Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Never Have We Ever...Been To Peru!




PERU FEBRUARY RETREAT



Yep, it was finally the Peru team's turn for the retreat! This past weekend on the 4th and 5th, we had a overnight retreat at the Youthlinc office. I think we can all agree it was truly a blast!
The majority of the first hour or so was spent talking about the travel clinic for next March. We are all supposed to go to the University of Utah travel clinic on March 5th. A representative from the clinic came by to give us a heads up and remind us that we must fill out and send the pre -travel form by FEBRUARY 18th. Their goal is to help us all have a safe and enjoyable experience this summer, so lets all cooperate and make the travel clinic go smoothly. I hope I am not the only one who wants to avoid malaria.

So, once we concluded the instruction of how not to die while on our Youthlinc service trip, we got down to straight business. Our February meeting was designated for the revealing of each committees goals. Here are a few of the goals that the teams came up with.

Education:
1) Incorporate students funds of knowledge-or what they already know- to teach them new information and about their surrounding, environment and economy.

2) Encourage kinesthetic, visual and interactive learning and teaching. Use hands-on activities and demonstrate lessons.

3) Plan flexible lessons. Incorporate a variety of skill levels, ways of learning, teaching and be able to adapt lessons to change if needed.


Construction:
1)Pour concrete for a sports court
2) Provide a pair of shorts and t-shirt for every person in the village
3) Contribute to the Rotaract bridge project. The Rotary club is gathering the materials needed for the bridge-metal and wood. They will do a study on the river bed in April or May to find out where the best possible location for the bridge will be. Construction will begin to take place right before our team gets there, and we have the awesome opportunity in being apart of this phase!

Cross Cultural:
The activities they want to plan for the opening ceremonies are- western swing dancing, a patriotic song, and an activity with hand actions.

For the closing ceremonies they want to do a combined hip hop dance and have a talent show with individual talents.

The fun fair will be awesome as well! Activities include:
  • fish pond
  • volleyball soccer
  • bean bag toss
  • magic tricks
  • twister
  • face painting
  • temporary tatoos
  • nail painting
  • jewelry booth
  • arts and crafts
  • sidewalk chalk
  • big bubbles
  • jump rope
Also, they want to make sure everyone on the team brings 10 small prizes/party favors!

Medical:
-To ask doctors and dentists for supplies to bring down!
-Research specific medical needs of the village and find those to get donated. They want to try and avoid bringing medical supplies that aren't exactly necessary.
-Teach medical lessons

Micro-enterprise:
-to learn about microenterprise so that we can teach the people in Peru about the program. they will be teaching them four lessons covering what a loan is, effective record keeping, paying money back, and about marketing and selling. Our immediate goals are to brainstorm fundraising ideas, and then plan/do them so that we will have money to loan to those with business ideas.

Each committee did an awesome job on presenting and coming up with goals for their team. I am thrilled to see how we apply these goals when we actually get to Peru. I hope more than anything that we go far and beyond what we originally decided.


Micro-enterprise
Construction
freddy (cross-cultural)
Medical


The rest of the night consisted of playing games and just enjoying each other's company! We played a game called "never have I ever," where we definitely discovered a lot about the weird things people do. I suppose we should play again after we come back from Peru, it seems the possibilities would be endless.

Food was partaken of, we laughed and joked around, and overall let loose. I have only grown more excited to go to a foreign country for 2 weeks with this group of roudy kids. I know we will have an amazing time.
February payments are due on the 25th of this month..so don't forget! We will see you at the March clinic! Happy valentines day :)







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