Guatemala 2009 Volcano Charity Challenge is challenged and beaten!

So, after 6 days, 4 volcanoes, many miles travelled, many vertical metres hiked, few hours sleeping in tents and a few "minor injuries" along the way, the 2009 Volcano Charity Challenge was completed in Guatemala in style.

Seventeen "challengers" and 3 guides from Old Town Outfitters set off on the Challenge to raise money for the Phoenix Project here in Guatemala. Most of them were volunteers already on the ground, though we had two volunteers come back for it, and three who were new to GVI.

Pacaya volcano, with it's river of lava was first up on the Sunday, a great warm-up hike across hardened lava to reach what all geography students dream of...real life lava!

Straight in the vans and up to Xela before heading out for the second volcano, Santa María, where we camped at the base before summitting in late afternoon for some spectacular sunsets.

Tajumulco was next, up near the Mexican border, and is the highest volcano in Central America at over 4200m. Due to the long drive, we had to camp further down the first night, before reaching base camp and summitting in the evening.

Finally once off Tajumulco, we drove the long journey to Lake Atitlán, where after a great night in the Casa del Mundo, we summitted our fourth and final "challenge"; San Pedro.

It was a terrific few days, a great challenge and more importantly it helped raise awareness and funds for the Phoenix project via the GVI Charitable Trust.
Dates are already set for 2010, with two separate Challenges in the calendar, the first starting on Sunday 21st November and the second starting on Sunday 28th November. It would be great to see you out here for it.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of the Challengers this year, it was a fantastic fun, hugely rewarding and more importantly, a great example of what can be done for the projects out here. cheers

Volcano Challenge week

So after all the talking up how much training we've all done, it comes down to this: tomorrow morning, we pack up and head out to Pacaya, the first volcano. Once done, we move out to Xela for Santa María.

Next stop, Tajumulco with a nice sprinkled finishing of San Pedro Volcano at the Lake. The Challenge is upon us. Basically, am excusing myself for not writing a blog until next weekend.

If you still want to sponsor us, for UK and US and a HUGE thankyou to all who have sponsored us so far!
cheers

Bread-making and Day of the Dead in Ecuador

The volunteers had the opportunity to commemorate Día de los Difuntos (Day of the Dead) at the start of November with the children in the schools here in Ecuador.

After shopping for all the ingredients, they helped to make colada morada – a hot drink made from blackberries, blueberries and maize flour – and also the traditional bread – the guaguas de pan.


The communities really appreciated having the volunteers there, particularly this year, as the parents in both Huayrapungo and Muenala had decided they could not afford the costs of all the ingredients and so were not planning to mark this traditional day as a community – so they were delighted when we offered to help.

Our long time GVI driver and friend Jaime helped out at Huayrapungo with the large volume of egg cracking and got stuck in with making the dough into shapes.


Some impressive artistry was seen from the volunteers with creative bread shapes being made – horses, cows and elephants all went to be cooked and came back looking like…, well, their creators were able to identify them….sort of!! At least the bread tasted good!!

Childcare in Nicaragua

These last few weeks in the GVI school Guardabarranco childcare volunteers have been busy giving classes in La Thompson. The GVI Nicaragua project is unique to other GVI Phoenix projects in the sense that we have some of the youngest kids attending our preschool.




Many of the older children have to look after their younger siblings so the preschool provides them an opportunity to leave them in a safe place, where they will also get fed, and educational place while they can attend classes with other volunteers.

Children in Nicaragua start preschool at age three and that age need lots of attention and one-on-one help. Public schools are often extremely overcrowded and understaffed or are located too far away for many of the families in the community La Thompson, so having plenty of GVI volunteers is essential for the project.

Apart from giving classes GVI staff members and volunteers celebrated Halloween and International Food Day. Even though Halloween isn’t as widely celebrated in Latin America as it is in North America the kids jumped at the idea of celebrating it with mask making and playing with magic goo!

For International Food Day, Francisca, one of the mothers of the community who cooks for the children in the school, made a delicious arroz a la velenciana: the children (as well as the volunteers) enjoyed a tasty meal of chicken, rice, and vegetables after a day at the sports field.

