Each year Las Palmas inaugurates their Spring Break with a weekend event they call the "Family Olympics," with a specific theme. This year the focus was the book of Joshua, especially focused on Chapter 24, with the iconic "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" verse.
First, let me explain how Las Palmas is organized. There are 10 houses on campus, six of which are currently in use as children´s homes. Four are mixed gender homes with younger children. Then there is a home for teenage girls and one for teenage boys. Each home has a set of house parents, some of whom have their own children, as well. Then there is an "auntie" who dedicates a set amount of time cooking or cleaning for the home. This arrangement allows children to grow up in a family environment. One of the ten houses is designated as a volunteer home, which is where we stayed. The house we painted, once fully remodeled, will host new arrivals and short-term placements. This will give them a space to acclimate to the new environment and diminish disruptions to established families.
Now back to the Olympics. The families look forward each year to this good-natured competition, as they complete a variety of spiritual, social, intellectual and physical challenges. Thursday evening I was sent as a judge to observe House 5´s family worship, which was based on Joshua chapter 1 and included enthusiastic singing, worthy of all the points for that category. On Friday afternoon, each family created a decorated booth in the open air gym. Two Sus Manos teammates were assigned to each home and joined them in rehearsal for their part in skits, poetry recitation and singing. Belonging to a family helped my students bond with a group of children and take part in the fun.
I was glad to have Mike guiding me when I joined the blindfold walk. (He knows my general clumsiness and feared for my safety, so he wasn´t taking chances.)
Saturday night there was an baseball-inspired quiz game, which several Sus Manos teammates participated in, including Pastor Fernando, supporting the teen boys´ home. There was a lot of rejoicing when the teen girls beat out the teen boys in a hotly contested game. You may know where the Eiffel Tower is found and what is the only mammal that can fly, but could you hit a home run by naming the Dominican president?
On Sunday the families had some kind of mud bowl. However, I was at the director´s house working on arrangements for our Monday beach day with the older teens and I missed all the fun. I can only say that everyone came back home very, very muddy.
After everyone got washed up, it was back to the school for a few games Sunday evening, a clown show by la Payasita Pakita (aka Profe) and a pizza dinner. I always love sharing my clown routines with the campus. After an 8-year absence from Las Palmas, I was surprised to find several of the older kids able to retell some of my clown stories. One young man who was at Las Palmas to help with the Olympics introduced himself to me--I recognized him as one of the teens from that previous visit--and said he was looking forward to the return of the clown. The next day kids begged me to tell them how I did my tricks. When I told them I had taken the Clown Vow that prohibits revealing such secrets, one little boy said, "I´m going to look it up on the internet!"
First, let me explain how Las Palmas is organized. There are 10 houses on campus, six of which are currently in use as children´s homes. Four are mixed gender homes with younger children. Then there is a home for teenage girls and one for teenage boys. Each home has a set of house parents, some of whom have their own children, as well. Then there is an "auntie" who dedicates a set amount of time cooking or cleaning for the home. This arrangement allows children to grow up in a family environment. One of the ten houses is designated as a volunteer home, which is where we stayed. The house we painted, once fully remodeled, will host new arrivals and short-term placements. This will give them a space to acclimate to the new environment and diminish disruptions to established families.
Now back to the Olympics. The families look forward each year to this good-natured competition, as they complete a variety of spiritual, social, intellectual and physical challenges. Thursday evening I was sent as a judge to observe House 5´s family worship, which was based on Joshua chapter 1 and included enthusiastic singing, worthy of all the points for that category. On Friday afternoon, each family created a decorated booth in the open air gym. Two Sus Manos teammates were assigned to each home and joined them in rehearsal for their part in skits, poetry recitation and singing. Belonging to a family helped my students bond with a group of children and take part in the fun.
I was glad to have Mike guiding me when I joined the blindfold walk. (He knows my general clumsiness and feared for my safety, so he wasn´t taking chances.)
Saturday night there was an baseball-inspired quiz game, which several Sus Manos teammates participated in, including Pastor Fernando, supporting the teen boys´ home. There was a lot of rejoicing when the teen girls beat out the teen boys in a hotly contested game. You may know where the Eiffel Tower is found and what is the only mammal that can fly, but could you hit a home run by naming the Dominican president?
On Sunday the families had some kind of mud bowl. However, I was at the director´s house working on arrangements for our Monday beach day with the older teens and I missed all the fun. I can only say that everyone came back home very, very muddy.
After everyone got washed up, it was back to the school for a few games Sunday evening, a clown show by la Payasita Pakita (aka Profe) and a pizza dinner. I always love sharing my clown routines with the campus. After an 8-year absence from Las Palmas, I was surprised to find several of the older kids able to retell some of my clown stories. One young man who was at Las Palmas to help with the Olympics introduced himself to me--I recognized him as one of the teens from that previous visit--and said he was looking forward to the return of the clown. The next day kids begged me to tell them how I did my tricks. When I told them I had taken the Clown Vow that prohibits revealing such secrets, one little boy said, "I´m going to look it up on the internet!"