Dominoes

Posted on January 27, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

I made it through my first week!! I’ll admit I was a little worried when I already felt like I needed a break after Tuesday. The weather today was, again, hot and sunny, and Debbie and I spent both the morning session and the afternoon session outside. It’s amazing how much the sun can wipe out your energy. We tried to stick to the shade as much as possible, but there’s only so much you can do.

A couple kids getting impressions of the dedication plaque in the plaza.

The morning was another trip into Chilca with the C4 kids (the oldest group). They got really creative with the rubbings which was fun to watch. They got the textures of columns, signs, trees, decorative benches, and one kid even did one of the Volvo symbol on someone’s car. During the walk, they did a good job of following along on the map, reading street signs, and trying to understand where we were.

I think we might be cursed though. Yesterday, a kid’s flip flop broke about halfway through the walk. I had no way of fixing it and didn’t know what to do about it, so I just stayed back with him while he shuffled along the sidewalk. This morning, I considered putting some extra supplies in my backpack, just in case anyone had a footwear malfunction and thought, “nah, it’s not like that’s going to happen again”… Today, a kid’s flip flop broke about halfway through the walk. Yes, seriously. Eddy came by and picked him up so he didn’t have to keep walking like that, but I was shaking my head at myself. From now on if we go anywhere with the kids, I’m packing tape, rubber bands, and safety pins (those are the supplies that I’ve decided you can fix almost anything with). Maybe I’ll see if I can get some crazy glue too. Is this what being a mom feels like?

After lunch, we were with Vanessa’s C3 class again. She wanted us to do something outside if we could, so Debbie found this 100 Brick Challenge and we pulled some activities from there. Instead of 100 bricks, each team got 25 brick-like rectangular pavers that Esperanza de Ana had on hand. First, we did another “tallest tower” challenge, then they had to make a perfect circle without talking that the whole team could fit in, and they had build a pyramid. The one challenge that they got REALLY excited about was making a domino run. Who knew? The one team made a line first, then made a curvy line, then a circle, a heart, and other crazy shapes. That occupied them for probably 40 minutes, which is amazing. Maybe it’s a stretch say it’s an engineering challenge, but they did have to be creative, work as a team, and think about where to put each “domino” so that their creation would function. Nope I just convinced myself. That’s engineering.

For dinner, Debbie, Julie, and I went to this place along the side of the highway that used to make pizza, but now they’ve switched to “pan de queso” (aka cheese bread). Each one is a 8”x2” mini-calzone and is filled with cheese/ham and cheese/some other things/etc. Debbie said there’s another place that does the same thing and has gotten really popular because it’s on the way to the beach and is a quick and easy thing to grab and go. Well, all I can say is that bread and cheese are a couple of my favorite things (understatement), and I don’t think there’s a bad way to put them together. They were so good… I don’t know what kind of cheese they used, but it seemed like fresh mozzarella and was a little salty and awesome.

We went to the gas station to get snacks for the night (because apparently that’s the thing to do), and it was an interesting experience. I’ve never been to a gas station that has product representatives trying to sell you their stuff, but there’s a first time for everything, right? There was a woman pushing Lay’s potato chips and a man trying to sell pisco (a Peruvian brandy). I’m sure they made some very convincing arguments in Spanish about why I should buy their stuff, but I was 1. caught totally off guard, 2. not interested, and 3. incapable of understanding anything they said. Debbie said that isn’t a thing that normally happens there, but at this point it’s my sole impression of Peruvian gas station stores.

Scavenger Hunt in Chilca

Posted on January 26, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

Every day since I arrived, the weather has been beautiful here. The sky has been overcast which blocks the hot sun, and as a result, the temperature has been easily bearable. It’s around the mid-70s, so perfect for summer without being miserable. Every day, everyone tells me that the weather isn’t usually like this during the summer. The sky is usually clear and the sun is hot, and it NEVER rains even though it’s rained twice since I’ve been here. When it does, it’s NEVER actual raindrops, it’s always just a mist… but it’s been actual raindrops both times. Well, I savored those days, and it’s a good thing I did because today was the end (though I have my fingers crossed for it being just a temporary break).

Today, the sky was clear, and the sun was brutal. It was okay in the shade, but as soon as you stepped out into the sun, you felt like melting into a puddle. Of course, today was field trip day (with the C3 kids, Vanessa’s 7-9 year olds. Tomorrow we’re doing it again with Ingrid’s C4 class of 10-12 year olds) which meant walking around Chilca in the middle of the day.

We packed the 13 kids plus 4 teachers into the Esperanza de Ana van (which is the exact same type of van as a Ghanaian tro tro… I thought that was kind of funny. They also use those same vans here for “buses” which seem like they’re basically the same as tro tros… overpacked, hot, and an interesting experience), and we were off!

