Let me begin with the most recent work related thing. As in, I have actually begun to work!! In reality I have been working. I am translating a charla I gave the other volunteers called The Teacher's Toolbox into Spanish for future use, I've been sort of editting our guía, and I've also been meeting everyone possible, listening, learning, and most futilely looking for a place to live. However, while I have been doing all that, I have also been noticing that my sister Tereza is really involved in things here in the community. The latest example is that there is a German NGO here that everyone just refers to as Project Aleman, and they are starting a comedor infantil project, which roughly translates to "kid eatery." In our town there is a child-development center that is run by the Ministry of Education (MINED) that is actually quite nice (see photo), called the CICO (pronounced see-co).
The CICO is like a headstart center in the US, and as you can see, it's a relatively new facility. In the past, there was booming attendance, but recently the numbers have kind of fallen off. In an effort to increase nutrition here in Mérida, as well as renewed interest in the CICO, the comedor infantil project will provide a small meal to kids every day at about 10 AM. The idea is to get the kids and their families into the center now, and by the end of the holidays maybe they will keep coming to take advantage of the educational opportunities. It's quite a smart project, I think. So the Project Aleman contributed the basic foodstuffs: rice, sugar, oil, and spaghetti. Yesterday Tereza and I walked around Mérida and talked to as many people as we could about the project. Really, she talked and I followed her around smiling. We spread the word, recruited more participants, and talked to parents about possibly cooking. The idea is that each day a different family will be responsible for contributing the little extras and cooking the food. For example, today the extras included some plantains, an onion, and tomato sauce for the spaghetti. Today, Jaysis (high-see) cooked and provided the extras, and her little boy hung out in the kitchen with us while we cooked. Once again, mostly they cooked and I watched.
The watching on my part isn't so much out of laziness (I promise), as it is out of the fact that you can see from the above photo that these are enormous pots we're working with here. While I can cook rice and spaghetti, I cook them gringo-style, which is significantly different from how they are prepared here. So today, I watched and learned. Perhaps in the future, I can work my way up to cooking.
The kids arrived, and played for a while, and we prepped plates and played too. Then there was eating, and more playing and cleaning. I could help a lot with the cleaning as the methods for washing dishes are pretty much universal. Overall, I felt pretty good about this morning's efforts. Tereza recruited two more moms to cook for Friday and Monday (yes, I know, only moms, and Friday and Monday because the comedor will only be during weekdays), and we think we made a good impression of the program. The kids had fun playing and I think they'll come back tomorrow, and maybe bring friends.
It was good for me too, because while I still didn't talk a lot (when lots of people are talking, I have to spend all my energy just listening and comprehending), I did have the opportunity to get some good exposure. People saw me interacting with their kids, and helping cook, serve and clean. Any opportunity to participate is a good one, and today was the best - fun work. One of the potential projects I have discussed with some of the teachers is a school garden project. There is a program that MINED is enacting to encourage school gardens and it's possible we could get some support from them. If the comedor is still up and running during the school year (which I have high hopes it will be), maybe I could work with them, and the vegetables from the school garden could become part of what is served each day to help round out the nutritional aspect of the project. I am brimming with ideas, but trying to follow the advice of every PC volunteer I've met. Wait, observe, evaluate, learn before jumping into anything or spouting potential promises at everyone. But still, a girl can hope.
Second order of business, the wildlife update. Two wonderful pictures of the green bug I found in my room.
Followed by this less than stellar picture of the moth that flew into my candle flame about 800 times the 3rd night in a row we didn't have electricity. It would fly into the flow, rebound stunned on my desk, my head, my notebook, wherever. Then, two seconds later, it would fly into my candle flame again. Lovely, but not very smart.
I have had a windfall in the internet area, and I'm going to take advantage of it to post a bunch of stuff I forgot about or haven't had the chance to. The first of these is my pictures from swearing in. At our thank you ceremony for our host families, two of the volunteers did a folk dance. Here are those crazy ladies.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of me giving my speech because of course, I was talking. But I do have this photo later of me with my host parents.
