Los Tercios y Más

Tuesday was the first day that Laura, Osiris, and myself were supposed to go to Los Almendros, a primary school about half an hour away from the Center. Laura was not feeling great so it was just Osiris and I who went to meet with the Principle of the school to ask him if us coming once a week would be something he was interested in. We decided on a 4th grade class since they had 30 students – which meant each of us could have about 10 at a time. He brought us into the class and we introduced ourselves. I thought it was interesting that he did not talk to their teacher at all before telling the students we would be coming once a week for a few weeks to teach them some English. Most of the students seemed pretty excited to have us, so I am really looking forward to starting next Tuesday.

Friday afternoon I accompanied two other volunteers here in the Center – Judy and Emily – to a town in the countryside (el campo) called Zacamil II. The town is divided into two parts and are side by side. Judy leads workshops about non-violence and this time it happened to be with a youth group. From what I could gather, all of them lived in either Zacamil I or Zacamil II and their ages really varied. We arrived at a large community gathering place and there was no one there yet. After a few minutes, more people gathered around but they were very hesitant in coming to where we were sitting. As everyone arrived, Judy had us stand up and form a circle and then gave instructions for a ice breaker game. She had 8 or so balls that she brought along and she explained that we were to throw to ball to someone and say “Hi (insert name here)”. That person had to respond with “Hi (and then the name of the person that threw it to them)” and then throw it to another person. As we got the hang of it, she threw in more balls until all 8 were in the air. At the end of the ice breaker, there was an obvious difference in the atmosphere because people had been laughing and talking to each other and much more open than they were at the start of the game. Judy explained that the point of it was to get everyone more comfortable with each other and it really did work. Between a few skits and other activities for us to participate in, an incredible dialogue opened up around how to be non-violent when faced with conflict. I was really amazed at how open everyone seemed and willing to share personal opinions about topics that can be very hard to talk about.

Today I had one computer class and then we went to lunch at a crepe place that only opens up on the weekends. The entire menu was in both Spanish and French so that was pretty interesting. I also went to Los Tercios, a waterfall here in Suchitoto with Laura, Osiris, Judy, Emily, and Meme – a guy that works in the museum and was kind enough to be our guide for the day. We had to walk both there and back which took about 40 minutes one way and then about 15 minutes to get to the actual waterfall. Upon arrival, we realized there was no water! So we sat and rested on the rocks awhile before hiking back up the rocks and walking the 40 minutes or so back to the center. We were told that in a few weeks there will definitely be water, but I am not sure if I’m willing to go back without a ride there and back. It was quite the workout, especially in the humidity!

Los Tercios Without Water

My classes are starting to pick up a bit more so I feel more productive throughout the week. Attendance was not really where I was hoping it would be but I think they were a lot better than last week. So far, the class that I struggle with the most is computer because it is hard for me to give directions to the students and explain things to them without demonstrating how to do it. I constantly have to stop myself from, for example, typing in a username for them instead of having them do it themselves. Making lesson plans for both computer and English has also been difficult for me because I do not want to teach them things they do not want to learn. It is also hard when I have students with different levels of knowledge! I’m hoping by next week I will have a better idea as to who will and who will not most likely show up each week.

Next week, I will have translation work to keep me busy when I am not preparing for my classes. The museum is putting up new banners and they need help with having them translated into English. I will also be helping out with a video that some people in the museum are working on for another client. Overall, week number three went well…it’s hard to believe that we only have 5 more to go!

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