Our first charla!

On the morning of Friday, August 5, we successfully gave our first charla in Spanish to the young students at Israel Muñez, the elementary school in our town.  The day before, my fellow trainees and I had received instructions on how to implement the program Colgate, a dental hygiene awareness program.  It is not a difficult program to learn because it focuses on teaching children the proper way to brush their teeth and helps them to understand the importance of dental hygiene (which is severely neglected in Honduras).  90% of people between ages 6 and 15 have cavities, so hopefully this program can decrease that amount.  The 15 trainees in my group were broken up into groups to be able to work with different grade levels.  Chris, Kayla, Julie and I were assigned to kinder, which included a very basic lesson for the students since they are so young.  We gave a poster to the class about dental hygiene, as well as a packet to each student with toothbrushes and toothpaste.  Our actual lesson consisted of an opening game, a few songs, and an activity with questions.  The children each got a paper bear whose mouth opened up to show its teeth.  They colored the bear but the objective was to count the teeth and talk about how we use our teeth and the importance of keeping them healthy.  The students were really cute and excited to learn.  Most students already brush their teeth at home, and hopefully the others will begin to now.  It was a pretty simple first assignment, but we are all pleased that it went well!