So the primary bit of excitement
in March was school starting back. It’s a bit of a continual process around
here. Classes started around the 5th but the meeting to plan most of
the classes wasn’t until the next week. Also kids were still enrolling for the
first three weeks or something like that. Needless to say it’s a more chaotic
beginning then we’re used to in the states. I finally got the chance to enter a
classroom regularly though! In the schools here they have something called
tutoria. It’s sort of like a study hall, each grade has an hour a week with a
professor where they talk about things that are important but don’t exactly
fall into the curriculum of the other classes. I started working with the
tutoria professor for first grade of secundaria (12-13 years old). I am doing a
series of classes that focus in self-esteem and getting the kids to think about
what is special in their own lives. So far it’s been going well. The classes
are really big, but the kids seem interested and entertained.
In
the month of March I also went into the secundaria with the staff from my
health post to do a health campaign with the kids. It’s an attempt to do an
overall health exam with as many of the youth in Mancos as we can. The kids got
their teeth and eyes looked at and got a physical from the doctor. My task was
to oversee a survey they needed the kids to fill out, but I also ended up
serving as the child wrangler / source of entertainment while the kids had to
wait. I’m not sure how long this campaign will keep going, but I was happy to
see it start. We got a new obstetrician at the health post and she had this
whole thing running within her first three weeks, so I have high hopes for
working with her.
In other news I
bought shelves for my room. This may not seem exciting to you but I was
thrilled. I found them nearby in Yungay and then spent the afternoon organizing
them. They make my room seem way less cluttered and I’ll leave them as a gift
for my host family when I leave,
We
celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a potluck at California Café. There were
actually people from a bunch of the different volunteer organizations around
Huaraz, it’s always nice to see the other foreigners, you never know who you’ll
run into…..for instance, another former OYP-er. Crazy, but true. I was standing
in Cali eating some food and this guy wanders past, says “hey Kelly” and then
keeps walking. Naturally I put a stop to that. I honestly was having trouble
recognizing him until he told me he had been an orphan in Oliver. Since most of
you don’t have my theater career memorized (don’t worry, you’re forgiven :-P)
Oliver was 10th grade for me. Considering that this kid is only 20
or so now he was about 13 the last time I saw him and now here he is teaching
English in Huaraz. It’s a small world sometimes.
It’s
fortunate that there was a potluck to distract me, because the same weekend as
St. Patty’s was the one year anniversary of Nat and Mark’s accident. Nat and
Mark threw a party to celebrate their recovery, complete with truck shaped
piñata and I would’ve loved to have been home to celebrate with them. That was
not an option for me though so I made Natalie carry around her Iphone so we
could talk on FaceTime during the party!
Nat and Mark, I love you guys and I am so glad that my biggest concern was not
being able to make it home to your party. Y’all are two lucky duckies.
March
rounded out with the beginning of another training, Plan Design Management / In
Service Training (PDM/IST). For this training we each brought a socio from our
sites. The idea is that we workshop a project that we’re planning on starting
in our town. There were mixed reviews
afterwards, but I actually really enjoyed the chance to work through the
planning steps while our trainers were around. And of course it’s always great
to see the rest of our group at trainings. By the end I think our brains were a
little fried from the amount of information we had received, luckily for us it
was time for vacation!
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