Random Thoughts from September

Sometimes It’s Annoying Having to Help People
A friend of a friend recently purchased a Metal Detector, one of those silly machines you see crazy people using at the beach. Problem was, the instructions are written in English, so he asked his friend to ask me to translate. Reading these stupid instructions was painful enough, but then I had to try to translate it, all the while thinking, “What does it matter, what does he think he’s gonna find?” Plus, the instructions were all about how to differentiate nickels from quarters, which doesn’t really help this guy any in the middle of Paraguay. We went through the instructions once a few weeks ago and my friend said he’d remember everything and write it out, which of course he didn’t, so I had to go over there this afternoon and go through the whole thing AGAIN. Being nearly trilingual sucks sometimes. On a more positive note…

Ode to Sargent Shriver
Just read this huge book, Sarge: the life and times of Sargent Shriver by Scott Stossel, over the past few days, and it was absolutely amazing. HE is amazing, the guy who pretty much single-handedly created Peace Corps, the War on Poverty – including Head Start and Legal Services for the Poor – and Special Olympics, and kept France in NATO to boot. He might have been president if it weren’t for Nixon’s sneakiness and the Kennedys – I can’t imagine how different this country, this world would have been if he had made it. He’s just an inspiration – the INTRODUCTION to the book had me in tears (and, for the record, the only other book at whose introduction I’ve cried is John Lewis’ Walking with the Wind, a memoir of the civil rights movement). I want to have Sarge’s energy, his drive, his commitment to making the world a better place and his ability to mobilize the people around him to create organizations that actually DO that, and that last. I suppose being in Peace Corps now I’m part of his legacy (tho I can always find ways to belittle myself - translating metal detector instructions isn’t really changing the world), but I can’t help but wonder what’ll happen in April 2008, where I’ll be going next, how I can be more like Sarge…

Good News from the Teachers
We had our second Circulo de Aprendizaje (learning circle) yesterday w/ the 2nd and 3rd grade teachers, and I think it went really well. I had everyone break into pairs and then talk about their experiences in the area of Reading in Spanish (which we had selected at the last meeting as our theme). I put up some sentence starters to help guide the discussion – One technique I’ve used in the classroom is…, One problem I’m having with my students is…, My students learn a lot when…, One goal I have as a professional is… I’ve found that sentence starters work well to focus a group, otherwise I think they would have had no idea what to talk about – they’ve never really had time to talk about their teaching before. Afterwards each pair shared and we continued to give ideas and advice and support. The teachers are still a little reticent to give each other ideas, looking to me for “the answer” instead, but it was a start. Betty and I each gave a more formal presentation of techniques we’ve used (I talked about my experiences in Honduras as a 2nd grade teacher) and I asked that for the next meeting 2 other teachers prepare little presentations of their techniques. No one volunteered, so my task for the next month is to go out to the schools and encourage a couple people to step up and present. The school year ends in November, so we’ll have just one more meeting, but it’ll be a day long (they want more time to make materials) so I think there’s still a lot we can accomplish. Yesterday’s circulo will likely stand in contrast to tomorrow’s workshop with Marisol, the Columbiana, who will probably spend the whole day telling teachers what they should and should not be doing. Yuck.

Summertime…
I know it’s thinking ahead, but it’s nearly the end of the school year and I’ve got to come up with some sort of plan for how to keep myself occupied during Dec-Feb school vacation. We’re supposed to run little day camps for the kids, but I’m not so excited about that for some reason. Partly because I’ve done it before, partly because I’m still less than enthused about the kids here sometimes, and I don’t know what the other parts of my problem are. I have tons of flexibility (Ryan did art camps b/c she loved art), and I know I need to do something if only to keep myself from dying of boredom while school’s out. Some thoughts I have now are working w/ the high school kids on a leadership-type curriculum that I don’t have time to do during the year, or doing a World Map project (painting a big map mural on a wall somewhere). Hmmmmm…..

My First Guest!!
My mom’s coming to visit! In just five short weeks (Oct 27)!! As she’s busily preparing her walking shoes and learning some Spanish, I’m working on buying an extra mattress and plate, and getting everything in tip-top shape (the pre-mom house cleaning takes on a whole new dimension here). It’ll be a quick visit, with only 3 ½ days in Tacuati and the rest of the week spent arriving/departing in Asuncion and on the bus. Families here are already inviting us to lunch and talking about killing chickens and pigs in her honor, so it should be an interesting time. And I can’t wait to see my mom!! Kudos to her for planning this trip all by herself and even studying a new language to prepare! Nde vale – you’re great!