A supportive team

I have had some exciting developments in my programs this week.  As I’ve stated before, I am now in charge of everything leadership in our department.  That means I have taken over the current leadership group that meets on Saturdays and plans the morning activities and I will be starting up a girls leadership group in January (a group just for young girls to develop their leadership skills – but beyond just leadership we are going to work on self-esteem and topics that are the important to young women – it is going to be a community of empowerment for young women).  Well, after being in charge of the current leadership group for a couple weeks, I have realized that there are some great things about the current program but there are also some things that need a big change.  One of these being that I believe there are some youth that are currently in the program that shouldn’t be.  They do not have the drive, passion and characteristics to be in a leadership group (and I don’t think they truly want to if they know what it means to be in a leadership group).  Therefore, I was wishing that I could just start over with the leadership group…stop the current one and start over fresh.  My plan for the girls group (and what I wanted for the other leadership group as well) is that the youth have to apply to be a part of the group.  Therefore, I will receive those who truly have the desire to be a part of the group (take the time to fill out the application) and also I will be able to review their responses and application to see if they are ready for the group.  Well…I didn’t think this would be possible with the current leadership group because I didn’t think the team would want to cut the current program and start fresh.  To my VERY happy surprise, when I brought it up at the meeting they all immediately responded (in Spanish of course) “Yes, we very much agree. Do it.”    AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  There’s nothing like having the full support of your team.  And they are all still very excited for my girls group.  Anytime I mention to anyone that I’m going to be starting this girls group they always say something like, “That is such a good idea!  That is very much needed!”  Whoot!!  All the support is absolutely wonderful!!  Though, I am feeling a little bit of the pressure to make these programs happen and make them happen well…this is totally new territory for me – starting programs…but thankfully I have a great education from St. Kate’s that has provided me with several leadership opportunities that are really going to come in handy as I form and run these programs.

Therefore, my goal is by the end of this month I will have a lot of the general details done for my programs, my posters and flyers finished, my applications ready, and any other plans of how to invite youth to come get an application.  I have been working on parts of these through-out the month and really started working diligently after my meeting with Rigo this week when I set this deadline for myself.  I’m proud to say that as of now the posters, flyers and applications are almost finished (just need a little revising), many general details are done (but definitely not all of them), and I’m still brainstorming more ideas for inviting youth beyond just flyers and posters.  It is really exciting!!  I really hope they are successful and that I get people to apply… :)

Work has definitely been picking up with me taking on the current leadership program, having Vision teams here (I’ve done more translating!), and having all the events coming up in November.  As I mentioned a while back, I will be teaching English classes for two weeks to those who will be going into Básico this next year (there middle school equivalent).  Thankfully, I did a bulk of these lesson plans back in September when I first found out I’d be doing this because I had the time then, so now when I’m busy with my other programs, I only have to go back and revise and fill in the holes.  This is a prime example about why I LOVE being the exact opposite of a procrastinator :) It really comes in handy sometimes.  We will also be celebrating the graduation of our affiliated students on Saturday, November 10^th which means we will have many sponsors coming down to celebrate with their affiliated child along with many students and family members on site.  I’m very excited to see this!!  It is so cool to be here for such an extended time period so that I get to see all these fun festivities!

This last Friday night was a big event in the youth department.  We had what they call La Fogata (the campfire) but it really is an equivalent of what we call a “lock-in” in the U.S.  It was an all night event 5:30pm-8:00am where about 80 youth were on site with us, having a good time.  This year, our team decided to split up into shifts so we all wouldn’t have to be working the whole night.  We drew numbers and I drew #2 which means I was on the second shift, 1am-8am…whoot! :)  They had rooms for us on site to sleep in, so I got a few hours before my shift and then I was awake and in charge!  There were various activities that the youth leaders planned, which included a “Rally” which is like a relay of various games that each team has to complete and whoever completes all of them in the least amount of time wins.  There was a soccer tournament, card games to play, a dance, a costume contest, roasting marshmallows around the campfire with time for people to tell jokes, supper, breakfast….and all the while there was an unlimited supply of coffee.  I was actually pretty impressed with my energy throughout the night (and that was without coffee as I still am not a coffee consumer)…though I did notice that my ability to speak Spanish was not quite as sharp when it was about 6am…my brain new the words, but the execution of actually speaking them was a little more difficult. :)

I know I have hardly put up any pictures (here or on facebook) but that is because I really do not carry my camera around here.  It’s kind of a bummer because there are moments when I wish I had it on me, but the reality is that I don’t carry a purse around often and therefore no camera.  It is just easier and safer that way sometimes (because you don’t have to worry about keeping it safe).  Also, there are many moments when I doing things that are exciting and interesting, but it wouldn’t be appropriate to take pictures…BUT on that note…I do have a few photos for you this time!  One day I actually had my camera at the office by chance and got a photo of my team…and then I took some photos off our office camera from a few of our events…so, Enjoy!

Repostería! A baking class that has gone on for the past several months and now as an end of the class the students were able to show off their work and sell some of they pasteries to us staff at Common Hope. YUM!



Serving supper at La Fogata




They were very excited to get their picture taken! Enjoying the night at Common Hope!



My team! The office of Apoyo a Jóvenes! We got t-shirts for the leaders of La Fogata, but we only had 10 of regular sizes that we had to save for the 10 youth leaders...so we got the left-overs.  The men had a little more trouble with the smaller sizes, but it provided a very entertaining morning in the office!
(Right to Left): Rigo (the boss), Me (the actual boss - haha! that's our joke in the office), Jaime (in charge of the Study Club), Karen (my cube buddy and in charge of Metamorfosis), Francisco (head of the computer room), Jovita (head of Talento Juvenil which includes Saturday activities, crafts, cooking class)