The Citizen, 2015-04-09, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015.
Miners spends reading week on Guatemalan mission
While a lot of post-secondary
students may have filled their
February reading week with study,
rest and relaxation, Bluevale’s
Jessica Miners found herself very
busy overseas.
Miners, who attends St. Jerome’s
University at Waterloo University,
found herself in Guatemala as part of
the Guatemala Go initiative at her
school.
Miners flew to the Central
American country on Feb. 12
through a program offered at her
school.
“For reading week, I went down to
a little town called Parramos,” she
said. “There is an orphanage there
called NPH (Nuestros Pequeños
Hermanos). It’s located in Parramos.
For 10 days I volunteered there and
did different things.”
Miners said she spent hours
peeling carrots in the kitchen,
helping with the construction of a
quarantine room for the hospital at
the orphanage, as well as other jobs,
but what she remembers most is her
time actually interacting with the
children.
“I played with the kids a lot,” she
said. “They have a school there, and
I helped out with some of the
English classes. It’s very cool to see
how they do school and their grading
system and see how their education
system works.”
Miners said she served dinner one
night at the orphanage and it was an
eye-opening experience to see the
need for the services NPH provides.
“There were around 600 or 700
kids that needed to be fed,” she said.
“They get a certain amount of food
and that’s it. I mean, they get three
square meals a day, but there are no
snacks or anything like that.”
Helping out at the orphanage
provided a window into a
completely new world for Miners.
“Everything there is different,” she
said. “We have a very materialistic
society in North America, but there,
everyone treats everyone so much
better and they have nothing.”
Miners said that seeing how the
children interact with each other,
always with a smile regardless of
who they were talking to,
was something she was amazed to
see.
“One morning we went to the
hospital with the orphanage’s band,”
she said. “The orphans have a band.
They play maracas, drums, a triangle
and some other instruments and
every Saturday morning they go to
the hospital to volunteer and play for
the people there. They play for the
elders and the people with severe
health problems.”
Miners said she was amazed at the
impact the band had.
“These children, they didn’t have
families, they don’t have things of
their own, but there they were giving
back anyways,” she said. “It was
very interesting, I don’t think it’s
something I would see at home.”
Miners also spent some time in the
special needs house, which aids
orphans living with disabilities.
“It really made me think about
how we do things at home,” she said.
“We have this way where we look at
people in our society with
disabilities. A lot of people have this
idea that they can’t do anything and
some look down on them almost as
if they’re a burden.”
Miners said that there was no
looking down on those in the special
needs houses.
“Everyone pitches in and helps the
special needs kids,” she said. “The
other kids help them get around, they
play games with them and they all
exercise together as if there was
nothing different about them.”
The trip was a busy one and
mirrored a full-time job, Miners
said.
“We would get up at 9 a.m. and
work until 1 p.m., then have lunch,
then work from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and
then we would go hang out with the
kids from the orphanage,” she said.
Boys and girls lived in different
dormitories at the orphanage and the
different living spaces hosted very
different playtimes according to
Miners.
“With the boys, we played soccer
and Twister and other physical
games like that,” she said. “Soccer
over there is different.”
Miners says there is certainly a
skill gap between the children at
home and the children at the
orphanage.
“I’ll just say I’m very glad we
didn’t start a game of Canadians
versus the Guatemalans, because
they are amazing players.”
The girls’ dormitories featured
Jenga and bracelets.”
Not everything was about the
orphanage, however, as Miners
explained the trip did include some
sightseeing.
“We did a couple of day trips,” she
said. “We went to the see the
markets in one city and another day
we went to a small community that
had been set up by the government
for victims of a volcano eruption and
hurricane a few years back.”
Miners explained that the
community had fallen on tough
times however as, when a new
government came in, they stopped
funding it.
“We volunteered there for a day
and made up food bags for every
family in the community,” she said.
“I think there were 104 families,
including 304 children, in the
community.”
Continued from page 8
son and daughter Brent and Sarah,
are two- and one-year curlers. It
takes four to make a team and there
are always team members to help the
new ones learn the game and help
them along.
The club has made many
improvements since the last
celebration 10 years ago. The
curling stones needed some work
and curler Steve Knight thought a
Trillium grant could be helpful in
seeing the stones renewed. He did
the work and was turned down, but
he persevered. He approached the
Optimist Club to partner with the
Curling Club in the application and
this time, a Trillium grant was
received.
In 2010, the rocks were sent away
to have new inserts with blue honed
granite, for a smoother running
surface. The grant paid for the
refurbishment of the rocks and then
new handles were purchased. The
costs of the new handles were
completely covered by current and
former members of the club
sponsoring their names upon the
new handles.
The club purchased new brooms
for new curlers to use and many
retired curlers have donated their
brooms to the club. In the last few
years, money was donated to the
arena to aid in the cost of a new laser
level for the Zamboni and the club
purchased a new cleaning broom
and nipper for better ice preparation.
New hacks were purchased to
replace the ancient ones this past
year.
The combination of all these new
improvements have improved the
curling experience for all. The arena
staff has been helpful and visitors at
the March bonspiel commented on
how good the ice was.
The Brussels Curling Club
celebrated the 25th anniversary with
a bonspiel and had 80 folks enjoy
the day. The 40th anniversary was
celebrated with invitations sent to
400 members and past members,
with nearly 200 attending the dinner
and dance.
The 50th anniversary dinner and
dance is being held Saturday, April
11 at the Brussels Legion and we
hope many former club members
have made plans to attend.
It is a milestone for the village of
Brussels and a testament to the
commitment of the many curlers of
the Brussels Curling Club
to continue to enjoy the art of
curling.
New members are always
welcome and members of the club
look forward to continuing the
curling tradition in the 51st season in
2015-2016.
Curling club new and improved
Smiles all around
Bluevale native and St. Jerome’s University student Jessica Miners, centre, was one of many
students from her school who went to Guatemala to volunteer at an orphanage. The
experience was a life-changing one according to Miners. (Photo submitted)
All kinds of support
Volunteering at a Guatemalan orphanage was a truly eye-
opening experience for Bluevale native and St. Jerome’s
University student Jessica Miners. (Photo submitted)
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
The Citizen
#1 And We
Still Try Harder!
Recent circulation figures
show The Citizen has the
highest circulation in the
northern part of Huron County,
#3 in the entire county.
The Citizen
Proudly Community-Owned
Since 1985