SUMMER IS HERE- bring it on TOOTI FROOTI, CHOCOLATE CHIP AND RASPBERRY RIPPLE :)

After months of planning GVI has finally started the first summer camp or school (whatever you prefer to call it!) in the Auxilium school! This Summer Camp is a great way for kids to be occupied during their summer holidays. A lot of them come from families who cannot afford to take them on holiday or they may not have toys to play with at home and so end up playing on the streets or doing pretty much nothing all summer.
At the summer school they are learning English, doing Arts and Crafts and playing sports and also music. Other than this they are going to make new friends, improve communication skills and their confidence in English speaking and simply have lots of fun and games. From the 60 kids who signed up we have 50 kids coming- a manageable and fairly good number:) They are divided into three teams - the youngest group being Tooti Frooti (Years 2 and 3), Chocolate Chip (Year 4 and 5) and Rasberry RRRRR RippplLLLEEEE (Year 6 and 7). The names for the teams are just fun sounding icecream flavours that we chose as its related to summer ofcourse!

So our hardworking GVI Volunteers start as early at 8 am with some aerobics and yoga . The kids are really enjoying this as we have some great routines thanks to our super active Canadian sisters Jill and Haley :) After this we do a bit of singing and by 9am we start English class. After English the children do some arts and crafts or play sports or take music lessons with the talented miss Hannah (who has the voice of an angel! ) and Dylan (an amazing guitar player ! ).. ofcourse there are lots of games, competitions and prizes in between! We want to make it as fun and interesting for both students and volunteers so we are planning on a carnival party next week and then an outing for the children. We are also using our local contacts and bringing in people from different walks of life to guide the children- for example this week a gym instructor is coming to give the children education on the importance of eating healthy foods and exercising and keeping the body and mind fit.

The kids are also being given some treats like bananas and biscuits everyday during break time. This is being sponsored by one of our ex volunteers Simon..So thank you Simon :) We also have a new addition to the GVI team-- Romeo - who was a former year 10 student in the school and was looking for some work this summer. Romeo is one of the most polite and helpful guys I have met in Kerala and I could simply not resist giving him this opportunity to work with us :)

Ok so to end this blog...a big shout out and biggest thanks to our wonderful, talented and hardworking volunteers who are helping us with this summer camp...we have Lisa (from Canada), Dylan and Tom (from US) - no they are not together!), Hannah (also from the US), James and Freya (From England)and ofcourse the crazy cool and sexy sisters Jill and Haley (from Canada). We are also getting Sarah and Genevieve in this weekend so the team only gets better :)

Keep reading for more updates on the summer school shananigans.

Luv
Ridhi - Project Managerx

SUMMER IS HERE- bring it on TOOTI FROOTI, CHOCOLATE CHIP AND RASPBERRY RIPPLE :)