Anna & I were both sad to say goodbye to Puebla and Mexico. We had an amazing experience in such a short space of time.
We will miss the lovely friends we made, the children, the tacos, the quesadillas, the mole and most of the the macarones (Pueblano Fudge)!
Monthly Archives for April 2009
Adios Mexico!
Salsa
The one thing Anna and I are finding harder than Spanish out here is dancing! Here they don’t do the simple nod of the head, two step, or jumping up and down like we do in the UK….they have Salsa, Merenge, Bachata, Banda, Cumbia just to name a few. So we thought we’d give it a try and attended dance classes twice a week.
We found it somewhat difficult being taller than the majority of men in the class, Thank goodness our instructer was one who was tall. This lead to a few accidents for Anna (who is 2″ taller than me) including slashing a guy across the neck with her nail and elbowing another in the eye. Poor Anna was mortified but the guys took it on the chin! Literally!
We found it somewhat difficult being taller than the majority of men in the class, Thank goodness our instructer was one who was tall. This lead to a few accidents for Anna (who is 2″ taller than me) including slashing a guy across the neck with her nail and elbowing another in the eye. Poor Anna was mortified but the guys took it on the chin! Literally!
Lovely words
We wanted to share with you some of the feedback from the children and staff.
“Participating in this project has given the boys more ideas, ways of thinking creatively and working with different types of art” – Bibiana (Casa Juconi Educator)
“One boy seems more extrovert now. Before his attitude was always ‘I can’t do it’, now he has more aspirations” – Carla (TRACA Educator)
” Even though the children have spent their whole lives in the market they are beginning to see it differently. One child told me how much rubbish they had noticed on the floor.” – Paola (Centro Juconi Educator)
“I liked working with my brother”
” The new games the teachers taught us were fun”
” I learnt to share and not fight with my class mates”
” I like taking photos.”
“I had fun learning new things”
-Various children who participated in the project
Lucha Libre
Lucha Libre is AMAZING!!!!!!! Big Beefy men, wearing sparkling masks and tight leggings, throwing each other around. What more could you ask for?! You have the Tecnicas (the goodies) & the Rudos (the baddies). Of course, the goodies always win. People of all ages go to the matches from 1 yr olds to 80 yrs ! We have become die-hard fans and went three times…need I say more!
Exhibition
At the end of the 5 weeks we held an exhibtion of all the childrens’ work in a public space ‘Casa de Jovenes’. The exhibition ran over 3 days (Friday – Sunday). Around 150 people came along to the opening on Friday evening, including all the children in their best clothes and hair combed nicely. They had never seen their work displayed in public before. The younger ones were very excited, the older boys were nervous at first but then when hearing all the positive comments about their work felt more confident and proud. Many of the Juconi staff attended and made an effort to congratulate us and the children on how good the work was.
All the children waited with eager eyes as we handed out Art Club Diplomas to those who participated.
All the children waited with eager eyes as we handed out Art Club Diplomas to those who participated.