Day Five: Which Animal Will We Donate??

My mission in Missions on Friday was to give an overview of the Heifer Project, and really to focus on aspects of the organization. We learned about how HP was started in 1944 during the Spanish Civil War and has helped over 4 million families both directly and indirectly through passing on the gift. Heifer has some important guidelines for their work including:

• There must be need
• Humane treatment of animals
• Environmentally sustainable practices
• Communities and families share in decision making
• Must set goals and report progress
• Passing on the gift

Passing on the gift is something that I tried to reiterate time and time again during Missions, because it is what I see as the most important aspect of the Heifer Project. Not only does HP donate directly to communities, but those communities can keep spreading the wealth through passing on the gift, as well as experiencing the joy of giving.

The other mission during Missions was to choose which animal we wanted to buy with the money the children had brought for offering that week. Around the room, I had pictures of all the different animals you could buy through Heifer Project--honey bees, cows, ducks, chicks, llamas, trees, goats, pigs, water buffalo, fish, sheep and rabbits. Each child had four stickers for their four votes--they could put them all on one animal or split them up in any combination. After all four groups voted, our top vote-getters were rabbits, llamas and ducks. The petting zoo that we had that day likely had something to do with the rabbits and the ducks getting so many votes. I didn't really want to point out that the rabbits were just going to be eaten when all the kids kept going on and on about how cute they were and that's why they voted for them...

Later in the afternoon, we found out how much money we had gotten through the week, and with the church's promise to match us, we had over $1000!!!! I can't remember the exact number, or the exact amount of animals but I believe we will be purchasing two llamas, a water buffalo, two goats, two flocks of ducks and three trios of rabbits. The kids were very excited and I am so glad that I got to be part of them making a difference for families throughout the world.

For Creative Arts Camp, we had a shorter day that day to prepare for our presentation. We did some quick theater games then went over the dance they would be doing later. We had three groups, and had each one do a different dance--Jai Ho, African dance or folklorico. The music group had to borrow the stage about halfway through, so we moved to a different room and played a few rounds of freeze dance.

Later we got to present our dances, and I stood where they could see me to remind them of the dance steps. All of the groups did very well and I think really showed what they learned during the week. We didn't have time to do any of the plays so we told the parents to ask their kids about them. The other presentation groups were quite good as well, and I liked seeing what the other classes did.

This was a wonderful week and I am so glad I got to participate. Heifer Project has been an important organization to me for a long time and I was glad to learn more as well as share with a new generation. I also love teaching dance and am glad that I got to expand their horizons a little bit in terms of dance. What a great week!

Day Four: LLAMAS

A lot of you that know me, know that llamas are one of my favorite animals. I love llamas. I was very excited for llama day, which happened to be Thursday.

In Missions, we started out talking about South America, again clarifying the difference between a country and a continent and naming some countries in South America. A lot more of the kids had actually been to countries in South America, and I have been twice, so it was cool to offer that personal experience to the lesson.

We then began discussing the animal for the day: Llamas. I have a couple of model llamas from Ten Thousand Villages, made with real llama wool, so I brought them along. First class we passed them around, but that seemed too distracting so the rest of the classes I held on to them and told them they could come pet them after class. We talked about why llamas are in important animal within the Heifer Project--used for wool, as pack animals, hides, candle fat, etc. People can travel long distances, which they often have to do to go to other towns, especially going to market. Llamas have two toes and padded soles and are therefore very good at climbing the mountains, which is an important aspect when living in the Andes. Llamas eat twigs, moss and brush, meaning they are not competing with a lot of other animals and are easier to feed than other livestock. At an hour old, they are already running around. We heard a story about Tomas, a boy whose family had to wait their turn to get the baby llama from another family that had gotten one from the Heifer Project.

In the afternoon, we acted out a folk tale in which a condor has kidnapped a girl, and then a frog saves her. I then taught a bit of folklorico and tried to tie in some elements from Chilean, Peruvian and Brasilian folk dance. In one of the groups we did a little bit of capoeira, because of a request from one of the kids. I must confess that I have not done capoeira in a while, and was racking my brain to remember some moves. Fortunately the kids had a capoeira master actually come teach them in a different class, because I wouldn't have wanted them to go home with only my (kind of terrible) lesson. The folk dance, on the other hand, went very well. I am pretty experienced in folklorico now as I have danced in a group for four years, so I taught some simple footwork. It seemed a little less exciting because in folklorico there is so much focus on the footwork and the rhythm of the feet than in other dance styles, but the kids seemed to enjoy it all the same, so that's good!

Day Three: Chicks in Africa

Day three in Missions we talked about Africa. I had to clarify that though we had been talking about countries the past two days, now we were talking about an entire continent, with a lot of different countries and cultures within it. I had the kids name countries in Africa to help them realize how many there were.

