by Giusepe Vitale

San Pedro de Atacama is a small, oasis-town in the Atacama Desert, located in the north of Chile. Back in January 2012, I visited this town with the good company of my dear friend, Summer. We combined our talents - Summer's love for writing and my love for yoga - to create a summer camp curriculum for kids. We arrived in San Pedro as volunteers ready to host a one-week summer camp for a local school called, Ecolegio where we worked with a lovely group of kids ages 4-12.

 

Our curriculum combined yoga practices to cultivate self-care habits, writing/drawing exercises to inspire self-reflection toward identifying personal passions, and group discussions about community needs. In the end, the kids created personal superhero stories. Each kid translated a personal passion into a superpower and utilized that superpower to provide a solution for a community issue they cared about. We were thrilled with the creative stories that emerged. One of our favorites was SuperFish, created by an eight year old girl. SuperFish is an avid swimmer with a special superpower: she opens her mouth wide, inhales all the trash around the beach, closes her mouth back up with a big bite, and spits out the trash which lands on the sand compacted in a nice rectangle shape ready to be picked up by the recycling truck. We received great feedback from the kids and their parents!


Click here to see more wonderful photos of Giusepe's work at Ecolegio.

ABOUT Storytime Yoga Teacher Trainee GIUSEPE VITALE -
Yoga helps me show up everyday consciously caring for myself, others and the world. I became a yoga teacher to share yoga with kids and grown-ups, hoping that yoga will help them too. When I'm off the mat, I keep busy and smiling with good company + being outside + social dancing + dark chocolate + graduate studies in counseling psychology. For a little bit more about me visit my website at www.GiusepeVitale.com.