Safe Passage

Can I go on for a bit on how thankful I am that "ambassadors" from Safe Passage took the time to talk to the girls?

Deeply.

These are folks who have day jobs (3 are teachers!) and still had the passion to volunteer to come on up, (after a full day at school), and talk to our small group on the inspiring work Safe Passage does.

People are good.

Speaking of full days at school; and the girls? They just amaze me.

Really.

For an hour and a half they listened and watched while the Safe Passage folks explained to them why people scour the dump for recyclables and some scraps of food, (or anything they may be able to re-purpose or get a little money for), how their programs provide food, education, safety and hope for some of Guatemala City's most vulnerable children and, importantly, provides opportunity and hope for their future.

Now?

They are so geared up to sell some worry dolls.

Thank- you Safe Passage!

Mash up

This week we had a great speaker from Konbit Sante come and speak to the girls about the work they do in Haiti to improve maternal and newborn outcomes.

Now, I know these girls are just awesome, but (after a full day of school) to sit for an hour around that square table and listen while Danny talked about things that are just so hard to get our heads around - it was amazing. Truly. And the questions? They had so many. Hospitals without bandaids? Or running water? Or electricity? You could really see the gears clicking as these girls tried to comprehend the inconceivable.

Danny did a great job of opening up the discussion without making it scary or too heavy for them to handle. Such a fine balance in this work and he hit it perfectly.

A mash up between the light and the dark. The processing and the creating. 

These girls amaze me.

~ Guatemala ~

worry doll making with piper cleaners and embroidery floss

Our third meeting found us in Guatemala making worry dolls and tortillas.We had some girls rolling out dough and frying up tortillas in the kitchen while others got their craft on with the worry dolls. The girls soon developed a system that worked for them in creating the dolls. Some enjoyed constructing the bodies while others found wrapping them to be more their thing. Pure love for this process. While they wrapped, I read this book. It was long enough that it gave them something to listen to while they settled into their work and the crafting was a perfect accompaniment to this longish story. A win, win!

~ Haiti ~

 a little scene from our community breakfast fundraiser from this past weekend. featured are some props we use during our sessions.

Our first cultural exploration landed us in Haiti where the girls learned about Haitian metal art (which led to discussions of why there are so many oil drums in Haiti!), enjoyed some rum cake (rum extract that is!) and had a hand at stamping metal - which is another story.

It seems the blanks we ordered were a little too thick for the girls to work with (even with their 1lb dead blow hammers!) so we will need to order thinner blanks and give this another go. I choose stamping the metal for 2 reasons - the first being that I think this is way safer for the girls to work with than having them cut, bend and hammer sheets of metal.

Call me crazy.

The second is these lovely works of art the girls will be creating will be used as fundraisers during our finale - magic!

The organizations we will be raising funds for, in regards to Haiti, this session are Konbit Sante and Orphelinat Foyer Evangelique Universel. Both of these organizations will be in our "health" component with direct funds going to Evangelique and a "birth kit" assembling fundraiser for Konbit Sante. Two wonderful organizations!

~ empathy ~

After taking a break for the holidays, Global Girls is back with a session for grades 4/5/6 ~ we're off to a fun start!

At our first meeting, (after fueling up on snacks of popcorn, muffins and apples and a quick circle/meeting time) these girls had a good time burning off some energy with super fun (and very active!) group team building (and just for plain fun!) games.

Once the sillies had a chance to settle a bit, we talk about empathy, sympathy & compassion and the differences between these three. The girls were super insightful and also had some of the same mix-ups and hard-to-pin ideas we all can have about what these mean. This is such an important piece for what we do in this session as we go on into exploring other cultures and then, finally, work into our compassionate responses piece in the last few meetings of the session.

We just started our art project when our time was up - more coming on that in a few days!

For now though? Super fun. Love these girls and their energy, insight, and yes - empathy!

(note:  to ensure the privacy of the girls, I do not post identifying images of them so in cases (like today!) where I don't have any non-identifying images to use, I'll post one that will, at least hopefully!, give the reader an idea of our beautiful natural surroundings!)

~ light ~

puzzle race

lantern decorating

session GG 2/3 (second and third grade Global Girls, fall 2015)

Snippets of light.

My guess is the silk lantern decorating was the highlight for them...or was it making the diwas? They totally got into digging their hands into that clay to scoop out chunky fistfuls to shape them. Then again, the Nigerian mask making was a creative blast too.

Six weeks whizzed by in a snap....

(if you'd like more info about Global Girls, feel free to send along a message! I'd love to hear from you.)

~ wrap ~

Mexico :: some rebozo love and weaving

walking down to the center :: all together now

tired little feet

getting ready for the umbrella parade

and that's a wrap for the GG K/1 session (Global Girls kindergarten and first grade).

These girls.

Can I say, how much sweetness can one be expected to stand? Really. These girls? Oh. My. Heart.

Six little girls paired with six older girls as mentors and that's a recipe for some love.

Some of the best bits to come out of building this compassion initiative are not always the big light bulbs going on but, often, the small seeds planted...the seeds of compassion right here in our own backyard. Bumped knees on the walk down to the center, a helping hand when someone gets a little overwhelmed or frustrated - these bits. To see that beauty play out among these girls is to see...hope.