Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Secondary Projects & the End of the Trimester

As I’ve gotten more comfortable with my role in the schools, I’ve been working on some secondary project ideas that will hopefully come to fruition soon. One is a computer class that I was sort of roped into doing by the manager of the community training center. These classes will probably start in September sometime and will be for adults in the community. A second project is a girls’ exercise group. Several girls have asked to join me when I go running. I would love for them to come, but when they do, I don’t get much of a workout. But I definitely want to encourage them to exercise and live a healthy life, so I’m hoping to start an exercise club for them that has some curriculum regarding body image, healthy living, and girls’ empowerment. If any of you have resources or curriculum for this, please let me know! But, I realized that as we are getting towards the worst of the rainy season (October and November), this might not be the ideal time to start the club – so I think I may put that off until the next school year.

Other ideas are an English conversation club, a recycling program, and a life choices/sex-ed workshop for 9th graders (I’m probably partnering with a few people who work at the school for this, which will be great).

I’m also working with another PCV, Miranda, on putting together some seminars/workshops for our teachers. We’re planning on doing several of them over the course of the next few months. So I’m is going to be busy for sure through the end of the year!

As for right now, we’re wrapping up the second trimester and anticipating the week-long break the first full week of September. I didn’t have too much to do the past couple of weeks since the teachers were mainly reviewing, but the past week I’ve been planning fo the next trimester. It’s been nice to actually have some free time to plan (I definitely didn’t have that at the primary school – they don’t have exams, so don’t have any down time).

In other news, I was able to go to the beach in the province of Chiriqui this past weekend, which was a lot of fun. It was my first time in that province (it’s the most south-western province in Panama, bordering with Costa Rica). It’s gorgeous! The Interamerican highway isn’t in great repair in areas, but the trip is beautiful – huge, lush, green mountains along the way - then add nice beaches to that! I stayed at a hostel one night, roomed with three of the guys in my group and joined in the guys-night dominoes game after we left the other girls, then in the nicer hotel with the girls the second night - the boys didn't run me out, I just wanted a hot shower! We celebrated Sydney’s birthday, so I took Funfetti cupcakes as a gift (thanks for the mix mom!).

Unfortunately because we had to wait a while for the bus, I didn’t make it all the way back to Pesé on Sunday. But that just gave me an excuse to visit another volunteer friend north of Santiago (the capital of the Veraguas province). Her site is in the hills leading up to the mountains, and has some gorgeous views as well!

Lastly, I had a friend from the province of Bocas del Toro (most north-western province, next to Costa Rica) stay with me last night. It was great to hang out with her and we made some delicious meals; tacos for dinner last night complete with sour cream, salsa, and cheese then black bean burgers and a tomato/cucumber/onion & vinegar  salad for lunch. Yumm!!

We also got an impromptu tour of the Varela Hermanos alcohol factory here in Pesé and it was super interesting! We even got to wear hard-hats at one point haha. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera, but I’ll write a detailed post about that soon.

Now I get to look forward to the visit of my friend Veronica from the US! It will be great to see a friend from home!

For now, I’ll leave you with an interesting article that I saw recently calledWhat if Jesus Meant All That Stuff? by Shane Claiborne. Whether you’re a Christian, atheist, or any other religion, I think it’s an interesting and insightful article. I’m also in the middle of reading the author’s book – The Irresistible Revolution. So far, it’s great – I’m sure you will be hearing more about it from me when I finish it.

HERE’s the link.

Happy mid-week!
Sav

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