This weekend I stayed put. It seems like I've been traveling a lot lately to visit friends, attend Peace Corps functions and meetings and trainings, or at least to Cayo to spend some time in the 'city', going out, shopping at the market, or watching movies in the theater.
But not this weekend. Two reasons: I'm trying to save money & I was invited to some events. Friday afternoon I attended a planning meeting with four other community members who are trying to organize an effective and engaging group for parents and kids of a particular neighborhood. Their seeking to educate parents (really its mostly the women that show up) about educating their kids, about self-reliance, self-esteem, communication skills, family values, and all sorts of other good things. Since people don't generally want to sit in a meeting and be talked to for hours, this group includes some sort of small talk, perhaps with an activity followed up by some kind of art lesson or interactive activity. This week they taught the women how to make baskets out of rolled up pieces of newspaper. Its kind of a neat activity!
However, I didn't learn how to make them because alas, there were children! And somehow I got the role of glorified babysitter. I am not complaining though because they are adorable! One of the moms said to her 5 year old son, "Go give that to Emily" When she asked if he knew who Emily was, he said, "The white one!" Our intention with the kids was to read them a story or two, have them reiterate what they learned or remembered and then have them color. Since the story was in English and most the kids speak primarily Spanish this didn't really go as planned, but they were pretty excited about the pictures and the white lady that was reading (me). When you say excitedly, "The BIG BAAAD WOLF" you can catch just about anyone's attention. The books and coloring didn't take that long so the kids ended up running around, eating lots of cookies and playing like kids should play. It was fun. There was an older boy named Gilbert. He's 9 and I caught him re-reading the books quietly to himself. So I sat down next to him and asked if he would read me the story. He laughed, sort of scoffing at me, saying "I can't read!" But it didn't take much more prompting for him to continue and read me the story. It was good one on one time with a kid who understood me and was open to learn new words and engage his mind. He even drew a picture which I said he should take home to his mom. He's only 9 but I got a sense that he was too proud to take a picture home to mom, especially one with butterflies, blue clouds and sunshine. I think I convinced him though. It turns out he attends the school that I volunteer teaching chess at, so I told him to enroll in the chess club next semester and I'd help him learn how to play. He said ok.
So this was all on Sunday afternoon in the blazing heat of the day.
Saturday I was invited to a womens group where they are currently making jewelry from seeds and other natural materials found locally. I helped some women take the grasses from some seeds, called something like "tears of St Peter", I don't recall the Spanish wording. Anyway, I worked with the women sitting around a table for hours, listening to chisme and laughter and jokes all in Spanish with the very occassional interpretation for the gringa. I missed most of it which is difficult and frustrating but I suppose its good to be meeting people and spending time in the community regardless. I have to work to keep my spirits up after sitting around not understanding people for lengths of time. Its frustrating, but I have to keep studying Spanish, practicing and challenging myself to improve. At the end of the day, I had made a very pretty bracelet though and took some seeds home! We'll see if I continue in creating jewelry. At the very least I am fully supportive of the women who are creating art to sell and to make a living. Even if it means sitting for hours grasping to understand their talk and pulling grass out of the seeds until my hands nearly bleed.
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