Finishing up…

I can’t believe my time here in Colombia is so quickly coming to an end. It feels like yesterday that we started the after-school tutoring program in the Prado neighborhood, getting to know each of the kids more and more every week as we worked on homework together, played games, read stories, and made crafts.

Yet this past week, we held our last tutoring session of the semester and it was incredible to see how many relationships we had built with both old and new kids in the neighborhood. So many started telling their friends about it and soon our group of about 8 turned into 20!

We had a special craft for the kids on their last day since most of them had already finished up with their classes and didn’t have homework. We wanted to use up a bunch of the old crayons so I had the kids make shavings of the colors they chose, then cut out two identical shapes from wax paper, and finally put the shavings inside the two pieces and iron them together, melting the crayons and making a beautiful sun catcher!

Tutoring is one of the most successful programs for the foundation (in terms of outreach) and it was such a blessing to get to plan each day and help the kids with their work. One of my girls, Viki, came up to me with a handmade card on the last day and told me that she’d received a 5 in her English class (equivalent to an A+) and that her teacher told her she was the best English student in her class! What a privilege to have been able to watch her grow and learn through this program! Definitely thankful for everyone I met and the friends I made along the way 🙂

As far as what’s coming up next…SuperVacas, SuperVacas. A few of us spent the whole day today preparing things for the next SuperVacas coming up in Pacho. We’re expecting about 150 kids so needless to say it’s a bit time consuming preparing five days of crafts for a massive amount of kiddos! We’re also making a mid-week daytrip to Pacho tomorrow to start solidifying details, locations, and spreading the word about the upcoming festivities. One of the cool things we are adding this year will be a concert at the end of the week for the entire community in the town square. We’re gathering both friends and professional bands to put on an amazing show and hopefully give the town of Pacho a reason to celebrate and get to know each other a little better!

Now here are some photos from the past few months of the tutoring program!