And finally, this picture of Cris and Ann-Ariel with one of the absolutely delicious cakes we were provided for refrigerio.
The CICO is like a headstart center in the US, and as you can see, it's a relatively new facility. In the past, there was booming attendance, but recently the numbers have kind of fallen off. In an effort to increase nutrition here in Mérida, as well as renewed interest in the CICO, the comedor infantil project will provide a small meal to kids every day at about 10 AM. The idea is to get the kids and their families into the center now, and by the end of the holidays maybe they will keep coming to take advantage of the educational opportunities. It's quite a smart project, I think. So the Project Aleman contributed the basic foodstuffs: rice, sugar, oil, and spaghetti. Yesterday Tereza and I walked around Mérida and talked to as many people as we could about the project. Really, she talked and I followed her around smiling. We spread the word, recruited more participants, and talked to parents about possibly cooking. The idea is that each day a different family will be responsible for contributing the little extras and cooking the food. For example, today the extras included some plantains, an onion, and tomato sauce for the spaghetti. Today, Jaysis (high-see) cooked and provided the extras, and her little boy hung out in the kitchen with us while we cooked. Once again, mostly they cooked and I watched.
The watching on my part isn't so much out of laziness (I promise), as it is out of the fact that you can see from the above photo that these are enormous pots we're working with here. While I can cook rice and spaghetti, I cook them gringo-style, which is significantly different from how they are prepared here. So today, I watched and learned. Perhaps in the future, I can work my way up to cooking.
The kids arrived, and played for a while, and we prepped plates and played too. Then there was eating, and more playing and cleaning. I could help a lot with the cleaning as the methods for washing dishes are pretty much universal. Overall, I felt pretty good about this morning's efforts. Tereza recruited two more moms to cook for Friday and Monday (yes, I know, only moms, and Friday and Monday because the comedor will only be during weekdays), and we think we made a good impression of the program. The kids had fun playing and I think they'll come back tomorrow, and maybe bring friends.
It was good for me too, because while I still didn't talk a lot (when lots of people are talking, I have to spend all my energy just listening and comprehending), I did have the opportunity to get some good exposure. People saw me interacting with their kids, and helping cook, serve and clean. Any opportunity to participate is a good one, and today was the best - fun work. One of the potential projects I have discussed with some of the teachers is a school garden project. There is a program that MINED is enacting to encourage school gardens and it's possible we could get some support from them. If the comedor is still up and running during the school year (which I have high hopes it will be), maybe I could work with them, and the vegetables from the school garden could become part of what is served each day to help round out the nutritional aspect of the project. I am brimming with ideas, but trying to follow the advice of every PC volunteer I've met. Wait, observe, evaluate, learn before jumping into anything or spouting potential promises at everyone. But still, a girl can hope.
Second order of business, the wildlife update. Two wonderful pictures of the green bug I found in my room.
Followed by this less than stellar picture of the moth that flew into my candle flame about 800 times the 3rd night in a row we didn't have electricity. It would fly into the flow, rebound stunned on my desk, my head, my notebook, wherever. Then, two seconds later, it would fly into my candle flame again. Lovely, but not very smart.
I have had a windfall in the internet area, and I'm going to take advantage of it to post a bunch of stuff I forgot about or haven't had the chance to. The first of these is my pictures from swearing in. At our thank you ceremony for our host families, two of the volunteers did a folk dance. Here are those crazy ladies.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of me giving my speech because of course, I was talking. But I do have this photo later of me with my host parents.
And finally, this picture of Cris and Ann-Ariel with one of the absolutely delicious cakes we were provided for refrigerio.
Comments
I'm a wee bit jealous that your host mom and dad were there and we weren't, but so really happy you did have somebody there who cared as much as we do. You must tell them at Christmas how glad I am that they were/are so good to you. And I printed a copy of you between the flags for the little man's room. He's proud as punch of his Aunt Denise as of course we all are!