School Team - Tuesday

From the Nelson Family Blog:

Today was a very busy day for Grace’s team. The kids started their day with a tour of the garbage dump where many of the Catalyst kids live, and work sorting through the trash for pennies a day. Caroline, Catalyst’s amazing leader, felt it important that our kids understand why they are working so hard on the Expedition, and what they did all that fundraising for. The kids had the choice of staying on the bus or walking through the outskirts of the dump (don’t worry – they wore proper footwear and were fully supervised). Grace opted for the tour and took all the photos above. I asked Grace if she would like to write something for this post, and she declined – it was just too sad for her to talk about much less write about it quite yet. I think the photos will speak for themselves. The teddy bear on the woven mats under nothing more than a tarp is what I thought about tucking Grace into bed tonight. It should be noted that this is the “new dump” – when the old dump closed many of the families who lived there moved to the new dump, and apparently the conditions at the old dump were even worse, which is hard to fathom.

After their visit to the dump, the kids returned to the school for arts and crafts with the Catalyst kids. There were stations for tie-dye, friendship bracelets, beads, sidewalk chalk and drawing, as well as a game of soccer. All the kids had a great time. After the fun and games, the team set up for a market in the school’s courtyard. All the donations the volunteers brought – clothes, toys, personal hygiene items – were available “for sale” to the school kids and their families. The kids earned “Catalyst Dollars” (although I guess it would be Catalyst Dong) by doing their school work and getting good grades, and their families earned additional coupons for participating in Catalyst activities. The items were priced and the kids had to pay 20% of the price marked – making both the school kids and the volunteers do some math to figure out pricing and make change. They were also able to use real money they had saved, which was given twice its face value. The toys were the most popular item, although some kids were apparently required by their parents to spend some money on personal hygiene kits (shampoo, toothbrush, soap, washcloth, etc.). There was also a housewares section and the ladies crowded around made it look like Black Friday shopping for the limited supply bargain. FCVN kids, your fun packs were sold at the market and I saw kids with your letters. It looked like the community had a wonderful time, and being able to shop for their items must have been empowering. Between the incentive it provided the Catalyst kids, and their families, the opportunity for our kids to organize the items and be the salespeople and the math lessons, it had to be the most rewarding shopping experience in history.