And were off!

In 3 and a half hours we will be on our first flight from Oaxaca to Mexico City.
The experience and trip here was great and very rewarding. We will all miss the kids at Escuela Morelos and Casa Hogar, but we have photos and little notes to remind us of the children once we leave. I personally am greatfull for the fact that i was allowed to go on this trip for a second time due to the fact i had to leave 4 days into it last year. I wanted to just post a final blog telling a tiny piece of my experience (i could go on forever) and say thank you to everyone who was involved from all you parents for allowing my friends to go on this trip with me, my friends who decided to go on the trip (it would have been very diffrent with out you) and of course to our teachers Aaron, Ms. Garcia and Ms. Neale! Last but not least Enid, for setting everything up down here in Oaxaca i dont want to even imagine what the trip would have been like with out here and the connections she had!
So Goodbye to Mexico Hello to home!

Flight Information

Departure from Oaxaca:

Time: 12:25 pm

Flight number: 2047 (AeroMexico)

Arrive in Mexico City at 1:30

Depart from Mexico City

Time: 4:40 pm

Flight Number: 404 (AeroMexico)

Arrive at JFK at 10:45 pm

Premier Limousine picks us up from JFK to Watkinson.Approximately at 1:45 am

Back to Oaxaca!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our last day at school was successful we reviewed material and played games during class. After school from 5-7 was a read-a-thon. For the read-a-thon children who decided to read dressed up as the main character in their book. Kayla, Ms. Neale and Aaron read as well. The rest of us went from room to room listening to stories and we gave out bookmarks to the children who read. It was a good experience to see not only the children but their parents get involved. 

 

Saturday, we returned to Oaxaca City and Casa Hogar (the orphanage). We went to a zoo and had a picnic there with the children. It was nice to see the children again and see how excited they were to visit the zoo.  After we had the day to ourselves.

 

Today, we cleared our schedule and were able to wake up late. We visited the Mitla ruins, where our tour guide showed us around. Near the ruins was a market where we spent our time shopping and buying scarves to sell for proceeds next year. We went to lunch at a restaurant where we were served stone soup, a soup that was cooked with a red-hot rock right in the bowl. Once again we had the rest of the day to ourselves and visited the Zócolo and market. We just got back from going to the movies right down the road we saw The Proposal and mostly we all enjoyed it (minus Kevin…but he was a good sport).

Goodnight Everyone!

 

Ps. Two more days!

More Photos

Octoclan Contiuned.

Yesterday, Wednesday we returned to the school Escuela Moreleos. There we worked with our classes and introduced more english vocabulary such as, parts of the body and days of the week and months. After classes were over one of the teachers and some students took time out of their day to teach us a local art. We created daisys out of dried flowers and pumpkin seeds. The seeds were the petals of the flower, we had to glue them onto the dried flower and then we painted them to get the affect of a real flower. We did this with some children from the school. Another project that we did yesterday was create flowers out of popsicle sticks and dried seed pods on a piece of paper. We ended our school day early and were able to walk around the town for a short period of time and then hopped on a bus to go to lunch. We went to a beautiful restuarant named Los Agaves for lunch where we had three types of tamales, mole, vegtable and a sweet "dulce" tamale. After we went to the Oaxacan Folk Art museum. There were many interesting pieces of artwork that we will not be able to see anywhere else, of course a conciderable amount of time was spent in the gift shop :) The last thing on our agenda for yesterday was to go to a black pottery store. We were supposed to get a demonstration but the artist was in Oaxaca city, so instead we just walked around and shopped.

Today at Escuela Morelos we taught more english vocabulary, we added on to yesterdays teaching of days of the week to teach the children months and numbers up to 31 so they could tell us in english what their birthday was. We also reveiwed body parts with the children by playing simon says and head-shoulders-knees-toes. After school today we did not have an arts and crafts actvity with the children from school so we spent our free time by going back to our home stay to get rest. Today we had lunch in the market we went to a restuarant called Fridas, where the owner and chef truly looked like Frida. There were many options of food from chille rancheros to almond sala chicken. After we piled into the back of a truck and headed off to the backstrap weaving village once we were there we got a demonstration of how the backstrap worked. Amanda, Elizabeth, Laura, Jasmine and Ms. Neale tried their hand at the weaving and were pretty successful. Some people bought some stuff and then it was the end of our day. Now we are home and have pizza waiting downstairs just a little bight of home.

