Meet Jaclyn Bawden from the Kenya Team.

 

Hey Youthlincers, this is Meagan I am the blogger for the Kenya Team, I am here to introduce you to Jaclyn Bawden.  Jaclyn loves boating, especially at Lake Powell, she loves spending time with family and friends.  Jaclyn loves Reese's, Superman ice cream and loves Cafe Rio.  She want's to be a dental hygienist and wants to go to Africa because she knows it will be an amazing experience and she wants to help people here.

 

Scott visited Jaclyn Bawden’s service site this week which is Discovery Gateway.  Jaclyn goes down once or twice a week to volunteer in the play areas.  Her responsibilities are to clean and organize all the play areas and to play and interact with the kids who are there playing.

 There are several fun areas that the kids can play in.  For example, there is a grocery store where the children can pretend they are shopping or pretend they are the employees of the store. 

There are uniforms for them to put on and tons of play food.  There was the cutest little girl named Lucy there who was “in charge”.  She was the take charge checker and she kept us laughing the whole time.  She  knew all about the store and being a checker.  There is also a house, farm, construction site, and a water play area.  Upstairs is a theater area with costumes the kids can put on as well as areas to learn about the weather, broadcasting and even a real medical helicopter the kids can play in.  We had a great time helping the kids with whatever they needed as well as cleaning up all the toys.

Miss Utah & Mondo Art Project add artistic expression to our Real Life refugee mentoring program.

This has been a great week for the Real Life Program! Monday we were able to got to know the kids involved in the program on a more one on one level. Students talked about where they were from, their families, school life, who their hero is and just got to feel comfortable with everyone! It was truly a great day to be a part of. It is such an inspiration to me to see our amazing Youthlinc students reach out and touch these refugees lives. The program has been running for over a month and we have seen such success! We have between 25-50 refugee teens participating in our program and a huge THANK YOU to the STELLAR Youthlinc students who have gone above and beyond to make this program a safe and fun place for the kids involved.

Through our partnership with Miss Utah we were able to add a day to the program that is devoted to art expression. So to celebrate that we wanted to have a cool collaborative project and we came up with "Life's Puzzle". Since we have so many people involved in this program we thought this would be a great way for everyone to be represented. This program is just like a puzzle when all the pieces come together you have a masterpiece. All the contestants in the Miss Utah and Miss Teen Contest donated over $2,000 dollars worth of art supplies that were used in this project and throughout the program, we are so GRATEFUL!

Here are some awesome photos from the week, hope you enjoy.

Here is the whole group of students and volunteers with the finished product! It looks AMAZING!

The crown holders had a wonderful time getting to know the students!

It is starting to come together....

Everyone hard at work designing their puzzle pieces.

Our amazing Judy Zone even came down and created her very own puzzle piece!

This week the girls taught the Youthlinc Students about Thai Jump roping, a very challenging sport! Everyone loved it.

Explaining the art project and talking about what we all have in common and how we are also very unique.

We were able to label all the countries represented by the participants in the program.

One on one time getting to know the students was so much fun!

Hope you enjoy learning about Real Life! We will keep you posted on what else we are up to.

Peru, Reflections, and a Little Bit Of Spanish :)

Yep, the Peru team had its second official meeting of the year, and I think it is safe to say that all of us are only getting more anxious. Anxious about raising the money, getting our passports, and fulfilling our service requirements. At least I know I am. Though the trip seems far away, it only dawned on me that there is continually more and more to do. So, the meeting developed as follows:

( Well, actually I was late, sorry! So I didn't catch the first bit, just trying to be honest here.)

However, I jumped right into the part of the meeting where the invitation was given to reflect on our local service hours. It was inspiring to hear how our team members are truly making service apart of their lives. Jacki Kimball told us about her little brother ( big brothers big sisters) who's father's business had failed, so christmas was looking bleak for him and his family. So Jacki, her family and her fiance's family pulled together some toys and money to provide that family with a Christmas. Kimberly Gourly also talked about helping her brothers family have a Christmas as well. The Daun's talked about donating clothes to woman their ages and sizes who barely had anything.

I must say, this is the right crowd to be going to Peru with. I can already tell that everyone is service oriented and totally ready to work. I'm grateful to be surrounded by people who truly know how to give to others. I know that in Peru, we will be able to make such a difference, just because we have a team with the right mindset!

