Cajas de mi vida

In Balerio Estacio, we now have a new location and 20 new kids (plus a few of our regulars). This last month the group has been bigger than ever.

'Cajas de mi vida' is similar to the project we ran in Mexico, where the children decorate shoe boxes and fill it with cardboard drawings of different things in their lives.

Because there were so many children we had them working in pairs. JUCONI staff think has been a very interesting way to get the kids exploring what is important in their lives and hope to continue using this project in their therapeutic sessions.

Ninez

We thought it would be a great idea to run a project that got families spending some fun time together, for the children to show their parents what they have learnt in art club and for the parents to learn a bit of art too. For this project we worked with the children in our Nueva Prosperina group, together with their parents and siblings.

The theme was 'Ninez' which means childhood. The plan was for the parents and children to share their experiences of childhood with each other, where they lived, where they worked, what their favourite possesion was.

The first week of this project, we taught the children a range of different techniques including mono printing, collage and painting.

The following week the whole family came along. It was a session with lots of colours, paint, glue, noise and general madness. But we believe it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

It was great seeing the families working together, a few of the JUCONI eduactors commented on what a good idea it had been.

More Iguanas, Tortugas & little clay people.

After our trip to the park, the children spent the following two sessions making a range of Iguanas and Terrapins out of different recycled materials, a bit of paper mache and a lot of green paint.

They then had a go at recreating the pre-hispanic objects they had seen in the musuem using clay. This had to be a short activity, because of the heat out here the clay drys very quickly. The children enjoyed getting messy and produced a great collection of work.

Parachute Fun

We were both sat the other day deep in thought trying to think of new exciting games we could play with the kids making use of the large outdoor spaces we have. Then it came to us… ‘Why not use the gigantic parachute we brought with us from the UK that’ll be fun.’ Wow! What a success! We played shark attack, cat & mouse and made the best mushroom ever! We have decided to leave the parachute here with the JUCONI staff so that they can continue using it for camping trips and parties etc.

Clay people & Iguanas

We are both very proud to tell you that we organised a successful outing with our Fertisa art club. We took 15 children to a museum, Museo Municipal, in the centre of Guayaquil where we looked at Pre-Hispanic artefacts such as beautiful clay bowls, vessels and little clay people. We then went to a park nearby which is home to a large amount of Iguanas, Terrapins and scary looking squirrels.
The children had different drawing tasks to do in preparation for their next project with involves making sculptures.
We were so impressed, as the children were on their best behaviour. The museum staff commented on how good they were, which meant a lot to us and the children themselves.

Dusty Days

On our return from Mexico, we found the community center in Fertisa covered in a thick layer of mud and dust. We knew the time had come for a Spring Clean.
With the help of our friend Giovanni, after two hours of scrubbing and hosing down everything in our path the room was sparkling clean with a fresh lavender scent.

Adios Mexico!

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)!