to the village of Benito Juarez!!  Hikes, eating at Casa de Piedra (a restaurant by a local family that makes unique local foods including the best locally, mountain raised trout ever...everyone loved it!) and a zipline over a deep ravine in the mountain!!  We also were able to heavily tip a local girl, Lucila, who served us lunch using the few dollars left over from David M.'s donation to Casa Hogar.  She is working extra jobs to be able to go to Oaxaca City and go to high school and eventually college.  With tears in her eyes, she accepted our support of her education.

We also played basketball and soccer in the town square, and met with the town leaders to give them a donation of basketball nets to support the towns endless games of bball in the concha (town square).  After their hospitality last year and willingness to let us form a team in their local bball tournament, it was the least we could do!!

In Ocotlan, our Amazing Race has continued.  Here is a run down of the challenges:

Teach 240 children English in 2 days

Sign our names hundred of times to the scores of children who surrounded us at the school

Read and act out 4 books to four different classes

Killing one massive scorpion

Ride in the back of a police truck (the town took us out to lunch again)

Soccer at our homestay

Paint 12 alebrijes (wood carvings) during our Wed afternoon excursion to Efraim Funetes's studio

Two mototaxi rides (so far)

Tonight's Leg of the Race:  The Plazito (Ocotialn's festival):

Carnival games and rides

Churros and hot cakes (they love pancakes here!!)

Concerts and Dancing

Get to bed at some point to return to Oaxaca for out last full day (shopping & museums)

Some of the kids next to Benito Juarez (the gold head in the center)

The group walking over the bridge to the tiroleza (zip-line).  We zig-zagged across the ravine!!

Enjoying a meal at Casa de Piedra (House of Stone)

All School, Ocotlan-Style- our formal greeting in front of the whole school (600+students and teachers)

Teaching English

One of our classes!!  The most eager students in the world!!

We are rock stars...signing endless autographs

A Post-Earthquake Celebratory Lunch at Frida's (note our chef,  Frida Kahlo in the center)

Painting Alebrijes at Efraim Fuentes' studio

Two Truths and a Lie..."I rode in the back of a Mexican police truck....."

BLOG UPDATE:  In Oaxaca, if you sit patiently long enough and relax, amazing things happen!!!!!
While writing this and chatting with Homero, our host dad, he mentioned that at the age of 8 he worked in a knife making workshop etching knives for 10 cents a week.  Then he asked if we wanted to visit a workshop a few blocks away owned by family members.  WELL..it wasn't just a workshop, it was THE WORKSHOP that made the Conan the Barbarian  and Red Sonja swords!!!!   After showing us how the knives and swords are made, WE SHOPPED!!

This man made Conan and Red Sonja's swords...and a cake knife we bought to sell back at Wat 

Things have come to this....Mr. Werner with Conan the Barbarian's sword and Ms OB with Red Sonja's sword!!!

First Day of Teaching

Ok  for starters I feel really bad  for all my teachers because back-to-back classes one hour each was pretty tiring yet rewarding. Engaging with young and eager students who wrote everything we said was a spectacular experience.  Watching as they repeated and learned words, phrases, numbers and colors in English with a huge smile on their faces made me elated. Who would have thought that a group of students who barely spoke Spanish could teach English to a group of kids who barely spoke English. It was a heart warming experience that shall forever be treasured.
-Brandonlee Cruz

School is Dismissed

School Alert- All students may be excused from the Watkinson School (Oaxaca Branch) if your parents have come to take you home due to the earthquake during last block classes.

Seriously. we are all fine and experienced the earthquake while teaching our last class of the day in the elementary school in Ocotlan.  Suddenly the ´'fire alarm' went off and the floor started shaking.  Calmly the Mexican teacher and the students stood up and exited the classroom to the main courtyard.  We followed...the basketball posts and light posts were swaying, and we all felt like we had legs made of jello.  But as suddenly as the quake started, it stopped.  Before you knew it, parents swarmed the courtyard to check on their children.  One of the sons in our homestay came by to check on us...we were in a mix of shock and excitment (me, naturally!!!).