So, without further interruption, the best part of the meeting began. We split into our committee groups for the first time and got down to business. With Peru just a couple months away, we really need to buckle down and figure out exactly what we will be doing while we are there. Though I know Jeff spent hours dividing up the team members, in an attempt to try and make the teams diverse, but also giving everyone the committee they wanted the most. I know he did an awesome job. Because I can only speak for the education team...I'll focus on that. However, I'll make sure to included updates on each committee in my upcoming blogs!

The education team elected Paul Mueller to be our leader. A fine choice I must say. Paul is an elementary education major at the University of Utah..so who better to lead our team in the task of education Peruvian children anywhere from 5 to 18 years old. He knows the best techniques for teaching and getting through to kids and I know he will have a lot of really good ideas. We talked about what topics we want to teach. We threw out a lot of ideas..anywhere from teaching hip hop dances to field trips. So, Peru team members this next part is for YOU!

PLEASE be thinking of your talents and hobbies ( I know you ALL have them) and if there is anything specific you think would be really fun and beneficial to teach the kids and villagers in Peru, bring these ideas with you to the February retreat! So, if you are really good at country dancing or something, and want to teach Peruvians...well..let's do it! So..brainstorm by the next meeting! You will all be teaching the lessons, so it's important you all have an input!

The education committee developed a few goals, and will continue to work on them. We mainly want to work with the knowledge that the villagers already have, and expand on it. We are looking to make, or get donated some posters and maps that we can hang on the empty, barren walls at the school. We also want to think of fun crafts we can teach the kids how to make, so we can interact with them and really teach them through a hands-on method.

We discussed how we want to research the best ESL methods of teaching, so that we can communicate in Spanish, but also help them learning basic English that could really help them in their later years. The education team really wants to open the eyes of the people there and show them that learning and education is the key to success and fulf illment. Atleast that's what I think. For, education is a gift that truly keeps on giving.

So, let the committee planning begin. I just know our projects are going to be awesome. After some basic language instruction from Mikaela, ( yes, hola means hello..haha) the meeting was adjourned until our retreat in February. Peru team, keep this trip in mind as you go throughout each day and week. Can't wait to keep this whole meeting thing up.

Goodluck!

Team Cambodia January Retreat!

Chum Reap Soo-a!

Last night we held our combination January meeting and retreat at the YouthLinc office. It was a great chance for all of us to get to know each other and set goals as groups. There was lots of delicious food (Thanks so much for the delicious egg rolls and spring rolls, John! And thanks to everyone else who contributed food!)


We started off by re-introducing ourselves and highlighting some of our local service sites. Some of us are volunteering with the English Skills Learning Center, some of us with the Christmas Box House, and some of us with YouthLinc's own local program, Real Life in SLC.




We had a quick language instruction course by John and Wade, and we all had a chance to practice some words. It was wonderful to see all these people trying these words for the very first time. Khmer sounds very different from English, but it's not as complex as you might initially think and it's very fun to learn (see/listen for the pop quiz at the end of the post!).




We learned what committees we will be working in for the trip. I am in the health promotion group and so I will highlight my group this month. Our Mentors are Rich, Bonnie, and Jill. Rich is a practicing pediatrician, Bonnie is an IV therapist and nurse, and Jill is a neuro rehab nurse at IMC. They bring a wealth of medical knowledge to our team. I really appreciate the way that they lead the team because they made it very clear that this is our trip and they are just here to provide expertise, but we are the ones that need to plan our health promotion lessons. There are many health topics that we hope to teach in Cambodia, and among them are: maturation, hygiene, women's health, and HIV/AIDS education.


After we finished up with our groups, the craziness began! First we played two truths and a lie, wherein we learned about people being cheer squad captains, losing teeth, and drinking curdled milk/cow urine delicacies!


The next game we played was "never have I ever" which resulted in many near concussions and a few interesting moments where it was revealed that several men had worn dresses and high heels and some women shave their face (it's okay, YouthLinc is a safe place and we don't judge).


The final game we played was a talking super fast game that resulted in hilarity.

All in all, good times were had by all and to finish this post up I have a pop-quiz for Team Cambodia!

The following three items are audio clips of phrases we learned at the meeting, and so your job is to figure out what they mean (type the english translation corresponding to audio file 1, 2, or 3 in the comments below) and you will get gloating rights for the next meeting! Also, I will update this post as soon as people have guessed the correct answers so you can have them for future reference.

Here they are! (realize they are intentially speaking slower so that you can hear each sound)