quick quick quick

Our dear Jason left a little over a week ago.  We miss him a lot.  I still get a little pang of pain in my chest thinking about him and the fact that he isn't here at UPH anymore.  Bah!

We are in full-swing summer craziness.  There is something going on almost every day and night of the week.  I haven't been to Bible Study (at our local church) since the beginning of June because I have had some event or meeting or dinner to go to every Wednesday since.  They are beginning to think that I don't love them.  :(

As much as the craziness is crazy, I am enjoying it.  Because it is so crazy, I have to make an intentional effort to get to know the people that are flying through my world in this whirlwind.  But it's about quality, not quantity.  A few good quality conversations and relationships can come out of a summer with a HUGE quantity of people and events. 

I love watching Fausto mix into the big group as well.  In a UPH world full of so many women, I like seeing other guys come into the mix.  He has guys to pal around with and make jokes with.  He has buds to go out for a German beer with.  :)  It's good.  Married couples need friends.

I will leave you with a picture from our recent trip to La Antigua, Guatemala.  Fausto and I went to renew our visas.  It was a great time and we got to spend good, relaxing, romantic time together.  This one is of an older couple who spontaneously decided to dance to the live music that was playing in the public square.  They moved like they have been dancing together for a long time.  They reminded me of Aunt Sissy and Uncle Fran.  It made my heart smile to see them.  And I'm sure the rest of the crowd had the same reaction as no one was really paying much attention to the band, but more the lovely dancers.  

Little gentlemen

On the elevated walkway at SANAA, the water treatment plant

The past two weeks, Camp Hope and Camp Ágape have ventured out on Special Friday as a united front.  The kids from Camp Hope in Nueva Esperanza pile into a van and make the ten-minute drive over to San Pedrito Abajo where Camp Ágape is held.  The children often don't know each other, even though they are from the same town.  Katie, the director of Camp Hope, and I are hoping to create a friendly relationship between the children at the two camps; we're all one big UPH family.

I've been a little nervous about the collaboration.  Kids are unpredictable.  There's always a chance they'll hit it off wonderfully and bond over soccer teams and three-legged races, but they also might be perpetually shy and possibly even rude because "those kids are from that neighborhood" or "she looked at me funny and I don't know her."  Katie and I chatted about how to mesh the kids well, avoiding competition between camps, trying to facilitate their getting to know one another in a relaxed environment.  It's almost like when two moms decide that their children would be great for one another and take it upon themselves to set them up.  We're introducing the two camps with high hopes that everyone will be life-long friends, but still trying to make it look as natural as possible so no one knows they're being set up.  Sometimes it's successful.  Sometimes it's not.

Alejandra (LiderJoven @ Camp Ágape) escorting two of our medianos.

Well, hold your breath no longer.  It went well.  Last week, Katie and I were both pleasantly surprised at the camaraderie and good behavior displayed.  While I would love to take the credit for Camp Ágape's shining manners, I have to give credit to our wonderful youth leaders.

Pictured here, we see Alejandra with her arms around two young boys, Emerson and Didier, from Camp Ágape.  This shot was snapped during the last part of their tour of the water treatment plant in Copan Ruinas.  Didier and Emerson were the only boys in this tour group and the only campers from Camp Ágape.  Alejandra was assigned to mind them during this outing.  As they walked through the different parts of the water plant, Alejandra was consistently reminding them to hold back and let the little ladies of Camp Hope walk through first.  She referred to them as her little gentlemen and they therefore acted accordingly.  

I was impressed not only by the "little gentlemen", but also Alejandra's keen sense of proper behavior towards the little girls of Camp Hope.  I was happy to see that it wasn't just a desire of mine and Katie's that the camps meshed well, but that we were getting good support from our leaders on this front as well.  Alejandra's attitude and actions showed me that she understands that this is not just another job, but that she is actually contributing to the social development and character of the kids she works at camp.

Mama Kathy's Wisdom

Interiano Carranza family

“It takes a village to raise a child,” my mom says as she looks around the dinner table.  She was commenting on the amount of extended family present at dinner that all live on a single plot of land in San Pedrito Abajo.  A father rises from the table to lovingly gather his youngest son who is crying because he doesn’t do well meeting strangers.  This same man’s sister serves food to the group with his wife while his mother, children, nieces and nephews gather around the table in a way that is obviously familiar to them all.  It is quite evident that each adult in this family plays a significant role in each child’s life.  My mom is correct; this small “village” of people is raising children as a shared effort.

This family has three children, Willian, Ada and Jorge, who participate in Camp Ágape.  They graciously opened their home to our Service Learning Group and prepared a meal to share with them. I often do not see the same “village” of support surrounding each of my kids at Camp Ágape in their homes, but my job is not to despair knowing the children face adversity.  Rather, my job is to trust in God’s goodness. 

