3 Octubre 2011

At the end of each section we will have a little party for VALE. Over food, the kids will play jeopardy for their parents and teachers to demonstrate what they have learned. This round was “The World” so we will be eating international foods from mostly local products, but a few spices and supplies I had to have shipped in or needed to get from specialty stores. Friday morning, 3am, bus boarded for Arequipa City. Friday afternoon, 5pm, bus boarded for a rapid return to the Canyon. 12 hours on buses in one day = smelly lu and a well deserved night of camping out near the natural volcanic hot springs, and… drum roll.. a warm bath!

The following day was spent getting things ready for today’s VALE.

Now that we have discussed how the planet revolves and creates seasons, and we have discussed quite a bit about different places and countries on this Earth, today we talked about how to take care of our planet.

I asked them what it meant to take care of our environment and there were resounding responses about not throwing trash in the river, street, or ground. So we moved on to what one should do with trash, then what you could do with trash... and I got a lot of blank faces.  I kind of threw the idea at them to recycle trash. Recycling was something they knew they are supposed to do, but they didn’t really know what it meant. They didn’t even realize that they are actually recycling every time they reuse something.

When cutting down the program due to time restraints I combined today’s recyling day, with one of the self esteem days.

“Today, we are going to make paper by recycling news paper. Then, we are going to turn that paper into diaries that you can write in every day.

You have 15 minutes to go outside and collect all the newspapers and flowers you can find to make our paper.”

And, the were off, half an hour later pressing their paper one at a time (which they thought was just the coolest project in the world).

Well, that was until the blender died.

To our dumb luck, there happened to be a gentleman in town selling kitchen supplies. He comes once a year, what is the likelihood!? So, the blender was quickly and expensively replaced, and we were back on duty.

Today felt like a particularly successful day because they youth were in such an obedient and helpful mood. They arrived early, helped set up, listened well, and then stayed to help clean up.

The VALE program gets a gold star for the week because a couple of the girls asked permission to make Japanese fans. When I got them the popsicle sticks and other supplies to do so, other youth started inventing projects with the popsicle sticks. Huge success for the path to creativity that was so non-existent when we started.

We continue with paper making this week, then celebrate with the parents Thursday.

29 Septiembre 2011

We did the Egyptian mask project yesterday.

Hug hit.

Meche came in and played security guard for me to keep the younger ones from entering, and we had about 10 secondary school students (perfect number, I thought).

The project was exciting and they enjoyed themselves. Their maskes were looking good, and they began painting their headdresses as two boys painted their mask like a ninja.

The entire purpose of this program is creativity and curiosity, so I focus less on discipline and more on the youth being as creative as possible. I told them, “I like how you painted your masks, but I need to show your parents and the donors that you have learned about Egypt, so humor us, do the headdresses, then when you take them home, you can throw them away, and use the mask however you like.”

“What?”

“What do you mean, ‘what?’, Gregorio, what did I just say?”

“you said that we need to do the project like you say now, then we can throw them away when we get home,”

“Kind of, just finish your headdresses please.”

As I was finishing this sentence, two female teens were headed out the door after only finishing one mask between the two of them, and not painting it or putting a headdress on.

“Where are you going?”

“We have homework to do.”

How can I fight this? Even though the school system sucks, and this project is probably more beneficial to them than any homework assignment they have, they have to do their homework to proceed in high school.

“Then why did you come here and use the supplies for a project that you couldn’t finish?”

Silence.

“Can you come back tomorrow and finish?”

“Yes.”

With all of me, I doubt them.

“You were both late today as well. If you had arrived on time, perhaps you could have finished. Tomorrow we start at what time?

“4”

“see you tomorrow at four, en punto, then”

I come back inside and begin to clean up the girls’ mess. I step into the bathroom to rinse their bowl and plaster dish. Moments later I come back into the room and the boys have left with their ninja masks leaving the headdresses behind, and made up names written on them. Supplies are also missing.

I allow this to crush me, and cloud me for the rest of the evening. To deliberately disobey even when I was allowing such liberty in the first place tore at my confidence. Demanding it to slide off my back, I decided I should still do something in rebuttal. While I am not here to teach discipline, I do need an ounce of respect to get anything done. I could go to the school tomorrow and have the principal reprimand them in his way for me. I could go pull them out of class and reprimand them myself. I could go to each of their houses right now and demand the masks back.

But, my goals are creativity and curiosity in the youth, so…

I make a sign,

“This is the artistic ability of Gregory, Jamil, and Rodrigo. They couldn’t even finish an egyptian headdress. They have disrespected their teacher and their classmates by stealing materials.”

