BECA Journal
May 15, 2005
From Kelly:
The LEAPNow group is gone and they will be missed. The playground is not finished but not from a lack of work by the group (editor's note: the playground was finished the next week). They were always willing to help. When there wasn't work to be done on the playground they helped out in classes. The teachers, especially Tracy, very much appreciated their help. They read with kids, helped with classwork, ran PE classes, participated in activities like singing or drama and played with them during recess and lunch. The kids were sad to see them go.
For the playground project, because of the LeapNow group's donation and labor (with the help of the community) we have:
- A working swingset with 6 swings on it
- Another swingset that will have two more swings on it
- Two spinning wheel
- Seesaw
- Monkey bars
So, we've got a regular playground here! It's exciting!
LEAPNow contribution
The LEAPNow group was responsible for sanding the rust and painting all of them. They didn't do any soldering or metal work. But their job was consuming and they did it well… some of the metal tubes had a lot of rust on them. Also, Tracy feels their one-on-one help with students in 1st grade has been very beneficial.
Honduran contribution
For part of the day Saturday and Monday, Mabel's friend Francisco did metal work. Danilo helped out on Saturday as well. Gonzalo helped on Saturday for a couple of hours. The three of them made the monkey bars. On Tuesday, after the large swingset pieces were painted, Wilfredo took it home and went to work on it. He brought it back yesterday completed and ready to use! The kids have been playing on it since… the job of setting them up was left to Genaro and his crew.
Best of all, not all of the LeapNow donation needed to be used for the playground. Because we got some of the metal tube materials donated by parents, $200 will be used to complete the section of the school fence that was constructed a couple of months ago.
The LeapNow group seemed to have a great time. The students loved their families and the families seemed to love their students. The Hondurans really came through on the hospitality front (as always). The Baleada night was very successful. Heather, a leader, said that the tortillas were genuinely the best she has ever tasted and seemed shocked at how good they were. One night the leaders, Sean and Heather, were at the Supermarket asking where they could go out to eat because the new taco place was closed, when Melba, la dueña, invited them over for dinner. They all had stories of the hospitality here. Also, they were able to go to San Pedro twice, which they liked(?). It was Mabel's idea to create "diplomas" of achievement to present to them. She created it, printed it out, and laminated it. Then we called a special assembly and they seemed touched to receive them. I think all overall it was a great experience for the group, for the community, the children, and the teachers. There seemed to be genuine reciprocity for the help given and the experience experienced.