FPC Service Learning Group

As I look around the dinner table, I am reminded of that goodness and how God provided a village of mentors who contributed to my spiritual formation through the very same church that sent this Service Learning Group with whom I am sharing a meal.  I am thankful for the ways they invested in me and how they have affected my life.  My mind continues down this path and I am reminded that through Camp Ágape, we are providing a similar village that looks out and cares for kids in a way they may or may not receive at home. 

Mom, I agree with you.  It does take a village to raise a child.  It takes a mosaic of people, lessons and experiences to push that child onto greater things.  I’m thankful for the villages in my past, present and future and I’m thankful to be a part of the UPH village that works to support these kids in Copan Ruinas.

Mango Manuel

In Copan Ruinas, when a guy is called a "mango" it's because he's a ladies man. Manuel has the potential to be a "mango" at some point in his life, but that is not why he has been dubbed "Mango Manuel". It is simply because this sweet 6th grader brings a mango to each leader working at Camp Ágape every single day.

Manuel gets to camp just after two every afternoon, just after our team arrives on site to work at camp for the day. He gives hugs to greet each leader and visitor and then fishes through his backpack to find the mango that is just right for that person. I think there may be some sort of a hierarchy because I very often get the largest mango, but I'm not sure whether it has to do with respect for me as the director or genuine special love for me. Either way, I appreciate the mangos. Sometimes he'll even bring a watermelon and ask us to cut it up so he can share with the other campers as they arrive. While the leaders are in our pre-camp team meeting, Manuel will poke his head in the room as more children arrive so we can fairly distribute the melon. Manuel makes sure no kids take a second slice until everyone has had their first.

After the first week of camp, Manuel came in and handed me a mango AND handmade, decorated envelope with a note inside. It read:

Korni es una buena maestra le gusta su trabajo le gusta mucho el ingles y ella quiere a los alumnos como sus ijos verdaderos Korni es como si ubiera una Blanca flor y a ella le gusta comer vegetales
Translation: Kourtney is a good teacher. She likes her work. She likes English a lot and she loves the students as her very own children. Kourtney is like a white flower and she likes to eat vegetables.

I was (and still am) touched and also had a hard time not chuckling about his ending line. It was a surprising ending, although I later found out that a love for vegetables is something Manuel and I share in common.

Manuel has quickly made a space for himself in every leader and visitor's heart at Camp Ágape. All mangoes aside, Manuel has proven himself to be a caring, helpful, considerate camper. He has a keen sense of right and wrong and has helped newer campers adjust to the camp schedule and culture. This past Thursday, as he was hugging me goodbye at the end of the camp day, he looked up and said, "Korni, I never want to miss a day of Camp Ágape." I patted his head and squeezed him a little tighter. I don't want him to miss a single day either.

What we do.

When someone asks me what I do, the normal and quick response is to say that I direct summer camps and after school programs for kids in underprivileged and low-resource communities. If I still have the interest of the speaker, which I usually do, I usually begin to explain how youth are trained by UrbanPromise Honduras to teach and lead the children in these programs and I explain what classes are given on a normal basis: English, Bible, Art, Discovery, Cooking and Health. While I share these basic details, faces of children in our programs fly through my head and visions of miraculously wonderful classes being taught by youth play in my mind.

One such story that occurred this week in camp involves a young boy named Douglas. While signing Douglas up for this vacation camp, Camp Libertad, he was timid to say the least. From the first day of camp, Douglas has participated in activities and gone through the motions of camp, but it was rare to see a smile on his face or a great deal of excitement on his part during any crazy camp activity. I chalked it up to a normal dose of "pena" (bashfulness common among children in the underprivileged communities) because he's new to our programs and decided to give him time.

It appears that time and a Creative Stories option at camp was all he needed. This week, three of our leaders led a week-long Options class on creative stories in which they read stories, acted them out, created alternative endings, and drew representations of them as a group. Our leaders assigned roles to the children in the class before beginning a story and the children jumped into action as the story demanded it, especially Douglas. All week long, my ears have been filled with the voices of excited leaders sharing about how much and how well Douglas is participating as the various characters in the stories, how much he is coming out of his shell, and how impressive it is to hear him read aloud. During various stories, Douglas transforms into Prince Charming or the lead rooster. During the Creative Stories option within Camp Libertad, Douglas transforms into a different child with a different attitude.

In my heart of hearts, I know my quick answer about what I do is nowhere near complete and doesn’t actually speak to the full impact UPH is having on the children and the community. I believe improving the explanation means improving the verbs. Through stories like Douglas', my eyes are opened to the fact that I'm blessed to direct programs the provide creative outlets to children in underprivileged communities. We are blessed to see bashful children transformed as they act out children's stories in a safe space. We equip youth to lead and serve children and their communities and we inspire them to be better, stronger people who deserve the title "leader". This is what we are privileged to do.