Benito Juarez and Escuela de Morelos

Our Time In Benito Juarez and Ocotlan

The past few days have been very busy as well as exciting. This past weekend we spent two days in a small mountain town called Benito Juarez. The ride up to the town was interesting as it was a thirty minute drive on a dirt road up steep mountains with no guardrails. The town itself was very beautiful and had an amazing view of the city below, but it was at least 15 degrees colder than Oaxaca city and there was less oxygen to breath so walking long distances was somehwat difficult. The first day in Benito Juarez was spent resting but the second day we took a hike to a zipline. The hike was long and hard but it was worth it once we reached the zipline. The zipline was about a quarter of a mile long and was about eleven thousund feet above sea level. All of us went on the zipline (minus Ms. Garcia and Mrs. Neale) and each of us had an awesome time!! After the zipline the group ( minus me, Kayla, and Ms Neale) contined on the hike to the top of the tallest mountain. From what I heard, it was quite a hike but the view from the top was worth it. After Benito Juarez we traveled to Ocotlan where we would all be staying in one house. On Monday we were up early, ready to teach English and art projects to the fifth graders of Escuela Morelos. Monday afternoon, we visited a Dominican church and the attached museum which was an ex-convent;the art in the museum was very beautiful. Today after working at the school again and having lunch, we visited the home of a very famous Oaxacan wood carver. When we reached his home he demonstrated the tools and supplies he needed to create his carvings as well as showed us some of his previous works. The carvings ranged from small frogs, lizards, and bears, to much larger carvings of saints, centuars, and skeletons. Once he finishes carving his piece his family memebres (predominantly women) paint the peices in extrodanary and vibrant colors. After the demonstration we got a chance to paint our own carvings which had been provded to us. After finishing our carvings we had a chance to buy some of the already finished carvings. We are looking foward to working with the kids for the rest of the week and completing our time in Oaxaca.

Our Last Day of Classes

Today was our last day of classes at our Spanish school. On our way to the school word on the street was that something was going to blow up down the road. Turns out what happened is that a gas tank at a local bakery exploded, we still do not know the full details. After our final classes we gave Flor the director of the school a gift similar to the ones that we will give/have given our home stays. The gifts are a Watkinson bag, Watkinson water bottle, chocolates, maple syrup and in some cases crasins. After reciving the gift Flor gave a huge thanks to all of and told us "mi casa es su casa" my house is your's and invited us to come back if we were ever in the area again and said a nice goodbye. After school we went out for lunch to a resturant that specialized in tacos, there were so many choices it was insane! As we were going to leave we realized it was heavily ranning and for the first time this trip, we broke out the dreaded ponchos. But only to walk a block down the road for some gelato. There we waited for taxis, which caused a problem and instead we took a bus to Casa Hogar which caused some of us to be late to the orphange. Once we arived at Casa Hogar, Elizabeth, Kevin and Laura took on the task of painting our mural. The rest of the group played with the children, watched the children to make sure they didn't get into the paint and read to them. Today we left at 5:30 because we had to come back to our home stays and get ready for the Guelegetza reinactment at the Camino Real hotel. During the dance the dancers represent diffrent regions and indiginos groups by imitating their style of dance. It really was quite a treat to see. At one point they even asked members of the audience to go up on stage and dance, Mary, Elizabeth and Aaron all were invited up. It was a good day and now we are all home and packing because tomorrow we are off on another leg of our adventure.
Goodnight!

Hey our loyal fans!
We're writing again from Oaxaca, Mexico just to give you an update. Ms. Neal, Ms. Garcia, and our newest member to the group, Aaron Baladucchi (He is super cool and he has also graduated from Watkinson and is very fluent in Spanish.) Today, we went to Spanish class and it was Leti's birthday, one of the instructors. (She gave Kevin like 6 hugs and danced with him but we all sang a song given to us by our teachers) After classes, we went to Enid's house which is a few blocks away from our school. There we had lunch. Enid made vegetarian chili, salad, and zuccini flowers for us. (Muy Delicioso!) It was a plesant visit considering her apartment was in a beautiful garden. After lunch, we (the teachers and us) talked about how the trip as a whole was going. We all agreed that we were having a great time and dispite our rigorous schedual, we are eagerly anticipating the next few weeks. We went to Casa Hogar after lunch and as always, the kids were great. We introduced jump rope to them today. They loved it! Also are also creating a mural for the kids (with Kevin's awsome art skills) as something for the kids to remember us by. Can't wait to post again,
Buenas Noches!! XD

Hola! 

