This week has been good to Daneli. Not only did she receive a new pair of much needed glasses, she received educational support. A family has decided to sponsor Daneli through Prepa. Daneli has been at Buen Pastor for the past five years. She has always tried hard, but somehow managed to say under the radar. Not this week. This week, she's a Star and has a family she will be a part of from now on. Well-deserved, Daneli!
This week has been good to Daneli. Not only did she receive a new pair of much needed glasses, she received educational support. A family has decided to sponsor Daneli through Prepa. Daneli has been at Buen Pastor for the past five years. She has always tried hard, but somehow managed to say under the radar. Not this week. This week, she's a Star and has a family she will be a part of from now on. Well-deserved, Daneli!
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New books arrived in the mail this week. Two picture books for the younger girls and a couple of Harry Potters for the older ones. The girls love reading and being read to. A good book is a great gift no matter what age you are. It's heartwarming to see such a great appetite for a good read at Buen Pastor. If you would like to help build our little but very loved library, just go to Amazon, pick something out, and send it to our address located on the Get Involved page. After graduating from Columbia, 22 year old Isang Smith is spending three months in Guanajuato. When she’s not in school studying Spanish or out on the trail with her biking buddies, Isang will be doing something incredibly memorable and life changing: she will be teaching one of the girls, Isabel, how to read and write. Isabel has never had the opportunity to attend school. So with Isang's help, Isabel will be well on her way to gaining one of the most important skills she can have, literacy. Thanks to a kind person, birthdays don’t go unnoticed at Buen Pastor. Today, Allie turns 4! We celebrated by turning her into a Princess for the Day. She was delighted. If you would like to make a girl feel special on her birthday, pick your own Princess here and PayPal us $20. Be sure to tell me which girl you’re gifting. I’ll know just what to get her. In 2010, Buen Pastor will be eating it's own, organic vegetables! Under the expert guideance of Dan, Erik, Bethany, and Juanita started a garden the last week in December. Dan and his wife Lori have a lot of experience growing organically in Guanajuato. So we’ll be taking their lead and benefitting from their past failures and successes. We’re going French Intensive, a biodynamic form of gardening that yields a lot of food in a small space. We began by sifting the soil (lots of worms = good sign!) in order to aerate it. Meanwhile, we mixed in some rich, manured soil donated by Dan’s neighbor. Using aerated soil allows the roots to go straight down, instead of breaking out horizontally. In turn, you can place seeds very close together since their roots head south, avoiding their neighbors to the east and west. Additionally, since there are so many plants, there is not enough room for weeds. So if done correctly, French Intensive yields high produce with very little weeding if any. Every year, the girls at Buen Pastor put on a concert for their families. It's a big deal for them, for the nuns, and for their two young singing instructors who volunteer their time to do this. They girls practice for months to put on a memorable show. When they sing, they sing with their entire body. It's amazing to watch. Yesterday the girls sang and they moved all of us sitting in the pews. Like many of the girls at Buen Pastor, Sara loves to read. If she had access to a library, she would be in there every afternoon, tucked away in a corner and reading until closing time. Yesterday, she started her first C. S. Lewis: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She’s never going to want it to end. Thanks to a kind hearted person in Iowa, Carmen and Brenda have glasses! They ran over to model them for me yesterday and told me how they can see everything! We're all happy they can see the chalkboard in class. Two more girls will be going next week to pick up their glasses. It’s pretty great that someone unknown to these girls has made such a difference in their lives by gifting them with vision. Cynthia Stadler is a Nurse Midwife from Norwich, Vermont. Cynthia has been volunteering at Buen Pastor since September 2009. She started with the women in the shelter, offering breast exams and teaching a health class. She has designed a women’s health curriculum in Spanish that she offers in three locations, one of them at Buen Pastor. Just recently, the madres asked her to work with the girls. She’ll be offering them a modified health class which will cover topics such as anatomy, menustration, drugs, violence, nutrition, exercise, sexuality, contraception, and relationships! Through her physical, dental, and vision exams, she’s identified girls that require glasses and cavities that need removing. Given her compassion and her skill set, she’s been a great gift to the women and girls at Buen Pastor. |
AuthorHi, my name is Juanita and I'm excited about the wonderful things going on at Buen Pastor. I update this blog to share snippets of everyday life here with you. Thanks for stopping by. EspañolEste blog está disponible en español Archives
December 2011
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