I am learning to take my time here one day at a time…assuming that the next day could have me off in any part of Costa Rica, this side of the Chirripo with little warning.
Today, I got to work late, I had stayed extra the night before and since I had no plans for meetings or anything that needed me to get to work early, I figured I could make up and hour of sleep and come in with Mari.
I hadn´t counted on the unpredictability that is Enid. I arrived at 10 am only to be told that I had to run and catch up with Gabriella and Sylvia who had just left to catch the bus to Naranjo. Cinzia was also on her way out with two other students to San Pedro…apparently today we were to help with the schools project. A fact that although I am happy about, my exact purpose in this project still eludes me, some weeks we spend a lot of time going to varying schools with the project leads and observing or helping run the workshops. Other weeks, such as last week, when we ask if can accompany them, we are told no by Enid, even though our only other plans for the day is more reading.
Jay, I begin to understand a bit more of your week by week lifestyle at your work...
Luckily, I managed to catch up with them, just as they were getting on the bus for Naranjo, which as it turns out was not our ultimate destination, which was a school in Rosario, about and hour out from Naranjo where we were we had first a children’s group and then one with parents (really only mothers, although it is opened to both parents).
The children’s group was fun to help run, although shorter then we would have liked. We began with a game of musical chairs that turned into an amazing lesson in organization and teamwork. We started out with 10 girls and 10 chairs, then as usually happens with the game, the number of chairs began to decrease with each round. The number of girls however did not. There resourcefulness and determination to make sure that everyone was sitting when the music stopped held them through until we have 1 chair holding up 10 girls between the ages of 8 and 10. They figured that if the tallest girl sat down on the chair and then they had one girl on each knee and so on and so forth they could manage it.
I still have no idea how the chair managed to hold up…somehow it did.
The next activity was to do a drawing representing various words of respect that we had presented to the class.
When that class was over we had 3 hours to kill before the parent’s workshop at 3 pm…and thankfully the school sold lunch for the kids and we were able to take part, the highlight being rosewater flavoured rice pudding that I would go back for if I could. I understood why the kids ran screaming to the lunch room when they heard that it was on the menu.
Then we sat down on benches in the hall and Gabriella reviewed the game plan for that afternoon.
Lol…our preparation time was interrupted when the kids had recess and a determined game of football (soccer) was started up by the younger boys. They really were determined, even though the space was a little small and they had to run down a hill to fetch the ball whenever if went out of bounds. One boy fell and we thought he had hurt himself as he was limping when he got up…it was a pretty good limp to, right up until he ball came his way and he gave it a sound kick into the other teams goalpost. The cheers were of course deafening.
I really enjoyed watching the various behaviour of the children during recess. The other kids had no fear of walking through the middle of the football, the younger girls in groups of 3, running around as well in what appeared to be a game of tag. The older girls walked around in smaller groups, talking secretively. I figured out that since they were required to wear uniforms here, that the sweaters were the way the girls expressed their fashion sense and showed off for the boys.
One girls, with a small pink sweater was particularly popular with the older boys, who were too cool to join into the soccer game, had two buttons undone in their shirts, with a t-shirt underneath (it is cold this week) and gelled hair. They did not have sweaters or sweatshirts and walked around with a bit more of a swagger.
Ah pre-teens I forgot what an interesting time puberty made the ages between 11 and 14. One boy, who was fairly tall and had already started to develop fairly pronounced shoulders surprised me when he opened his mouth and out came the high-pitched voice of a six year-old. I very nearly fell out of my chair; I guess I haven’t spent much time around pre-teens of late.
The afternoon session on self-esteem with the mothers went well, and uneventfully except for the fact that the coffee-maker had a connector in the power cord and we had to hold it on order for it to get coffee.
Afterwards we found out that the lady we were going to catch a ride into town with (the bus to Rosario runs about 5 times a day) had already left. Gabriella didn’t seem worried or surprised and said we could just hitchhike back to town. Both Sylvia and I were unsure of this and since it would cause problems if Sylvia’s organization ever found out we decided to wait for the 5:30 pm bus. The trick being we had to make it to Naranjo to catch the 6:00 pm bus to San Ramon.
We made it on time, said good-bye to Gaby in San Ramon and Sylvia and I went to catch a movie. The movie is called Bella and is one of those romances that jumps between the past, present and future, the plot line was not bad, but what actually interested me was how much it jumped between Englisha nd Spanish, although I am sure it was primarily an English movie there were many long scenes in Spanish. It was a nice blend.
Alright, I think I am done now...wow this was a longer post. I think I am getting more into the idea of perserving my memories of being here than necessarilywriting for those who read my posts. I hope you enjoy regardless. =)
Hasta leugo.
Today, I got to work late, I had stayed extra the night before and since I had no plans for meetings or anything that needed me to get to work early, I figured I could make up and hour of sleep and come in with Mari.
I hadn´t counted on the unpredictability that is Enid. I arrived at 10 am only to be told that I had to run and catch up with Gabriella and Sylvia who had just left to catch the bus to Naranjo. Cinzia was also on her way out with two other students to San Pedro…apparently today we were to help with the schools project. A fact that although I am happy about, my exact purpose in this project still eludes me, some weeks we spend a lot of time going to varying schools with the project leads and observing or helping run the workshops. Other weeks, such as last week, when we ask if can accompany them, we are told no by Enid, even though our only other plans for the day is more reading.