This, is embarrassing for youth in this small town. Tomorrow when the older youth arrive for their day, they will see it, and word will hopefully begin to get passed around. Surely, if the boys get wind of the sign they will come and tear it down, which I have given them liberty to do by hanging the sign on the outer wall of the library instead of inside. But, their parents will have heard by then and it will have fulfilled it’s duty.

Lack of discipline, however, is a huge issue when one is working towards the advancement of education here. Parents and teachers are irresponsible, whiney, and inconsistent, so, how is there to be any improvement with their children? There won’t be. Anytime soon.

All I can hope for is that this program instills creativity, curiosity, knowledge, and leadership skills in this generation of kids so that they can pass that on to their kids at a younger age preparing their brains better for the world of education and fixing it themselves.

28 Septiembre 2011

All I can say is, coming home to a puppy wagging her tail and jumping on me saved me today. she and i crashed on the bed together minutes after i made it through the door. I will write more tomorrow.

27 Septiembre 2011

Today we learned about Egypt. Good stuff.

But, today’s realization was less about Egypt and teaching, and more about working with impoverished youth.

I have to be SO careful about what I do with what I could consider garbage. If I throw something away that they could use, that would be utterly disrespectful. But, if I give one child something we can’t use in the program anymore (like an empty paint tube or construction paper wrap) that isn’t fair to the other kids who see this exchange and don’t get one too. Then, they will begin to use things up so they can get the “trash” it produces. So, no one should get it, right? But how can I just throw it away when they could use it? Such a conundrum.

22 Septiembre 2011

After learning about Indian culture, the high school students spent the entire session decorating their faces and hands with bindis and henna.

Need-less-to-say… they loved it.

We didn’t even have time for yoga.

20 Septiembre 2011

The VALE committee showed up today to observe the program and I think were more entertained than they anticipated. It is “What is India?” week, and the rural Peruvian kids were properly decorated in bindis and vermilion powder before they started their yoga session. Hirma took pictures for us…

The rest of the session was spent decorating their hands and arms with washable markers in traditional henna style.

The best part of today’s session was discussing who Ghandi was. His one sentence definition was, “He fought for the Indian peoples freedom with peace instead of war.” When they were inquisitive I told stories of how he acted non-violently to wide eyes and open mouths.

 There is something special to being the person who shares world knowledge with individuals who potentially will never hear the names Mahatma Ghandi, Adolf Hitler, Martin Luther King Jr., Bob Dylan, Winston Churchill, Bill Gates, Fidel Castro, Nelson and Winnie Mandella, Carl Marx, etc. Not only do they miss out on individuals that affected change, but they are missing out on the theory and the ideas behind these   people. Every teacher knows that moment when you teach someone( especially a child) something new, and it clicks, they get it. It is the most refreshing and motivating second of a teacher’s career in my opinion. Somehow, this moment I experienced today feels different. When you take something you assume the entire world knows, understands, and perhaps even remembers and introduce it to someone cut off from that knowledge. It has its own distinct beauty.

18 Septiembre 2011 take two

18 Septiembre 2011 take two

Grandma, please stop reading this entry now.

Just shortly after boarding the bus from Arequipa to Madrigal the driver demonstrated to me his ability to make my nerves active. This, is nothing unusual in South America, as I come to find 9 in 10 do so. If this had been my first trip to Madrigal, I would have been frightened, but this trip having become such a habitual necessity, has normalized my emotions and no longer creates stress in my system every time I journey into the city.

“At least we will get there in shorter time than usual.” I rationalized to myself to bury any doubt that might still have been living.

Five hours in, as we are passing through a town about an hour away from my own, comfort of home begins to find refuge in my heart and mind. I can feel the closeness to home, my family and friends here and the warmth of my pale yellow room mocks me being so close an yet so far still when the bus breaks slam and we begin to slide.

Somehow, a thousand things happened in that second.

I am genuinely scared at first, and then quickly reprimand myself for always being so paranoid. I often find things in these peoples’ lives that scare me that they know to be everyday life.

Then, the air vanishes as everyone on the bus gasps in unison. The back of the bus feels heavier than the front and looks like it is gaining on us as the nose of the bus tips downward at the edge of the canyon.

My thoughts immediately go to Doña Juana and the images of her tumbling in the bus accident last year that killed 12.These images that have haunted my mind for months place her, in the front of this bus today, and preminisce tumbling.

The sound of womens´ vocal chords behind the unified gasps sends me a message of sincere communal anxiety and my heart stiffens almost into a protective state.

Are my arms long enough to pin us all down if we flip?

Do I have time to find some sort of seat belt?

Don’t let your head hit the window.

Then the bus stops

 and an energy shifts in a millisecond to shared solace. There is almost the buzz of laughter in the air. The risible energy quickly revises to anger as everyone glares through the wall, at the driver we can’t see.

Obviously shaken he reverses, gets us straight, and continues cautiously… for about 10 minutes.