A very spectacular day for our APIA community. Over 125 people – host families and au pairs – tattooed the children, threw flyers around a beach, colored the world, sang a happy birthday, scavenger hunted the cultural way, ate dishes from around the globe and ended our fun with a good ole’ water balloon toss with kids and their sweet care givers. What fun! Thank you all who attended and made this day so wonderful!
Au Pairs from over 12 different countries spent a good portion of their hard-earned Saturday off to help the hungry of WA state. This past November, our cluster of au pairs helped to collect over $14,000 for NW Harvest at a Seahawks game and this past weekend another group of au pairs helped to pack over 13,000 pounds of apples that will be distributed to centers around the state to assist hungry families. Apples were purchased or donated from farms in Eastern WA and our group made, labeled, filled and closed up boxes of these apples that will then go out in refrigerated trucks around the Greater Seattle and Tacoma areas helping those who need help. (WA is the 15th hungriest state in the US.) These au pairs pictured below should be very proud of this hard work and the time and energy donated to something larger than any one of us!
Our cluster gathered this month in my home to really get to know each other better and talk about ourselves and this magical exchange experience. We began with ice breakers…it IS hard to pass an orange with no hands; moved on to crafting St Patty’s Day necklaces for the host kids (and ourselves!); did a scavenger hunt of “find a person who…”; shared our green and rainbowed international dishes; and ended hearing about each other’s wishes for their year in the U.S. These young women have traveled far (from France, Mexico, South Africa, Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Panama, Colombia, Italy, Sweden and Spain) to travel so deeply within themselves. I’m blessed to be a part of their journey.
Au pairs (along with one host family!) came to tour Theo Chocolate this month. It was a very informative walk through the factory (with stylish hairnets) that ending in unending chocolate and a couch for conversations.
A small, but dedicated group of APIA au pairs got up early on a Saturday to show their support of the March of Dimes and help celebrate 75 years of this amazing organization. With the streets of downtown closed, we walked and talked thinking about the reasons why. The money we raised, with the help of our generous host families and their employers, supports March of Dimes programs in our WA communities that help moms have healthy, full-term pregnancies. And it will fund research to find answers to the problems that threaten our babies. We were quite proud to march for this mission!
Our cluster gathered at my home to talk first about taxes and then about wishes! A green bowl was passed around where au pairs could put anonymously her wishes (a la leprechaun) for her year in the U.S. Many wanted to improve their English, make lasting friendships, learn about themselves, travel the U.S. with a must stop in Hawaii and perhaps meet a lovely U.S. American boy during their stay. Our green dishes went from the savory stuffed green peppers to green tea balls and almost everything green in between. Wonderful spending the afternoon with such a diverse, smart, caring group of young women with independent goals, but many shared wishes…
An amazing group of women from all corners of the globe joined Nature Consortium in the Duwamish Green Belt yesterday. After planting over 200 trees and bushes in the forest that runs from West Seattle to Burien, the au pairs and others then protected our newly planted friends by mulching over 1000 square feet of forest. All this accompanied by some clarinet music, making the scene feel a bit out of a movie… It surely was not a Saturday spent lounging about, but we felt good to know that all this hard work would yield a more healthy forest for years to come. Nice to affect our carbon foot prints…just a little bit.
Kim Marie (Germany), Martyna (Poland) and Ashley (Korea)
Baby trees set to replace the 100 year old dying ones in the forest.
Au pairs gathered in Issaquah at the Salmon Hatchery to learn how important these fish are to our ecosystem here in the PNW. They saw the salmon as fry all the way to those set free in the ocean to be dinner for our orca whale population. And in perfect Seattle fashion, the rain came down on our event! Thanks to the group who came and who stayed…and later enjoyed some pizza and conversation in a dryer environment.
Au Pairs gathered in West Seattle for the final free concert of the season at Hiawatha Community Center . We shared international dishes such as Mexican tacos, Korean kimchi rice balls, Swedish cinnamon rolls and, of course, pizza. Watching children dance to local music was sure a nice way to spend an evening in our beloved Seattle.