Our animal of the day was the chicken. We talked about how in the bible in Genesis, God created the chicken before the egg (maybe laying that question to rest?), so Heifer Project gave chicks to families in need, not eggs, since eggs require incubation to grow into chicks, which in other countries, they don't always have. We discussed that chickens eat seeds, weeds and moss, they peck up the ground and fertilize it, which is helpful for the earth, sometimes people build pens over fish ponds so the droppings go into the water to become algae for the fish to eat, chickens don't need a lot of space and the eggs and the chickens themselves are both good for eating and selling. A few kids told us about their families' chickens that they helped take care of. We learned a story about a family that moved to Mississippi to start a poultry farm using chicks from the Heifer Project. They had various issues go wrong and solicited help from their community to solve them--fortunately there was a demand for these healthier, tastier chickens, and they managed to get the support they needed to meet the demand.

Then I asked them a "serious" question: Why did the chicken cross the road? There were a lot of fun responses, though every group wanted to know what the "correct" answer, but really that was just a question to get the creative juices flowing :) And of course, we ended with the chicken dance.

That afternoon, we focused on Africa. I had come up with some simpler African dance moves from combination of my own background and some refreshers from YouTube. We acted out a story in which a person gets courage from dancing with a lion, and then we all danced together the African dance I taught. The music was random music I found on the internet a few years ago, that I decided was good to dance to. All of the groups really enjoyed this story (I believe the most), and the dancing. The youngest group, since we spent less time trying to get them all quiet and paying attention, had a lot of extra time at the end, so we played a few rounds of freeze dance, which became quite the game later that week.

Day Two: Water, Water Everywhere!

Posting has been delayed due to the fact that my keyboard is mad at me for spilling milk on it. 6 keys are out of commission, meaning I am borrowing my mom's laptop... but apparently I have had 45 views on my post about day 1, so don't want to disappoint my readers! ;)


Our theme for Tuesday was water. In Missions, we talked about fish. Our country was Thailand. Fish are important because they are affordable, easy to feed, and the perfect size for a family to eat for dinner, and have none left over (important for parts of the world where there are no refrigerators!). We talked about a girl named Carmen, who worked with her community in the Philippines to get a fish pond from the Heifer Project to share with the whole village. Her village had plenty of water but not enough fish, so they sought to change that through working together to get a fish pond for the whole community, dividing the responsibility and the bounty among themselves.


Because it was water day, we did not have afternoon programming and instead went swimming! It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun in the pool.  Downsides were only the amount of mosquitos and the fact that kids consider you a flotation device, so there were a few times I felt like I was choking from arms around my neck, but overall, quite a fun afternoon.

Day One of VBS & CAC: Goats, India & Jai Ho!

This week I am working at First Baptist Church of Austin's Vacation Bible School and Creative Arts Camp. The theme this year is The Heifer Project, an organization that allows people to donate money in order to buy animals for people in impoverished communities in the world. If you haven't heard about them, I encourage you to check out their website and learn about their approach.

In the mornings, I am teaching Missions, which really delves into what the Heifer Project actually does. Each day we'll be focusing on a different animal that the Heifer Project uses, and then on Friday, we will vote on which animal the children want to buy with the offering money they brought for the week.

Today we talked about goats and India. I had a globe and showed the children where India was, and where Texas was--they were very impressed that it was just about halfway around the world! We talked about why goats are so great, especially for poor communities--adaptable to many climates, can deal with rougher terrain, cheaper than cows, another form of milk that doesn't have lactose, etc. We heard a story about a girl named Reena who never got to go to school, but when she got a goat from the Heifer Project, she got to start her own business with the money she made. We learned that everyone who receives an animal must take a class on how to best take care of their animal and of the earth. We learned that an important aspect of the Heifer Project is passing on of the gift, so in the case of goats, giving one of the kids that were born from the goat to another family in need in the community.

In the afternoon, I partnering with another teacher to do "Move with the World" where we are combining drama and dance. We met yesterday and planned a great curriculum for this week which I am very excited about, and will focus on the country of the day. We therefore are incorporating a dramatization either of a folk tale, or just a short skit, and then dance from that area.

Today, we continued to learn about India. We acted a short scene in which a group of US Americans goes to visit India and gets to learn some Indian dancing. The first dance we did was a sort of version of dandiya, or the stick dance, a traditional folk dance from India done at festivals, weddings and other celebrations. We used paper towel rolls as sticks, and danced around, tapping them together and clapping with partners. Then we did a version of Jai Ho, a dance done at the end of one of my favorite movies, Slumdog Millionaire. I basically did the same thing for the chorus, and the rest of it was just a lot of movement around that I made up as I went along and the kids followed what I did. They seemed to have a lot of fun and I definitely did!

Overall, day one went really well and I am excited for the rest of this week!