Thursday, June 19, 2008




Habitat for Humanity
Every thursday we go to Santa Ana and help the organization Habitat for Humanity build houses for people that couldn´t otherwise afford it. This is a great oppritunity to get to know the families that live in the houses and it feels good to be able to see the difference that you are making.
Last Saturday they gave away 6 houses that to families and it was neat to see the house that we had been working on ( in the picture above) with an actual family living in it!!
Darby Davies

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Princes and Princess Day!



Yesterday we had a lot of fun teaching the boys and girls at CIPI all about princes and princesses. Cody asked the boys, ¨What do princes do?¨and they all shouted ¨kill the dragon!¨. He also taught that princes share with others and save the beautiful girls from danger. The girls were given crowns and fancy gloves and rings and were taught how to act like a princess. Then they recieved their glamor shots. The boy also recieved superhero toys and colored pictures of their favorite superhero. Here are some pics of our fun filled day!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Photos and Fun!

Here are some long awaited pics from projects we have been talking about and working with.

Here we have Whitney reading to some boys at CISNA. These boys love reading and being read to! They sometimes you have like 6 or 7 of them all wanting to see the pictures over your shoulder as you try to read books to them. WHAT A JOY!Below we have Darby teaching and leading the Beginners English class at the LDS Employment Services office. We teach there three afternoons a week and it is so fun to teach people English! We are all really close to the students now and will miss them when we leave. They are always concerned when one teacher is missing and are truly a blessing to work with.

This picture below is for all of the Padre Vito fans out there! Here is Leighann posing with Geovani from the orphanage Padre Vito Guarato. Here´s an comment Christine made about working with Geovani :

" My favorite moment was when a small group of three of us were working under the pavilion and Geovani came "running" toward us on his walker. His legs were pumping as fast as he could…like 30 steps for every foot! He was SO excited to come join us. He was shaking with excitement, had a huge smile on his face, and made sounds of utter glee coming toward us. Finally when he sat down with us, he carefully and patiently took out his box of dominos. I don't think I'll ever forget seeing the smile of delight spread across his face as he looked at his precious box of dominos…..they obviously light up his life. He kept smiling the whole time he played with us. Quite a joy to work with Geovani. Not only is he handsome, and not only does he wear a shirt and tie without fail everyday, but he shares his special spirit with us and it is something marvelous to think about—how he lives with so much grace even with his limitations---and how that is a valiant example to us all. "

Last but definitely NOT least, is a picture of our project lead for CIPI, Ashley Watts. She has been working with CIPI as project lead during the whole wave, and has been doing an amazing job with the help of the other volunteers. Recent projects have included making name tags with each child individually being able to decorate it. The niñeras (nannies) love the work HELP is doing for these sweet toddlers. They are absolutely adorable, and we also feel blessed to serve and love these children every week.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Zacamil

Today Mike, Blanca, Angela and Leighanne went to the Zacamil, the hospital where we will be volunteering for an orientation with one of the assistant director of nursing. We were given a tour of the hospital and introduced to several of the nursing supervisors for the different floors. They are were very gracious and said they were excited to have the help. The usual nurse to patient ratio is 1 nurse to 15-20 patients if the patients are somewhat stable. If they patients are intensive care, the ratio is one to four. Some of the nurses explained that they usually work 14 hour shifts and if the oncoming nurse doesn´t show up, they have to work for twenty four hours. We will be starting actual volunteer work next week. We hammered out the details of what we would be able to do as volunteers. They said they would appreciate help with bathing patients, changing positions, cleaning, working with the occupational therapists and other therapy units such as child therapy.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

June 9, 2008

In the morning we headed to CIPI. The volunteers split into two groups: one group working with the toddlers and the other working with the infants and mothers. The preschooler group had a successful day playing with sidewalk chalk, playing games, coloring and reading books.

One group stayed at CIPI during the afternoon and did glamour shots with all the girls and their babies. We hope to print the pictures and make frames for the girls to keep.
The other group headed to CISNA where we did activities with Hogar 2. We are getting the kids excited for our big fiesta-carnival this Friday. Stay tuned!

Next, we headed to LDS English. The teachers are all loving the opportunity to speak their own language! But don´t worry we love Spanish!

Posted by=Whitney Smith

Padre Vito

6-10-08
today was amazing just like every other day. we were lucky enough to have all the volunteers come with us. each volunteer splits off into groups with two or three people and worked with them from playing dominoes, to making bracelets, to talking with them or dancing, etc.
a brief description of padre vito:
it was started by padre vito, a man who wanted to give handicapped children a second chance. there is currently over 150 adults and children with disabilities, ranging from new borns to middle adulthood. we are so blessed that we have this wonderful oppurtunity to work with these individuals, and we learn so much from their special spirits.
-love whitney hansen

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

June 2, 2008

Today we went to CIPI in the morning we worked with the toddlers and the nursery children. We taught the toddlers about the animals. They love when we come! Right when we walk in, they all jump on us and are so excited that we are there! They all have such sweet spirits and different personalitys, it is really fun to get to know these children. Today there was a new boy that arrived and it just broke my heart because he cried almost the whole time, screeming, “mama mama” Who knows when the next time he will see her. These kids just need love and it is so awesome to be there for them and give them the love they have always dreamed of!


Today we made mask with the boys. They loved it! We each gave them a paper plate and paint and they created these sweet masks. We thought that paint would get all over the place but it ended up staying under control which was wonderful! These boys have a lot of personality and are so so fun to work with!! It is always such an adventure coming here!


LDS ENGLISH rocks! From 5:00-6:00 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we teach English! It is so much fun! The people are so excited to learn English! You always have to be at the top of your game because you never know what kind of question they are going to ask you! It is a really good review for my owwwn Enlish J/k