Two blog posts in one week! Imagine that!
When we got here to Honduras, the Peace Corps training staff referred to training as an “11 week long job interview.” This week we have had various meetings to talk about our progress, and it seems like they are happy with me and my performance thus far. I had a meeting with the training director and with the youth development project staff, and they had nothing but good things to say.
But, the thing that I’m most excited about is my second language interview, which was on Tuesday. The Spanish facilitators worked hard on Tuesday night to review the interviews and figure out our levels so that they could let us know in class on Wednesday. I was pleased to find out that I moved up not one, but two levels. So, I am officially Intermediate-High! It was great to see that my hard work in Spanish class and talking with my family have paid off, but it’s also nice to know that I have met the criteria to be a volunteer. In order to be sworn in on September 22nd, we need to be at least Intermediate-Mid. So, I did it!
This week we had two trainings in which we got to go out into the community and work with kids. The first was for TEAM, which stands for Teaching English and Methodology. This is a program that the Peace Corps has implemented in Honduras in conjunction with the Ministry of Education. There was a new law made fairly recently that requires students to be taught English starting in 4th grade. However, many teachers are not prepared to teach English to their students. TEAM is a program in which Peace Corps volunteers teach Honduran teachers how to teach English. At the same time, we try to model and equip them with better teaching methodology. Students in schools here do a lot of activities in workbooks and copying from the chalkboard. Through English, Peace Corps volunteers try to teach the teachers new, more interactive, student-centered ways of teaching. In my technical interview the other day, I told Ronaldo and Sandra that this is definitely a program that I would like to do. It seems like a great way to take the knowledge that I gained in my past 3 years at UConn and put it to good use by helping teachers here in Honduras.
For our practicum in this training, we went to the school in our town, Las Cañadas, and implemented some of the English lessons with students in grades 4 through 6. My group, Jim, Peter, Natalie, and I, worked with 5th graders, and our lesson was about colors. Although our first icebreaker fell flat (because the kids were too nervous to start speaking English right away), the rest of the lesson went really well and the kids definitely learned something. Our group just happened to end up with 4 teachers in it (not everyone in our group is a teacher, some are social workers, English majors, communication majors, etc.), and it was cool to get to teach with other people that have experience in the classroom. Our group worked really well together!
On Thursday, we had our second visit to our self-directed project site. Julie, Constance, and I went back to our school, Escuela Vicente Chavez in the alcaldea (small town) of Likidamba (isn’t that the coolest name ever?!). We had hoped to work with the kids at the end of their school day and then get to talk to the teacher, however Ronaldo informed us on our way there that the teacher would not be there. Even though the kids didn’t have school, about 30 of them still showed up to meet us, which was really encouraging. We did some icebreakers and played some games, including ship to shore (in Spanish, obviously), and a game where they had to find partners and follow our directions, connecting certain parts of the body. For example, we would yell, “codo y pierna” (elbow and leg), and they would have to find a partner and one would touch their elbow to the other’s leg. After playing a bunch of games, we went into the classroom and talked with the students about what they want to do with us when we spend time with them after school. Some of the things that they seemed interested in included learning English, doing art projects, playing sports, and getting help with their homework. We sent each of them home with a notice for their parents with the dates and times of all of our meetings. We will be seeing them 9 times over the next few weeks.
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| Constance, Julie, and I with our kids at Vicente Chavez School |
Then, we said goodbye and headed up the trail to the road. All of the kids followed us and ended up standing by the road with us. It was a little bit awkward at first because we were waiting for at least 10 minutes for our ride to get there, but we started playing some more games with the kids like Ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissors (Piedra , Papel, Tijeras). We also sang some camp songs with them, like Boom Chicka Boom, The Moose Song, and Wisconsin Milk. Coincidentally, the three of us have all worked at camps and know a lot of the same songs. Despite the fact that they had no idea what they were saying, the kids really enjoyed it!
On Sunday, we’re heading out to our volunteer visits, and we’ll be there until Thursday. I am going with another trainee to visit Melissa, a volunteer who works in Concepción de María in Choluteca. It’s about 6 hours away, to the south of here. Melissa said that her town’s feria (fair/festival) is going to be going on, which should be really fun and interesting. We’re also going to get to help her facilitate something for one of her projects and probably ask millions of questions about what it’s like to be a volunteer. I’m excited to see another part of the country and to have a change of environment and routine for a few days.
In other news...my sister’s birthday is coming up on the 16th! Happy Birthday Emma!
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