XXXII. Sonflora Project

But now finally the first blog entry from the city of lions. I have been working here since the end of January and now only for two more weeks in a social project for children and teenagers. But 'here' is actually a lie. The project is not in Leon itself, but in Tamarindo, a small village about 30 minutes away from the city.

That means getting up early in the morning, at 7:20 am the rickety bus from our home to the bus stop on the outskirts of the city. There we take the chicken bus, if necessary. But if possible, we try to hitchhike to Tamarindo...

That's cheaper, faster and much more fun. There are basically three types of rides:

The truck, a rather comfortable way to travel, namely on the trucker's mattress, usually with funny music.

The air-conditioned car, not my favorite, because usually very loud, bad music is playing, you feel like at the North Pole and often the drivers are in a chatty mood - and I can't use that either in the morning at half past seven or in the afternoon after work ;)

The pickup, without a doubt my favorite variant. You just sit on the back of a pickup truck and knock when you have to get out. Wind, beautiful view, racing heart due to daring evasive maneuvers and time for reflection are included.

After this adventure in the morning, we finally arrive at the project. There we quickly prepare everything before the children arrive. Unlike in Granada, here we are talking about a fixed group of about 30 children who usually come to the project every day - half in the morning, the other half in the afternoon.

The children are supported by the project from entry into the project until the end of their school education, also financially, in terms of school materials, but also the health of the kids.

In the project, everyone first brushes their teeth and something is read together. Then first the school homework is done, after that the 'extra homework' we created, which is supposed to complement the sometimes very poor school education.

Finally, we offer different activities to give the children time to simply be children.

The classics are definitely playing soccer and cards, but there is also a lot of crafting. I also offer a theater / circus group, with which we have already had several performances.

On Saturdays, the children also come to the project, but all at once and there are no homework! That's why we always plan something special for Saturdays, a treasure hunt, for example, or a trip to the swimming pool.

Once there were even circus friends of mine from Esteli who visited us and gave a performance and a workshop - I just can't get rid of the circus...

Finally, we clean up the project and repeat the adventure of the morning commute. Usually we are home between five and six. The working days are quite long and often things have to be bought for the project or the extra homework has to be prepared and copied. This makes volunteering at Sonflora very demanding and time-consuming.

Above all, it's incredibly fun, thanks to the children and the different activities, but especially thanks to the team, the 'equipo mas guapo del mundo'!

Fränzi, the jefa of the Tamarindo project location, and the Nica team are a solid part of the team: a social worker, a psychologist, and three former project children who now work in the project parallel to their education. The group is complemented by us volunteers, currently there are four of us.

The responsibility is clearly divided in the project, but at the same time everyone helps where they can.

Every Thursday there is a meeting in a café here in Leon where the week is planned. But before that, there is always an hour to either do the so-called feel-good round, in which everyone reports whether everything is going well in private and work life, or the psychologist tells us something about the background and problems of the project children.

Apart from that, we always go to work together, spend lunch breaks together, and sometimes do things together in our free time. This strengthens the bond and I have grown very fond of everyone on the team.

So much so far about the project, in the next blog entry I will tell you a little bit about my life in Leon - there actually is one despite the long working hours ;)

See you soon!