December at CL by Lino Wiede
The beginning of December at Clara Luna was all about Human Rights. After coming back from the trip up north Paola, Antonia, and me, Lino, realized several ideas and projects to get the kids closer to the subject of Human Rights. We started off with creating a special “Clara Luna Human Rights Bill”. On a big wooden board the kids and their parents signed a declaration with their handprints in the colors of Ecuador. The declaration said: “Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos (All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights)”. The process of creating the declaration evoked emotions and a sensibility for the importance of maintaining these rights. We also introduced Club De Niños to “Imagine” by John Lennon. Next to listening and signing the song, Paola discovered a book that contained the original lyrics with a Spanish translation and images that illustrated the message of the song and the Human Rights topic. In the English classes Antonia and me made the Rabbits, Sharks, and Butterflies familiar with important vocabulary and phrases to understand and distinguish the contents of the many rights a human being uncompromisingly has. The United Nations Human Rights Declaration of 1948 served as orientation for us. This milestone document was also subject to the first Jovenes meeting of December. Antonia and me discussed all the 30 articles with the teenagers and watched a short documentary of how the declaration accrued. Afterwards we asked each of them to pick an individual right that was most important to them and let them explain why. At the end of the Human Rights period at Clara Luna we created a short film with the kids and teenagers that emphasized the most important aspects of what we learned in the past two weeks. You can watch the video on the Clara Luna YouTube channel as well as on the newsletter.
On the 15th Antonia left us, unfortunately. But she is going to be back to celebrate New Years with us before she ultimately leaves back home to Germany.
The following weekend the Jovenes were part of a project that was created by “Mingas por el mar”, an Ecuadorian organization that cleans up beaches on the entire coast of Ecuador and provides information about how trash, especially plastic, threatens the vitality of our oceans and its biodiversity in general. The teenagers, Paola, the Mingas por el mar team, other volunteers from Puerto Lopez, and me met in the morning on Saturday. We started off with a small presentation about what happens with trash after it is irresponsibly disposed into the ocean and how it ends up being part of every organism in the water in the shape of micro plastic particles. The moral of the presentation was to especially prevent the usage of unnecessary plastic products. Afterwards we gathered and walked along the beach of Puerto Lopez to collect trash. It was interesting and alarming at the same time: most of the trash were the “unnecessary plastic products” we were taught about – things like plastic bags, toothbrushes, cups, straws, and of course candy wrappings. At the end we sorted the trash to put it onto a wall at the beach front that we had painted blue before. When you walk by this work of art automatically catches the eye and makes one aware of the two problems we all have to faces and solve: how do we create less trash and how do we dispose it responsibly.
The last week was even more about creating. Christmas time was approaching and we had to prepare the annual Party at Clara Luna that took place on Wednesday, the 20th. During the English classes we practiced Christmas songs with the kids (Spanish and English ones) to perform them at the party. The Jovenes helped Paola to set up the stage and to bring chairs and tables downstairs and the mothers cleaned up the garden. The party started in late afternoon. All the people who are involved in the foundation came to celebrate. Adam, the patron of the disabilities group, came to play the guitar and dressed up as Papa Noel (Santa) – the kids made big eyes. The songs worked out well, it was fun and I hope everyone enjoyed it, but we still were far from being perfect. Gifts that Paola made were handed out to every kid and we let everyone write down a wish for the next year on a small piece of paper and collected them in a bottle. Afterwards we let a balloon fly to symbolize our wishes on their way up in the sky. Paola and the mothers prepared delicious food and hot chocolate – it was a success!
On Thursday, one day later, we had another Christmas party with the disabilities group and Adam. This one was way smaller but as good as the other one for sure and this time I got be Papa Noel – a very skinny version the kids found. That was the last event of this year. It was a long and eventful month and now we look forward to another beautiful and successful year at Clara Luna! Feliz año nuevo a todos!
