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)

A Glimpse at Local Service: Discovery Gateway

        The calendar year is rapidly closing in on us, but the Youthlinc year has just begun. In the past few months, members have been planning with their teams and putting in hours weekly of local service. We're each so absorbed in our our individual volunteer efforts that we're unaware of what other Youthlinc members are up to. While my main service is the Real Life in Salt Lake program, I was curious about others' volunteer endeavors. I talked to my fellow-Thailander Katelin Turner to learn about her volunteer experience at the Discovery Gateway.
        A few days a week, Katelin journeys down to the Gateway plaza to the local children's museum. At the Discovery Gateway, Katelin helps out by socializing and playing with the kids (and cleaning up after them!). Her volunteer experience has been rewarding because she gets to see how much fun the kids have at the museum. She also says she enjoys observing how the tots play with each other. Katelin remarked, "It really helps me be able to see how differently little kids work and think compared to older kids. Volunteering at Discovery has made me become better at working with kids of all ages by making me be more patient and understanding with the kids."
        Way to go, Katelin, and every Youthlinc member, for staying absorbed in the volunteer community in  rewarding ways! Go Team Thailand! ;)

Erin Grieve is our Youthlincer of the week!

Erin Grieve is our Kenya spotlight person of the week. She is very energetic and outgoing. She loves skiing and more skiing. She likes a wide variety of music. She has a lot of favorite movies and tv shows but with everything she is doing I don’t see how she finds time to watch anything! She loves to cook and eat. She will try anything once as long as it is vegetarian. She loves dark chocolate, especially if there is some peanut butter mixed in as well. She already has her dream cars (lucky!!!). Some interesting places she has visited are Liberia (very cool) and Barbados(this month). She wants to go to Kenya because the Lion King was so cool and she has always wanted to participate in service for third world countries. We are excited to have her as a member of our group!



Scott visited Erin Grieve’s service site this week, which was serving food to the homeless at the St. Vincent DePaul center on Thursday December 16th. Erin coordinates a monthly project where the employees of the company she works for (Skull Candy) go to the center and feed the homeless. Her company pays for all the food, which she goes out and purchases, and then she makes sure the food gets to the kitchen where it is prepared. She also arranges for her co-workers to come to the shelter and setup, serve, and then cleanup after the dinner. This week they fed over 400 people who are in need of their generosity. It would be great if more companies like hers would step up and make similar contributions to those less fortunate people of our community. Kudos to Erin for not only volunteering her time but getting others involved in serving the community.

Team Mexico: The Start of Something Superb!

Tripping over a limb and "breaking her teeth" is Angie Denison's greatest fear about our trip to Mexico, and E. Brown dreams of being a princess at Disneyland! At our team meeting in December, we learned many interesting--and random-- things about our teammates, thanks to Tiffani Erickson's fun get-to-know-you game. I think we can all tell that our time together here, and in Mexico, will be an absolute blast! We had conference calls going out-of-state, and to southern Utah, so we can't wait to get to know those teammates as well.
Along with our (somewhat confusing) telecommunication, our laughs, and our fascinating facts, we did learn a whole heap about what we will be doing as Team Mexico. Each committee was explained to us in more detail, which was very intriguing. And I'm sure we were all happy to hear that we will all be helping with every project, no matter what committee we end up on, which is good news because each committee is so influential that it is hard to want to only be involved with one.
We also heard some great ideas for fundraising from one of our team leaders, Mike Denison. He gave us examples of great fundraising ideas and got us all excited about getting fundraising started soon! So, Team Mexico, listen to Mike and get on that fundraising!
One of the most exciting parts of our meeting was finding out who our sponsors are and getting the information so that we can write them thank you cards. To all those sponsors who might be reading this: We cannot thank you enough for the opportunity that you have given us, and for being so generous! We are so excited about our trip to Mexico and we know that if it weren't for your generosity and support we would not have this amazing chance to help the people of Chiapas.
(Mexico teammates!!: make sure you get those thank you cards sent out to your sponsors, this is extremely important!)
We have all picked our local service sites and you could sense the excitement in the room as we talked about our local service activities. It is amazing that there is a program that focuses on local and international service as much as Youthlinc does.
Team Mexico is extremely excited about our Youthlinc adventure, and after our first team meeting in December, we can all see that this is truly the start of something superb!

Youthlinc volunteers mentor teen refugees through Real Life in SLC

This year's program started a few weeks ago and Jerika and I couldn't not be more pleased! We are truly so grateful to have such AMAZING Youthlinc Students involved in making this program a success.

For those of you who don't know about Youthlinc's, Real Life Refugee Teen Mentoring Program here is what it is.

For the past 3 years I have been working with the International Rescue Committee and have found a passion for helping refugees resettle into their new life in Utah. For those of you who don't know here are some facts about refugees in Utah.

• A refugee is someone who is forced to flee their homeland based on race, religion or ethnic minority. They flea to border countries and live in refugee camps which are over crowed, have a lack of food and supplies, and then they wait until they can be resettled to a safer new home.
  
• Some refugees can live up to 20-30 years in a refugee camp before being chosen to be resettled.
  
• There are over 30,000 refugees in Salt Lake City now.
  
• Each year the IRC and Catholic Community Service resettle about 1,200 new refugees into the SLC community.
  
• They mainly come from various African countries, Burma, Thailand, Nepal, and Iraq

Many people in Utah would never know that there are so many ethnicities and cultures around them but Salt Lake City is one of the top 5 cities for refugee relocation. These families are dropped into our city and expected to learn a new language, find jobs, and being self sustaining. They do receive a lot of support but there are so many and not enough resources.