In a volunteer's words - long-term teaching in Perú

My name is Matt Dunn and back home in the UK I am an actor and Director. I am now in my 7th week (of a 1 year long term teaching position) here in Arequipa and am loving every second! I work at the school in Triunfo with 3rd and 4th grade children, teaching everything from maths and English to P.E and geography!

Though the children can be a bit of a handful some of the time, for the most part it is like nothing I have ever experienced. I am constantly amazed by the amount of Spanish I pick up every day; which is a good thing considering I had none when I first arrived! I think I am learning more from the children than they are learning from me.

My host family in Arequipa have been absolutely brilliant, bending over backwards to make sure that I have everything that I need, from asking about dietry requirements to helping improve my Spanish when I get home. The other volunteers here are a wide mix of people from all walks of life and covering a multitude of ages, which is fantastic. On the social side, my personal favourite are our Friday night BBQs when we all can get together at the end of the week, relax and may even have a drink (or two).

I have no idea what is going to happen during the rest of my time here. All I will say is that if things carry on the way they are, going home will not be easy!!

Who's currently on the ground in Nicaragua

This week we thought we would give blog readers a chance to get to know some of the current volunteers and staff members we have on the project in Nicaragua. GVI volunteers come from all over the world and from all walks of life.

From retired professionals to recently graduated high school students there is a wide diversity of people that make up GVI volunteers. However, the one quality that they share in common is a desire help out in the underprivileged communities where GVI works.

Patrick Smith and Katherine Chidzey come from England and have volunteered and worked with GVI over the past few years in Guatemala and Ecuador. They are currently interning in the GVI school Guardabarranco in Nicaragua.

Patrick has been doing syllable work with the first graders and Katherine teaching the vowels and basic numeracy to the first level preschool children.







Albert Akoury recently graduated from high school in western Canada and was looking to travel and volunteer before he begins his post-secondary studies. He has been working with fellow GVI volunteer Tom teaching the second level in preschool.

Tom Kasauskas comes from Adele, Australia and recently graduated with a degree in Urban Planning. Like Albert, Tom was looking for something more than just to travel; they were both looking give back and help out while at the same time getting to know a different culture and learn a foreign language.

And running the whole show is Steve Elliot, from Canada. He has been managing the project in Nicaragua since early 2008 and has been fundamental in the success of our project in La Thompson.

Huayrapungo Fun Day - Ecuador

For the final week of summer school in Huayrapungo, it was decided that it would be a fun week. Luckily, through a combination of T-shirt painting, pom-pom making, apple bobbing, doughnut-off-a-string eating and a veritable plethora of popcorn, we were able to slake their thirst for fun.

We began the day with T-shirt painting, which saw each child design a T-shirt on paper and then try to recreate their vision with real paint on a real T-shirt. Simple, you might think, but as the various colours appeared on the table in front of them, they couldn´t help themselves but deviate slightly, or often entirely, from their initial design.


Invariably their final T-shirts ended up being much more adventurous then they had anticipated, with everything from flowers to football numbers adorning the finished articles. Special praise must go to Diana and Louisa for the incredible attention to detail they demonstrated!

Following the morning T-shirt session, the children (and Nick) were taught how to make pom-poms, which they then delighted in swinging round and round and round and round and, finally, attaching to Jaime´s van to add a bit of (let´s face it, much-needed) flamboyance.

After a lunch of popcorn and soup, the kids were introduced to the concept of eating doughnuts suspended from strings – something which fascinated and amused them in equal measure.

Without exception they each showed grit, commitment and determination in order to finish the task in hand – many surviving a liberal coating of sugar in order to do so.

Then, with the unveiling of the apple-bobbing tank, each one braved the icy water to retrieve their fruta for the day – with Alfredo and Angel demonstrating particular gallantry/idiocy by thrusting their entire heads under the water.

So with fun week having come to an end, we can sleep safe in the knowledge that we left every child at Huayrapungo with some great memories, a personalized T-shirt, a stomach full of popcorn, a selection of brightly coloured pom-poms and, most importantly of all, a face that can only be described as sugary.