It’s something all the experts say you just have to get used
to about life in the Peace Corps. Your progress drains right through the spaces between your fingers. But things have happened.
The week before last our CBT had our first round of
activities with kids in the Dar Chebab. First up was a Valentine’s Day party
where I provided live accompaniment for musical chairs (naturally with love
songs, including The “I Love You” Song from Barney,
“Fools Rush In”, “My Heart Will Go On”, and “I Will Always Love You”) and some
scary teenagers stole Britt’s Valentine and then yelled at her when she took it
back. Fun!
The next day we did a community mapping exercise that turned
into a semi-improvised English lesson on body parts –with more singing, this
time “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”- and an introduction to Duck-Duck-Goose.
The kids came back a third day and this time we didn’t
pretend to anything except play games. Sharks and Minnows, relay races and
kura.
Dima kura.
Lessons learned from our first experiences working with
youth:
-Bringing a guitar was my best packing decision, easily.
-Sometimes youth development will mean keeping eight year
olds from busting their heads on the concrete during tag.
-Our Darija will only truly be functional once we can
understand what it is that young children scream at us over and over and over
again.
-And reaffirmed was the universal truth that Girls Rule and
Boys Drool.
We also had our most useful training yet from a current
Peace Corps Volunteer who came to talk to us about Participatory Analysis for
Community Action,
community integration, lesson planning, and project design and management. Our
lives here are sometimes consumed with theory and so we drank thirstily from
his cup of advice based on sweet, sweet tangible experience. It was also nice to have him there as
we worked with youth for the first time. Where my takeaway was CHAOS! he found some things to be
generous and encouraging about.
This last week was marked by some grueling hours in the
Darija classroom and wind and rain that would make a deckhand weep. We’re
right around halfway through with our CBT. Next week will bring more teaching
at the Dar Chebab, site placement interviews and a free day to travel outside
our CBT. My mouth is already watering, and I can feel us rounding the corner.
So you can get mail now? I thought you couldn't get any until after the CBT was over. Or was that just packages? Love the pix, the story. One foot in front of the other. And take care of each other. Miss you both a lot.
ReplyDeletePadre, we can get mail at the Peace Corps office, just not packages. At this point, since mail to the Peace Corps office gets screened by the embassy, I'd wait until we're in our final site (the last week in March), because it should get to us a lot faster. Will keep everyone abreast.
ReplyDelete