Jay, I begin to understand a bit more of your week by week lifestyle at your work...
Luckily, I managed to catch up with them, just as they were getting on the bus for Naranjo, which as it turns out was not our ultimate destination, which was a school in Rosario, about and hour out from Naranjo where we were we had first a children’s group and then one with parents (really only mothers, although it is opened to both parents).
The children’s group was fun to help run, although shorter then we would have liked. We began with a game of musical chairs that turned into an amazing lesson in organization and teamwork. We started out with 10 girls and 10 chairs, then as usually happens with the game, the number of chairs began to decrease with each round. The number of girls however did not. There resourcefulness and determination to make sure that everyone was sitting when the music stopped held them through until we have 1 chair holding up 10 girls between the ages of 8 and 10. They figured that if the tallest girl sat down on the chair and then they had one girl on each knee and so on and so forth they could manage it.
I still have no idea how the chair managed to hold up…somehow it did.
The next activity was to do a drawing representing various words of respect that we had presented to the class.
When that class was over we had 3 hours to kill before the parent’s workshop at 3 pm…and thankfully the school sold lunch for the kids and we were able to take part, the highlight being rosewater flavoured rice pudding that I would go back for if I could. I understood why the kids ran screaming to the lunch room when they heard that it was on the menu.
Then we sat down on benches in the hall and Gabriella reviewed the game plan for that afternoon.
Lol…our preparation time was interrupted when the kids had recess and a determined game of football (soccer) was started up by the younger boys. They really were determined, even though the space was a little small and they had to run down a hill to fetch the ball whenever if went out of bounds. One boy fell and we thought he had hurt himself as he was limping when he got up…it was a pretty good limp to, right up until he ball came his way and he gave it a sound kick into the other teams goalpost. The cheers were of course deafening.
I really enjoyed watching the various behaviour of the children during recess. The other kids had no fear of walking through the middle of the football, the younger girls in groups of 3, running around as well in what appeared to be a game of tag. The older girls walked around in smaller groups, talking secretively. I figured out that since they were required to wear uniforms here, that the sweaters were the way the girls expressed their fashion sense and showed off for the boys.
One girls, with a small pink sweater was particularly popular with the older boys, who were too cool to join into the soccer game, had two buttons undone in their shirts, with a t-shirt underneath (it is cold this week) and gelled hair. They did not have sweaters or sweatshirts and walked around with a bit more of a swagger.
Ah pre-teens I forgot what an interesting time puberty made the ages between 11 and 14. One boy, who was fairly tall and had already started to develop fairly pronounced shoulders surprised me when he opened his mouth and out came the high-pitched voice of a six year-old. I very nearly fell out of my chair; I guess I haven’t spent much time around pre-teens of late.
The afternoon session on self-esteem with the mothers went well, and uneventfully except for the fact that the coffee-maker had a connector in the power cord and we had to hold it on order for it to get coffee.
Afterwards we found out that the lady we were going to catch a ride into town with (the bus to Rosario runs about 5 times a day) had already left. Gabriella didn’t seem worried or surprised and said we could just hitchhike back to town. Both Sylvia and I were unsure of this and since it would cause problems if Sylvia’s organization ever found out we decided to wait for the 5:30 pm bus. The trick being we had to make it to Naranjo to catch the 6:00 pm bus to San Ramon.
We made it on time, said good-bye to Gaby in San Ramon and Sylvia and I went to catch a movie. The movie is called Bella and is one of those romances that jumps between the past, present and future, the plot line was not bad, but what actually interested me was how much it jumped between Englisha nd Spanish, although I am sure it was primarily an English movie there were many long scenes in Spanish. It was a nice blend.
Alright, I think I am done now...wow this was a longer post. I think I am getting more into the idea of perserving my memories of being here than necessarilywriting for those who read my posts. I hope you enjoy regardless. =)
Hasta leugo.
4 comments:
yes..i agree.. long post...but interesting!
LOL...I had to laugh at your description of the pre-teens. I realy enjoyed your obsrvations. I have to say, it reminded me of my own highschool - the uniforms and interesting sweaters/accessories that let preteens make a supposed individualized and yet collective statement. I was never good at being subtle and figuring out a scccesful way of dressing like an individual and yet belonging at the same time - so I opted out to wear whatever and not give a freak about what people thought. Some kids however, ....
And please keep on reflecting. I find I actually prefer the posts that are your own diary of sorts to the one's where you try to speak to us directly.
I can relate to the interesting organization of office time. Somewhat randomly (to me anyway) yesterday the entire office was told they should be in Arusha today by the outgoing Director. I'm not sure if she realized that we normally plan our work ahead of time, but this means that instead of facilitating a support group today I'm hanging out in my office alone catching up on your blog :) I am not complaining but cannot imagine the stress this would cause back home if we were told the day before - or day of in your case - that we had to be somewhere without notice.
I agree with Alex. Your description of the pre-teens is pretty bang on, and exactly why I don't want to teach that age group. Heck, I didn't even like BEING in that age group.
I also agree with her on the "this style of post is better" bit. It's more like talking to you and less like reading a report. If that makes sense?
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