Zoobic Safari

As a late Christmas gift the Mayors brother took SDC and the Center for Youth to Zoobic Safari (an animal park in Subic Bay).

I have no idea what these fuzzy little guys are but they were my favorite critter at the zoo. And of course no Asian zoo is complete without piles upon piles of crocodiles.

Merry Christmas

I spent Christmas with the girls making and decorating paper Christmas trees, to decorate the center with. The girls also each got a gift of stickers, beads, pencils, hair ties, and other girly things, which was courtesy of my very loving grandmother and great aunt in New Mexico. The girls absolutely loved it!

Christmas Eve Worksheets

To celebrate Christmas Eve, I put together an activity packet for the girls with puzzles and coloring pages. This is the second holiday packet I have done with them and it still amazes me how intensely focused and quiet they get. While they worked I read them the Night Before Christmas poem. It was the first time they had seen a color by number puzzle or connect the dots. Once they were told how to do it they flew through the puzzles and had lots of fun!

Night Market

I have been wanting to go to the winter carnival called the "night market" all month. When I found out that some girls from my center were going it became my mission to meet them there. I had a blast. It was a mixture of carnival rides, street vendors, gambling, and food stalls. I even got to ride the "horror train", which turned out to be much more for children then I care to admit.

Trust Building

Since it was such a beautiful day we moved most our activities outside. We started the day with untangling "human knots", selecting our favorite item out of a dichotomy in "common ground", running through a "human zipper", "crossing the river" of hula hoops and poi blindfolded. We ended the day reflecting on what characteristics people need to have to be trust worthy, as well as the realization that people without these characteristics may not be worthy of our trust.

Friendship Bracelets

Had a really fun day at SDC. Spent the day showing the girls how to make friendship bracelets. They did an amazing job. Once they master the 2 string patterns, we will move on to the 6 string patterns.

World AIDs Day

As part of world AID's day, I participated in a training for employees of a local bar in the province of Subic.