A New School Year Begins

Finally after what seems like an endless summer the children of Conviven have started to show their little ever smiling faces, reports our new volunteer coordinator Bella.

English classes where meant to begin at Conviven 2 weeks ago but due to terrible down pours lasting over a week most of our classes where cancelled as where those of the main stream schools.

We now have 4 kids English classes running 3 afternoons a week along with classes for adults and teenagers. Some children will also be coming in the mornings as the children in Buenos Aires have school either in the mornings or afternoons and we want to give them all the chance to come to Conviven.

It s really nice for me to see the enthusiasm and energy the volunteers are putting into their classes and hearing the kids laughter through the closed doors makes all the hard work worth while.

Get your hands on Conviven's gym

We are planning an exciting, hands-on volunteer opportunity in the form of 'Paint the Gymnasium!' part 2. Thanks to our friends from South American Explorers, who made the first effort on January 26th, we are already about 1/3 finished with the project. We are hoping to finish with the help of a couple of volunteer teams in the first week of March. We will be renting equipment to reach the higher, harder to reach places and will be needing both volunteers and donations to get the job done and to cover the costs of equipment rental.

Important! To finish the job we need to prepare the walls, and apply two successive coats of paint, which will require at least two or three volunteer days because of the scope of the project and the necessary drying time between coats.

Also, the equipment rental is costly and we will only have it for a 5 day period, hopefully beginning the first of March, a Saturday, until the 5th of March. The travel time is about one hour from downtown BsAs and the painting shift will be roughly from 10am to 3pm, and more details will be provided once we know we have the man-woman power. So please, please, please RSVP with your availability as soon as possible so that we can know if we have enough volunteers to get the job done. If we don't have a minimum of volunteers then the project is a no-go and we will be missing an opportune opportunity!

The school year is approaching and this is the best time to get the job done, sorry we know it is a little short notice, but please let us know if any of you wonderful people can commit to a shift on one or all of the first 5 days of March, beginning on Saturday the 1st. Again, we will quickly do the math, make teams for the different days, and get back to the coalition of the willing to confirm.

Please email with questions or comments Nathaniel (Nate) Galea, nathanielgalea@gmail.com, or Cecilia Hellstadius, ceciliahellstadius@hotmail.com.

A mindblowing beach trip

Last week our kids had the opportunity to spend some time camping in Lucila del Mar to enjoy a fabulous beach trip. Our new volunteer coordinator Bella Koerfer reports.

Over 40 kids between the age of 11 and 17 spent over a week at the beach with us and as you can well imagine had a fantastic time.

The place was a six hour bus drive form Buenos Aires and the kids clapped with delight as the movies began and we breathed with a sigh of relief as we realised we could at least relax for the next 6 hours.

The camp consisted of six dorms interlinked and a large main hall, the best was that this was all walking distance from the beach. The kids had a tight routine in an attempt to keep them in order but to be honest all they wanted was beach, beach and more beach, with some football and volley matches thrown in.

One day Jess and me took the kids riding which was just perfect total caos with everyone smiling, horses galloping here and there and incredibly no one falling off! This was my favourite moment and a picture I will always keep in my head.

In the evenings there were group trips into town, walks along the beach and on the last night a Talent night. As the days passed the kids got browner, the romances confused, the volunteers just got exhausted. When the time to leave came, you felt like you had been there 6 weeks!

Most of us adults came home sick with bits, sore throats and exhaustion, but of course it was all worth it, as the relationships you are able to form with the children, in that short time are priceless.

Last weeks in Conviven

Our last weeks have been relatively busy despite the fact that kids are on holidays. First of all our new volunteer coordinator took over. Bella is now fully in charge of everything and Liis has left.

Also we took the kids to visit Latin-American Modern Art Museum – Malba. After waiting for the bus for some half an hour and then getting lost since the driver didn’t really know where the place is, we arrived at Malba on Friday, the 25^th of January.

The kids had a wonderful experience where Malba staff introduced them to Emilio, Petorruti, Antonio Berni and other Argentine artists whose works are up on the walls. After that everybody had a chance to make some art as well. You can have a look at the pictures taken in Malba here.

On the following day we cooperated with volunteers from South American Explorers who helped us to paint some of the walls downstairs in the big hall. We had about ten people in the house.

On Tuesday, 29^th of January some of our volunteers went to Banco de Alimentos to help them with sorting all the food that had been donated during December and the day after that the kids went to a beach trip on Lucila del Mar and you can read more about that from our next post.

New volunteer coordinator takes over

Our new on-site volunteer coordinator has been getting to know Conviven for over a week now and here are Bella’s first thoughts about her new job and Conviven. Bella arrived from London and will be with us for a year.

“My role as I see it is making sure that there are enough activities for both volunteers and children – both should feel involved and looked after. At the moment things are rather slow at Conviven as most of the kids are at summer camps, I – however – seem to have lots to do with organizing new volunteers, responding to all of Liis mails and working out how things are done this side of the world.

All in all after a few days of total confusion am beginning to feel really at home which is pretty good after only a week. All the people at Conviven have been really lovely and I do love the place – it really has a lot of potential, it just needs people to really get involve and come up with great activities for the kids. Dale, need to get back to work.”

Jess: Their spirit is infectious

The classes in Ciudad Oculta have also started with new energy, although due to the fact that a lot of the kids are in day camps right now, the classes are smaller and quieter.

As we currently do not have a dance teacher, one of the workshops was changed and now we just play games with them on one of the days. Our volunteer Jess reports about the “Sala de juegos” that took place last week.

“As I and three other volunteers made our way into Ciudad Oculta, we were greeted by 12 children, aged from 1-11. As always, the children were excited to see us, and keen to play as many games in the hour as possible. Franco, the ever enthusiastic toddler, ran screaming around the room in a burst of excited energy.

We started playing outside in the sunshine. Sandwiched between a wall and a fence, we played “what time is it Mr. Wolf?”, followed by “What am I?”, a particular favourite among the kids. This involved the group splitting into two teams, each taking it in turns to imitate (in silence) an action, object, event, or location.

Once the other teams shouts out/ guesses the correct answer, the performing team has to run away without being caught & thus absorbed into the other team. This is often complicated by the fact that the children chose to imitate inanimate objects, such as gnocchi!

Following some more energetic games, we decided to move inside for the last 15 minutes. A round of the firm favourite- Simon Says (or Simon Dice) enduced a fit of giggles when “Simon” instructed the children to touch the heads of the older teenage boys, who were standing on the side-lines. Needless to say, the older boys were not too amused when 12 hysterical children ran at them, trying to touch their heads. To complete the session we played charades, and “duck goose”.

The children in Ciudad Oculta always welcome us with open arms & big smiles. Their enthusiasm & spirit is infectious, and their ability to play & enjoy what little they have is remarkable and humbling. Maria Rosa and various members of her family are always at hand and provide an invaluable place of safety for both the children and the volunteers.”

Conviven back in business

After a silent month Conviven is back on track. We have once again started the classes inside Ciudad Oculta and have picked up some new private English students at Conviven.

Next week we’ll go to a day camp to distribute flayers about our summer activities and after that we’ll hopefully have more kids to play with (at the moment we are just dealing with classes in Ciudad Oculta and private English students at Conviven).

Also as some of you might know, my time at Conviven is almost up. A year has passed by very quickly. There is a new person, Bella from the UK to take over my things and hopefully also this weblog!