Thank you for being impressed, now if I could only get up enough courage to take the bus alone, I´ll be set. It´s not about the safety, it´s about my language. I´m afraid I´d end up in the totally wrong part of the country...
A vivero is a protected trench in which you plant trees. There is a lot of preparation involved, but you want to give them the best possible start, so... The trees are planted in small containers and protected by a fence. In 3-6 months you transplant them. One of the biggest environmental problems here is deforestation, so the viveros are a big part of our environmental education work.
And the other topics...
13 Sept 07
We had our first youth meeting!! And it went better than expected. Our youth group is a little older than we anticipated, but youth here is anything between 13 and 20. Some of our “kids” are at the limit, but that’s okay. If they’re into working on the environment, we’re going to work with that motivation, and try to recruit some younger kids in the future. We had around 15 kids when they all showed up, and we made two community maps. The community maps are meant to help us think about what places in Masatepe are important and why. That way later, when we need to come up with a project, we have some ideas of what areas of town we might want to concentrate on. We did one and a half dinamicas, and took care of all the administrative stuff we needed to as well, so that was good.
A word about dinamicas. Dinamicas are fun activities that you can use with kids. Some of them are kind of educational. Some of them aren’t – they’re just fun. Some would be considered icebreakers in the US. There are MANY different dinamicas in our PC toolbox, and at each technical charla we receive, we learn two or three more, usually by playing them ourselves. They are very useful non-formal education tools. We were going to start our meeting with a dinamica where the kids had to say their favorite place in Masatepe, and repeat the name and favorite place of the person before them, but since our group was a little older, we decided instead to just make the nametags and have people go around and explain them. That actually worked pretty well. Our final dinamica was one of my favorites. You form two teams and the first person in the line puts a coin in their shirt. The coin has to travel all the way through the person’s clothes and hit the floor, but after it’s in your clothes, you can’t touch it with your hands, even through your clothes. You can tug on your clothes, but no manipulating the coin. Then the next person has to pick it up and repeat. The first line to finish wins. It is SO much fun. The kids, even our almost 20 year olds, really got into it. It’s especially great when the coin gets stuck in someone’s clothes. Then the whole group crowds around them yelling, and the person jumps up and down until the coin comes flying out of their pants leg. It was a great way to end the meeting.
And you will notice that above I said we had about 15 kids when they all showed up. There’s a concept here called Nica time. It’s in no way derogatory, but merely a way for Americans not to be upset when it seems like no one cares about their meetings. Our meeting was supposed to start at 5. At about 5:30, three people showed up. Then one more. Then two more, etc. We started our meeting at about 5:45 and during the meeting, four or five more people came. There’s a different concept of time here, and sometimes it’s hard to understand. At the end of the meeting, we asked the kids if 5 was a good time for next week, thinking they might say we should have the meeting later, and they said no, 5 was a good time. In a way, this country is perfect for me because in the states I was always running late! Here, I’m early.
14 Sept 07
The 14th of September here is a celebration of the Battle of San Jacinto, and the 15th is Independence Day. On Friday, there is a big parade, and all the schools participate. There’s also a ceremony where students with the best grades from different schools get awards, and there’s awards for best folk dancing, and best sports teams, etc. Here are a few pictures of the parade, and then there are more posted on my Picasa page:
A vivero is a protected trench in which you plant trees. There is a lot of preparation involved, but you want to give them the best possible start, so... The trees are planted in small containers and protected by a fence. In 3-6 months you transplant them. One of the biggest environmental problems here is deforestation, so the viveros are a big part of our environmental education work.
And the other topics...
13 Sept 07
We had our first youth meeting!! And it went better than expected. Our youth group is a little older than we anticipated, but youth here is anything between 13 and 20. Some of our “kids” are at the limit, but that’s okay. If they’re into working on the environment, we’re going to work with that motivation, and try to recruit some younger kids in the future. We had around 15 kids when they all showed up, and we made two community maps. The community maps are meant to help us think about what places in Masatepe are important and why. That way later, when we need to come up with a project, we have some ideas of what areas of town we might want to concentrate on. We did one and a half dinamicas, and took care of all the administrative stuff we needed to as well, so that was good.
A word about dinamicas. Dinamicas are fun activities that you can use with kids. Some of them are kind of educational. Some of them aren’t – they’re just fun. Some would be considered icebreakers in the US. There are MANY different dinamicas in our PC toolbox, and at each technical charla we receive, we learn two or three more, usually by playing them ourselves. They are very useful non-formal education tools. We were going to start our meeting with a dinamica where the kids had to say their favorite place in Masatepe, and repeat the name and favorite place of the person before them, but since our group was a little older, we decided instead to just make the nametags and have people go around and explain them. That actually worked pretty well. Our final dinamica was one of my favorites. You form two teams and the first person in the line puts a coin in their shirt. The coin has to travel all the way through the person’s clothes and hit the floor, but after it’s in your clothes, you can’t touch it with your hands, even through your clothes. You can tug on your clothes, but no manipulating the coin. Then the next person has to pick it up and repeat. The first line to finish wins. It is SO much fun. The kids, even our almost 20 year olds, really got into it. It’s especially great when the coin gets stuck in someone’s clothes. Then the whole group crowds around them yelling, and the person jumps up and down until the coin comes flying out of their pants leg. It was a great way to end the meeting.
And you will notice that above I said we had about 15 kids when they all showed up. There’s a concept here called Nica time. It’s in no way derogatory, but merely a way for Americans not to be upset when it seems like no one cares about their meetings. Our meeting was supposed to start at 5. At about 5:30, three people showed up. Then one more. Then two more, etc. We started our meeting at about 5:45 and during the meeting, four or five more people came. There’s a different concept of time here, and sometimes it’s hard to understand. At the end of the meeting, we asked the kids if 5 was a good time for next week, thinking they might say we should have the meeting later, and they said no, 5 was a good time. In a way, this country is perfect for me because in the states I was always running late! Here, I’m early.
14 Sept 07
The 14th of September here is a celebration of the Battle of San Jacinto, and the 15th is Independence Day. On Friday, there is a big parade, and all the schools participate. There’s also a ceremony where students with the best grades from different schools get awards, and there’s awards for best folk dancing, and best sports teams, etc. Here are a few pictures of the parade, and then there are more posted on my Picasa page:
Comments
Love you and glad you are feeling better, although I did forget to ask about the throat. I was just so surprised to chat with you. Will be thinking of you and looking forward to Monday's phone call.