Our “scavenger hunt” started in the main square in town. We had the kids do three rubbings (where you put a paper down on a textured surface and rub a sideways crayon on the paper to get an imprint of the texture) and a sketch of one of the surrounding buildings before we started our walk. I had some ‘fun’ attempting to talk to the kids when they needed help. Sometimes they looked at me with massively confused faces after I said something, and I called in Debbie or Vanessa for reinforcements. Vanessa is one of the only local staff members who speaks some English. She’s still learning, but her English is for sure better than my Spanish.

After the square, we trekked through the city, making stops at the police station, market, sweet shop, and school before heading to our end point, the park. For this class, all of the landmarks were already marked on the map, and we had them just draw our route and answer some questions as we went (for example, what color is the police station? It’s green, in case you were wondering).
By the time we finished, I was melting. There was no time to waste though, and right when we got back to EA, I had to run to the cafeteria to help set up for lunch. I was a machine when putting out the plastic chairs and silverware. I mostly have the locations of the double chairs and spoons memorized, and now I have a cheat sheet with the kids’ ages to help me when I’m putting out the meals. We were actually ready on time today! See? I knew we just needed a little more practice.

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful, just planning for classes for the rest of the week. After dinner, we played a game of Bananagrams (similar to Scrabble, but each person makes their own personal board and tries to use up all of their letters). In English, I’m pretty good at Bananagrams. In Spanish, as I found out tonight, I am horrible. Part of the problem is that the game is made to be played in English, so all of the tile quantities are based on that. There’s only so much I can blame on that though, considering everyone else was playing with the same tiles as I was (to be fair though, everyone was going pretty slowly). Anyway, in conclusion, Bananagrams in Spanish is not easy, especially if your Spanish isn’t exceptional. Shocking revelation, I know.

Is It the Weekend Yet?

Posted on January 24, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

I’m exhausted. So far, one of the main things I’m getting out of this year is a massive appreciation for actual teachers. My feet hurt from standing, and I only had 4 hours of class today. My head hurts from thinking and trying to come up with ways to entertain the kids. I’m seriously ready to pass out. Like I said yesterday, the kids are so well behaved though… I can’t even imagine how I would be feeling right now if they were out of control. Some issues come up, of course, but they’re manageable. It’s a beautiful thing.

The morning class today was C4, the oldest group. They’re 10-12 years old, and after meeting them and seeing them work today, I can’t wait to see what they come up with for the projects we’re going to do later on. We did mostly the same thing as yesterday’s class. The paper tower challenge was definitely… well, a challenge… but I was happy because the reason some groups had trouble was because they had big dreams that just weren’t quite realistic. Even though they didn’t “succeed” if you’re just measuring how tall their towers were, they were trying to problem solve and be creative and make their ambitious designs work. The winning team used their scissors as a weight in the base of their tower. Technically, we never said you couldn’t, so it was legal. YAY for kids thinking outside the box!

Coloring their maps and making symbol legends for them.

They also did the same coloring/map legend/giving directions activity as the group yesterday, and everyone caught on really quickly. We had them do another activity outside with a map of the Esperanza de Ana compound. We had some numbers written on the map, and they had to walk from number to number, proving that they understood what the map was showing, and drawing their routes as they went. It’s such a relief when you make up an activity, have no idea how it’s going to go, and everything turns out well! I feel like the kids learned something and weren’t miserable doing it, so it’s getting counted as a win. High standards for success, right?

The afternoon was a whole different adventure. I had an hour with each of the younger classes. Julie’s class has seven 2-3 year olds (C1), and Ligia’s has eleven 4-6 year olds (C2). Julie gets about 15 million gold stars for helping me (and by “helping” I mean basically carrying me because without her I’d be as useful as a broken rubber band – aka still capable of doing something, but only if there’s no other option). In her class, she explained some basics about what engineers do and then we had the kids build “houses” out of those big legos for an hour. That was probably my favorite part of the day because we just played with blocks, and the kids had a blast making crazy structures.

For the C2 class, Julie and Ligia switched places so that Julie could stay with me. We had the kids draw their dream houses after Julie explained that engineers make plans before they get to work actually building things. My two favorite drawings (which I realize now that I should have taken pictures of, but alas I didn’t) were one where the kid put his house on stilts and had a ladder to climb to the front door, and another one where the house was tiny and drawn in the corner, and the rest of the paper was filled by a drawing of a person riding a dinosaur that kind of looked like a llama.

Tomorrow we don’t have any engineering classes to teach because it’s a beach/movie/fun day (that’s the plan for every Wednesday). I’m not sure if I’ll get sent along on any beach trips as an extra chaperone, but I’m crossing my fingers for getting a recovery day and having some time to finish creating our activities for the rest of the week.