After about 20 minutes, classes resumed...although we had about 50% attendance after some children left with the parents, our 4th graders jumped right into a lesson filled with 'how are you?', numbers and colors.

The rest of the day was just as amazing, but less shocking...Lunch at Frida's (a resturant in the local mercado where the owner dresses up as Frida Kahlo), nieves (Oaxacan ice cream) in the mercado and then a master class with Efraim and Sylvia Fuentes (a master alebrijes carver and his wife, the painter).

We are currently enjoying the internet at our homestay families' house before dinner!

We are all safe, happy, not sick and wishing this trip with all it has brought never comes to an end.

Oaxaca, me encanta....you enchant me (especially the earthquakes!!!)

Our Last Day with Casa Hogar

After an amazing party at Casa Hogar Thursday night, we spent the last day with the children at the Ethnobotanical Garden, Santo Domingo Church and the Blessing of the (flavored) Waters Festival.   Bonding with the children has been amazing, and despite our bouts with illness, fatique and overheating in the sun at the Festival, the Wat kids want to come right back next year!!!



Enid and Carmen went to Sam´s Club and litterally bought a pick-up truck full of diapers, tuna, laundry detergent, cooking oil, soaps, beans, etc for Casa Hogar using the money Dave M. '12 raised selling the 'Support Casa Hogar' bracelets for his Senior Project.   AGAIN- THANKS DAVE!!




The group at the Cultural Center in Etla today.

 

Gwen and her children enjoying the scenery at the Garden

Samanthan and Mario

We are currently taking a few days to see the sights, visit artists and the magical mountain village of Benito Juarez before teaching English in the school at Ocotlan on Tuesday and Wednesday!!  We will be unable to blog for a few days...but check bak as we update you on our teaching adventures!!

A group picture for 2012 at the Garden

Oh my God!!  Will saving a child from the heat at the Festival.

A hug and a good-bye.



Today´s visit to a paper factory in the hills.



Our last sight of the children until next year.

Here is a video from the party..Just a simple word can make a child happy!!!

Thank you, Dave M. '12

Because of the hard work Dave put into his Senior Project raising money for Casa Hogar, we had an amazing taco, nieves (ice cream) and piñata party for all of Casa Hogar...the adults and children...delivered to all of us.  Tomorrow the bulk of the money will go with Carmen and Enid as they go to Sam´s Club, yes it is here too, to purchase items (food, diapers, etc) that Coco, the head of Casa Hogar, gave us on a long list.  Dave, you have truely shaped your world and the world around you!!!  Unfortunately, I have only one photo of the party right now because my phone died after endless games of ¨Meet Swampy¨with the children on my iPhone.  Once I upload someone else´s photos, I will show you the joy on the children´s faces (as well as lots of guacamole) during the party!!

As for the rest of the day....It was another leg of the Amazing Race...If you haven´t read my last post, please do....it explains it all.  But the take home message is that the kids have done their best to be a part of every moment with the children from Casa Hogar as well as seeing all Oaxaca has to offer...but lots of naps and pepto were needed again today.  Here are some photos to capture our adventures!!!

The one photo of the party so far...9th graders who attend Overlook Farm take note..these children built and maintained a fire with no problem!!

And then there were four....the Survivors...Will, Samantha, Ms OB, Flor (our Spanish teacher) and Mr. Werner at Spanish School on Thursday.  The rest went home to rest up for the big party at Casa Hogar Thursday night

Gwen and the crew at Enid Dollard, our trip coordinator's house for lunch on Thursday!!

Enid´s hospitality was amazing!!

Brandonlee and Samantha plying football at Casa Hogar

Michael and the gang in a (parked) pick-up truck hanging out!

Emily and this little girl showing some style!!

Kate is a rock star at Casa Hogar!!

The homework-dining room at Casa Hogar

I have a nearly identical picture of Will from last year!!

Liz y los estudiantes during Break at Spanish School on Wednesday!!

Tuesday´s field trip with the children to Tule, a beautiful town with the famous Tule Tree...claim to fame....it has the largest base of any tree in the world and is around 2000years old!!