Today was more of the same, we went to Spanish school and again to the orphanage (Casa Hogar). At Casa Hogar we continued to play with the kids, sort through clothes, prep  a wall for a mural we will be painting, had a beauty station, and taught them shapes. It was upsetting to see some of the children whose chicken pox had spread (one girl's chicken pox progressed internally).  We left the orphanage earlier to go to the zolcolo (the center of town) to see a traditional dance performance.  After we were through we had the opportunity to walk around and go shopping. We then met up to have dinner, which was tacos al pastor (tacos with barbeque pork and pineapple). After a long day we walked back to our home stays and retired for the evening. 

You'll hear more again soon! Hope everyone is doing ok at home.

Hasta Luego!

Laura, Kayla, Nicole, and Mary.

June 16- Una dia en Oaxaca

Hola!

Today was a lot like yesterday, in that we started out our day at Spanish school, had lunch, then went to the orphanage. More kids had the chickenpox than yesterday, but it surprised me to see that none of them were scratching themselves. Almost everyone received homework to do for manana, which is not something anyone here wants. Hopefully our parents are not wishing homework on us (warning). Just kidding we know you would never wish that. The restaurant we ate at today was decorated nicely, and the food was good too. Walking to the restaurant was a bit of a challenge because their power lines are underground and they were being serviced, so one of the main streets we had to walk on was ripped up.

 Though once we got to the orphanage things were the same. The kids loved LOVED having us there, and we did chores and played with them. Today we taught them how to make alligators with their hands and finger paint. Many of the kids just turned the white paper into a light green with swirls, but everyone enjoyed themselves. The director the museum told us her story of how she started the orphanage. Personally, didn't understand most/any of the amazing story, but enjoyed listening anyway. We ended the day with teaching the kids another song, this one in english. We took the bus home and enjoyed a lovely home-cooked meal. 

Hasta,

Jasmine

Hola es Mary, Nicole, Laura y Kayla from our home stay! 

Today was our first day going to the spanish emersion classes and working at the orphanage. The entire group met at the home-stay of the Pérez family where Kevin, Jasmine, Amanda and Elizabeth are staying. From there Enid walked us to the Spanish language school Oaxaca Spanish Magic a 45 minute walk. There the director Flor gave a brief description of the school, then we were split up into groups according to our level of spanish which was determined by a small "quiz" we took before leaving for Oaxaca. The groups are, Mary, Nicole, Kayla, Kevin, Elizabeth and Amanda in one class. Laura and Jasmine are in separate classes. The teaching style of the school is conversational which was interesting and helpful. 

Then we went to lunch at a restaurant called Comala. 

Then we were off by taxi's to the orphanage. When we got there as most of you know already there was a bit of an issue because they found out that 5 of the children had the chickenpox. After that was all cleared by parents we went into the orphanage and began our time there by reading stories, folding laundry and cleaning the orphanage. After quite time and the chores were done we played with the children and did a coloring activity. Towards the end of our time Aaron taught the children a song about their hands and how hands are meant for helping not hurting. It great to see the excitement of the children while we were there and we can't wait to return.

After the orphanage we all got on a bus and returned to our home stays to have dinner. We will post another blog soon about our adventures. 

Hasta Luego!

Mary, Kayla, Laura and Nicole 

Hola From Oaxaca

Hola 

It is our third day in oaxaca and we have already acomplished and done so much. 

We have visited many museums, including the museum of prehispanic art that was created and sustained by the artist Rufino Tamayo. We also visited the textile museum where we learned about the origin of dyes and the process in which it entails. 

 We went to la casa de hogar (an orphanage) where we meet and played with the children. Even though there is a language barrier, kids are kids anywhere you go and it was very rewarding. 

Also during this time we visited two of the twenty nine churches in oaxaca including the amazing and gold church of Santo Domingo. Attached to the church there is also a museum as well as gorgeous botanical gardens.

In the city today marked the third aniversary of a political protest, and people filled the zocalo normally a open square was packed with vendors and protestors. 

As we moved into our home stays we continue to learn about the city  of Oaxaca and its rich history. There is still so much to experience

Un abrazo de ( a hug from) 

Elizabeth 

 

Oaxaca 2009- They're Off!!

At 3:30am today, a very soggy group of travelers started their journey to Oaxaca for the 2009 trip. Three weeks of service work in a school and an orphanage as well visiting artisans and historical sites awaits them.

Check back here for photos and updates!!

Feel free to post comments and support this year's group: Nicole B, Amanda C, Kevin D, Mary O, Jasmine P, Elizabeth P, Laura S, Kayla S, Sra. Garcia y Sra. Neale.