This is where Youthlinc comes in. Last year I noticed that there was so much pressure being put on the Refugee Teens. They are expected to go to school, help out at home, find jobs, and translate for their parents all of this while trying to understand a new culture and going through all the normal drama of being a teenager. I wanted to create a program that would benefit the refugee teen population of Salt Lake and allow our Youthlinc students to serve. Then through a lot of discussion and attempts to form a partnership, we were able to create The Real Life Program. We currently are working with The Hser Ner Moo Community and Welcome Center and the City of South Salt Lake to run this program. We are so grateful for this partnership because we feel helping refugee teens is a large need that is not being met.

The goal of Real Life is to create a friendships between Youthlinc students and refugee teens to help them transition to their new lives. Our objective is to teach them "real life skills" such as financial literacy, teamwork, responsibility, and overall self respect.

This is how we reach our goal:

Program Details

• The program runs Mondays and Wednesdays 4-6 and Fridays 5-7
  
• Currently we have 30-50 refugee teens ranging from 13-1. Some have been here for 3 years some have been here 2 months.
  
• We have 25 dedicated Youthlinc Volunteers
  

Through hands on learning activities and lessons, field trips, and friendships we are able to create a safe environment for these teens where they know they are supported. Our Youthlinc Students take part in planning and implementing lessons, which allows them to take ownership in their service and gain leadership skills. Our first planning meeting was such a success, I love seeing these amazing Youth take charge and really see that they can make a difference.

In such a short time we have already created strong bonds with the refugee teens. On the very first day we played many getting to know you games that were completely silly and fun, and I just have to say that it fills my heart with joy to see kids that have come from horrible refugee camps finally get to relax and just laugh. When we are all together it doesn't matter if you are from Thailand, Africa, or America we are all here to learn from each other. Each day I see a new friendship made, English learned, a cultural barrier broken down.

I will keep you posted with updates throughout the year. We have some awesome activities planned and I can't wait to see what happens.

Here are some much needed thank you's

• Jerika Michel: Our amazing Program Intern. Thank you for your great ideas and kind heart.
  
• Thank you to the Hser Ner Moo Staff. It is so great working with such fun people.
  
• Thank you to all the Youthlinc Students who are volunteering with Real Life. This program couldn't run without you and I hope you know how lucky I feel to be working with all of you!
  

A HUGE THANK YOU to our Sponsors this year

• The Burton Foundation
  
• Miss Utah USA
• American Express
• Larry H. Miller Charities
• The LDS Foundation
  
• GE Money Bank
  

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Ellie Nazzal
Local Service Director

Vamos a Peru!

Well, I guess it's official! The journey to Peru has begun. The Peru Teams first meeting was December 3rd and we are off to a great start! The best way we could have started the meeting was to thank our sponsors of course, for this amazing opportunity. Giving thanks and keeping in contact are YouthLinc's greates assets, for they keep our sponsors informed, inspired, and willing to keep on donating. We are all grateful for our sponsors, so Peru team don't forget to send them the thank you notes!

Getting to know everyone and learning about their embarrassing moments, desired careers, and biggest fears about Peru was a little overwhelming. ( I have to say, we have quite the group of world travelers in our midst!) All the members of the team seem so unique and full of character. Something tells me that I won't really get to know everyone until we actually arrive in Peru, but once we leave I'm sure i'll never forget them. I know that service has the ability to bond people for life, and I truly hope we can all experience this phenomenon :)

Next we attended to the grocery list, if you would. We talked about passports, service hours, local service sites, and making sure to report those hours. I have spent about 2 months at my service sight already..and I can honestly say I think Youthlinc is brilliant for making this such an important aspect of the program. I volunteer at the English Language Center in Logan, Utah, where I help teach English to migrants and refugees that have recently moved here. For them, English is a matter of survival in this community, and I am so grateful I have the opportunity to help their transition into a new language and culture run a little smoother, even if it is simply explaining to them what fast food or walmart is :)

Fundraising, oh the dreaded word. Well, our leaders and Judy were very optimistic on this front. They encouraged us to write letters as soon as possible, as the Christmas season is upon us. There are samples in our binders and pictures of Peru service in the past on facebook you can steal, so get to work and start raising that money!

Definitely the best part of the meeting was our discussion of what will actually be taking place in Peru. Each committee was explained to us and we were asked to pick the three we wanted to be apart of the most. I was in awe in the complete array of projects we will be participating in. I love that we are focusing on so many aspects of the standards of living that the people in Palmeras face everyday. For construction we will be laying cement, helping to build a bridge, and renovating the primary school. Education-teaching English and other subjects, as well as hopefully bringing books and other supplies to the kids. We will all get to teach a lesson, and we are encouraged to do it in Spanish. How awesome is that?! I believe that a common language will automatically make it easier to touch the hearts and minds of the people we are working with. Though most of us won't speak perfectly, I think it is so important to try. I know the mere effort of trying to communicate in Spanish with the villagers will raise their respect for us, as well as make them feel more comfortable. Community and health- developing projects and raising supplies that the village is in most need of. It is so important to cater to this communities specific health needs, as demonstrated by Smitty's famous example of Kenyan girls and their feminine hygiene needs. Cultural- plan the fun fair at the end of the trip, as well as focus and inform the team on Peruvian culture. Microenterprise- Evaluating loans and decide who to hand them out to, as well as teach business lessons. Though these are tentative goals, they are the framework for some incredible change and optimism in the community. I can just feel it :)

Team bloggers, photographers, and videographers were established and the next meeting will be January 8 at 1 pm at the Youthlinc office. Keep on the fundraising and service hours. Remember that the people in Palmeras will be forever grateful. Keep them in mind this holiday season as we ask for money and gifts. I think that's essentially what YouthLinc wants for us. To think outside ourselves, our communities, and our own country. Keep up the good work! ( por favor ) ha.

Adios!