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Friday, March 28, 2008

Kid's Day

After we said goodbye and dropped Mike off at the airport, Amanda and I took the 7 hour bus ride back to Cerro Brisa and immediately started planning for Amanda's latest initiative, "Kid's Day."

Just in case there remains any doubt as to which demographic this idea targeted, it was for kids, specifically local kids between the ages of 5 and 12. The event's themes were hand-washing and teeth-brushing, two routine practices that I can't even remember formally learning as a child, but which I often take for granted as two of those "common sense" operations that people just "do." The sad reality is that many people hardly do either one, and the evidence is readily seen in the blackened, rotted teeth of most Cerro Brisa children, and the alarmingly high incidence of intestinal/stomach ailments. Knowing this, Amanda put together a fun-filled day of interactive learning for about 40 local mini-hellions (uh, I mean "darling children") that I really think planted some important seeds.



This chaotic game involves rings of children circling around a balloon and then racing towards a finish line while keeping the balloon from touching the ground. While the game was fun, our restriction that no hands were to touch the balloon while all circles were to be maintained posed some problems. The pile of latrine rock in the picture's right hand corner created some interesting and memorable "challenges" as well.





After the warm-up game, Amanda and I split up and attended to our different age groups. I had the older kids and Amanda the younger. Here I am explaining the latest in cutting edge hand-washing theory.









Amanda, practicing a hand-washing jingle with her group that they continually reference when they come visit us. The idea is that, if remembered, the song will reinforce the lessons taught to them longer and better than through a mere presentation.










The "jabón (soap)/bactería" battle which Amanda scripted and we then staged in front of the uproarious crowd.









At the end of the day, we had all of the participants line up and wash their hands before eating lunch. It was great watching them all try and outdo one another by washing "better" than the one before them.








Wrapping up the day with a little face painting (a la Amanda) and lunch eating. We provided the rice n beans to the group as an extra incentive for them to attend.












Enjoying da grub!








As you can see, the teeth-brushing seminar (at least half of our day) is absent from the above post. All of our pictures from this portion came out either blurry or dark, so you'll just have to take our word for it. During that part we played games including "pin the brush on the mouth," and held extensive question and answer sessions. The kids seemed to already be well informed, with most even claiming to already have their own toothbrush at home. Regardless, through the generosity of Amanda's mom, we were able to provide those who answered a post-seminar quiz correctly with new brushes. And as consolation prizes for those who faltered in the final moment, we gave...candy!

2 Comments:

At 7:49 PM, Blogger Misha Cohen said...

Hi, Misha here Amanda's highschool friend...tell her hi and to contact me when you guys are near a computer...www.mishacohenphotography.com
Anyhow the games looked great and for sure they planted seeds...it looks like you guys are having a very fruitful adn fun time.

Misha

 
At 11:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yay Candy! Sadly, I recently decided to remove all sugar from my diet. no more candy for me.

I also love the picture where it seems you're a germ. classy.

 

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