September is Patriotism Month, since September 15 is Independence Day for all of Central America. In other words, a HUGE deal. An all time low in teaching days or conversely an all time high in schedule changes. Been finding myself pretty frustrated since this is one of my last units this year, I planned really well only to be foiled by actos civicos and “decorating.” They really went all out. Red white and blue everything, banana plants, coffee plants, life-size poster board paper dolls dressed in vestidos tipicos.
The girls have been practicing baile tipico and I joined them, mostly as a way to kill time between classes and avoid the mid-day slump. Next thing I knew I’d inadvertently signed myself up to dance on September 14th in front of the entire school/community. Well, last night we had the big event and I finally understand all the fuss. Yeah it was frustrating to have so little class and have my schedule ruined but participating last night, seeing it all come together… finally made sense. There was such a beautiful communal energy in the air.
We started the day with the running of the torch which gets passed from one community to the next (on foot) with police escort as a reenactment of the notice of independence for Central America being brought from Guatemala to Costa Rica. That's right, 10 year olds wielding live fire. I felt so safe. But it was kinda cool.
In the evening we started with typical acto civico stuff (bring out the flag, pledge, sing etc.) followed by more singing, a procession of the lighted lanterns that each student made (more fire in the hands of children), baile tipico (featuring Teacher), theatrical presentations etc. It was great to be a part of this celebration. Makes missing out on holidays at home a little easier. And yes I have pictures and video of the whole thing, including my dancing.
¡Ay Teacher!
9.15.2010
9.03.2010
Hello September!
When did September happen? Each new month seems to sneak up on me like an afternoon rainstorm: I know its coming but it always surprises me. The end of August was probably the busiest I’ve been.
The MAG-FAO rural youth development course ended, we went on a weekend team building trip, gave a presentation of our projects to the town and put together another presentation for regional and national organizations. Talk about a lot of work! Our “campemento” weekend was amazing and I’m so glad I was able to go. We did lots of interesting activities to build trust, teamwork, communication etc. (think climbing over a 12 foot wall with no ladder or rope) and we had a great time meeting people from other nearby communities. Our group succeeded at all 5
of the team-building challenges, which made us feel really proud and connected. There was also a baile on Saturday night and one of the guys in our group was nice enough to invite me to dance even though I’m obviously at the disadvantage not having grown up dancing salsa/merenge/cumbia. But apparently I danced pretty well (or really horribly… not entirely sure which) because people were mentioning it for at least a week afterward. “Ay Teacher!” After the baile around midnight the guys came over from their side of the camp to serenade the girls. Talk about romantic. It was my first time being serenaded but apparently this is pretty common here.
After that weekend of pretty much no sleep we had a meeting every single night last week to prepare for our Thursday presentation to the community. Really wishing I lived across the street from the school these days… getting sick of walking back and forth. But anyway the presentation was a success, I’m super proud of our group and I guess a little proud of myself too for being involved and managing to follow along (mostly) and even participate. They unexpectedly put me on the spot to say something at the gathering… I think I managed to get something out in Spanish that didn’t sound completely foolish.
Spent the following weekend here in La Violeta working on our presentation for Tuesday to the regional and national organizations. In other words, somewhat relaxing but also a lot of work. Monday started with my first grader puking in class followed by the most ill-behaved sixth grade class I’ve had all year. By the time we had our meeting Monday night I was completely exhausted and tapped out on patience. So I brought brownies to the meeting. Hopefully that made up for any snappiness or mumbling in English that I did. From what I hear things went pretty well in Frailes and we’re working on gathering information to start working on our projects. Our group in particular (la comite de educacion) is working on a project to start a technology center which computers for the school and community and hopefully courses as well. It's ambitious but important. Time to bring La Violeta into the 21st century and improve the educational and job opportunities.
The MAG-FAO rural youth development course ended, we went on a weekend team building trip, gave a presentation of our projects to the town and put together another presentation for regional and national organizations. Talk about a lot of work! Our “campemento” weekend was amazing and I’m so glad I was able to go. We did lots of interesting activities to build trust, teamwork, communication etc. (think climbing over a 12 foot wall with no ladder or rope) and we had a great time meeting people from other nearby communities. Our group succeeded at all 5
of the team-building challenges, which made us feel really proud and connected. There was also a baile on Saturday night and one of the guys in our group was nice enough to invite me to dance even though I’m obviously at the disadvantage not having grown up dancing salsa/merenge/cumbia. But apparently I danced pretty well (or really horribly… not entirely sure which) because people were mentioning it for at least a week afterward. “Ay Teacher!” After the baile around midnight the guys came over from their side of the camp to serenade the girls. Talk about romantic. It was my first time being serenaded but apparently this is pretty common here.
After that weekend of pretty much no sleep we had a meeting every single night last week to prepare for our Thursday presentation to the community. Really wishing I lived across the street from the school these days… getting sick of walking back and forth. But anyway the presentation was a success, I’m super proud of our group and I guess a little proud of myself too for being involved and managing to follow along (mostly) and even participate. They unexpectedly put me on the spot to say something at the gathering… I think I managed to get something out in Spanish that didn’t sound completely foolish.
Spent the following weekend here in La Violeta working on our presentation for Tuesday to the regional and national organizations. In other words, somewhat relaxing but also a lot of work. Monday started with my first grader puking in class followed by the most ill-behaved sixth grade class I’ve had all year. By the time we had our meeting Monday night I was completely exhausted and tapped out on patience. So I brought brownies to the meeting. Hopefully that made up for any snappiness or mumbling in English that I did. From what I hear things went pretty well in Frailes and we’re working on gathering information to start working on our projects. Our group in particular (la comite de educacion) is working on a project to start a technology center which computers for the school and community and hopefully courses as well. It's ambitious but important. Time to bring La Violeta into the 21st century and improve the educational and job opportunities.
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