Teaching Stories (Part 6)
It's crazy to think about how fast time flies (but it is a cliche for a reason). As I write this, we are a few weeks into our third quarter, and we have our mid-year break in a week. Work continues to be busy and trying at times, but every now and then classes get interrupted with a special or random event, which is a welcome breather. The changes in schedule keep things interesting and us on our toes.
It had somehow slipped my mind to write about it, but at the end of the first quarter, we went on an excursion to DiverCity. The place was located in an upscale mall about an hour and a half away from the school, but we had gotten a good deal to go -- paying Q35 when the original price is over Q100 -- so we made an excursion out of it.
DiverCity is basically a mini city where the children can take on roles of professionals. Adults are allowed to enter to chaperone the kids, but we're actually not allowed to actually go inside many of the rooms in the mini city. We have something similar in the Philippines, and I've always wanted to go. So even though, we weren't allowed to participate, it was still fun being inside. Before entering, the kids are given a check for 200 divis. So first up, upon entering the "city," they line up at the bank to cash their checks.
With their divis they can then visit the different attractions like the supermarket, driving school, theatre, beauty center, talent show, cooking school, tv station, etc. I found DiverCity really cool because it is sponsored by brands and companies found in Guatemala. For example the bank is Banco Industrial, one of the big banks in the country, the supermarket is La Torre, the gas station Shell, the newspaper was Prensa Libre, and many more.
There were lots of different activities to go around. I spent the first couple of hours going around with the kids and seeing them enjoy. In several attractions the kids had to pay to participate in, and if they used up all their divis, they had to work to earn more. One example of a paid attractions was the driving school where the kids got to earn their licenses before being able to drive "on the streets."
After they get their licenses they can go to the station to rent a car, and the experience is complete with stopping by the gas station.
On the other hand, an example of a paid job was the fireman; it was this cute little boy's (in the picture below) favorite. They got to ride on the fire truck, and then stop at a "burning building" to put out the fire (think mini hoses like in those games at fairs).
The veterinarian station had a real dog (there were two or three dogs on "shift"). I really wanted to go inside to pet the dogs, haha!
Other attractions included a radio station...
...supermarket and cookie factory...
...architecture and design...
...a bus that went around the city...
...and many many more. The space was actually a lot smaller than I expected, but well maximized as there were many activities to partake in. We spent a good three hours or so, and all of the kids had fun. It was such a unique experience for almost all of them.
In the midst of classes and events going on in school, we joined a parade that a lot of the schools in the neighboring communities took part in. It was out of the blue in the sense that most of the parades we had done before were on September during the cultural week close to Independence Day. I forgot exactly what we were celebrating that day, but I think it was indigenous cultures. Our school was assigned the garifuna culture, so the students all dressed up, and we spent the morning walking around the community.
My Fourth - now Fifth - grade girls and I saw one of their former classmates who moved to a different school this year, so we snapped a picture together.
Another community activity we partook in was a Ludoferia. It was a fair to celebrate International Children's Book Day. In this event, different schools set up different stations, and all the students had to go around and do activities in each station. There were more than 10 stations; I forgot what the themes were of all of them, but some examples were: calligrams, anagrams, riddles. Our school's assigned theme was calligrams -- visual texts that are arranged in a way to form an image related to the text's content -- and we prepared several activities that the students could do based on their grade level.
It was an enjoyable event, just really busy and tiring, as we had students from all the different schools, and not just ours. It was also my first time here experiencing a very educational event that other schools were participating in/that we held together, and it was quite nice.
On one Friday I accompanied the Sixth graders at the park with two other volunteers since their Spanish teacher was absent. They are the most taxing group, but when not in an English class, they can be relatively manageable. For me, it turned out to be a nice bonding day with them (complete with some girls asking to borrow my phone, and then returning it later on with x amount of selfies on it).
A few weeks ago we joined the park's celebration of "Día del Desafío," which is a day that aims to promote physical activity. Instead of the usual sport, there was an aerobic/zumba-like event that we were participated in. It was a quick event, which we followed up with another equally quick and similar event at school the next day.
Just the other Friday, each grade level was set to change their sport (they do a new/different one each quarter), but it didn't happen. So instead, Amy and I planned to take a walk through the woods, and were joined by a couple of eager students.
These kids hadn't been through this section of the park before, and it was such a fun morning exploring the woods and bonding with the kids a little bit more.
Aside from that, we had several events happening at school too. One of the events that took place in school was some sort of dance day. Each grade level put on a short performance, as well as a few select kids from each grade.
We also had an organization called Soul Spin come to the school for two weeks. The volunteer worked with select students in music production classes, and at the end of the two weeks they presented the songs that they produced to the whole school. We had an entertaining morning listening to the music of the different students, and which later on turned into a mini dance party. (These kids really do love to dance. The fifth graders will often ask me if we can do away with working, and just dance instead. Haha!)
One thing that's been ongoing at school is several smaller fundraising events following the big one I mentioned here. Every Thursday, the students (and teachers) can come in ropa particular (casual clothes) instead of their uniform, if they pay Q2. On one day we also had a raffle; the students spent the week prior getting their friends and family members to buy tickets, then we gathered up on the roof to pick the winners.
On another day us teachers made some pupusas to sell after school. I got the Friday morning off from the park and accompanied two teachers to go shopping for everything we'd need. Then we spent the rest of the morning preparing the dough, fillings and salsa. We took a lunch break, and the teachers started selling in the late afternoon.
All of these particular fundraisers raised us enough money to buy our first batch of instruments for a school band we hoped to form! It will be very exciting to see how that turns out.
Last, but not least, we had a special relief effort for those displaced and affected by the recent volcano eruptions in Guatemala. As you may have heard on the news, there was recently a deadly eruption from Fuego Volcano in Alotenango which buried villages and left many people dead, missing, and displaced. In the week that followed, communities in the nearby towns were cleaning their streets from ash, rescuers were looking for missing people and helping those evacuating, and people all over the country were giving aid or help to those in need. At school, we also helped in collecting goods. Students were asked to bring and donate food or clothes, and were then treated to a clown/magic show in the morning. We got a good amount of donations...
...and the students enjoyed their show. :)
The relief efforts going on around the country remind me of the ones we do back home in the Philippines whenever a bad typhoon hits. It's always heartwarming to see people come together to help their fellow countrymen, and I'm glad the school played their part.
Comments