Saturday, May 23, 2009

Getting rollin'


I am really starting to feel integrated in my community-I have a great relationship with my host family, I have some great friends, people know where to find me (where I live and work), and I get occasional visits from the neighborhood kids and my baseball kids. Not to mention the 7 am house calls from high school kids that want help with their English homework. :)
Projects are up and running while more are getting ready to start. I just got back from a training in a town called Zamorano just south of Tegucigalpa. I learned about an awesome program called Yo Merezco, which is a sort of abstence/sex education program for 5th and 6th girls. I'll be starting that project along with another (Business Fundamentals) that teaches skills of saving and starting/running a business also with 6th graders in the elementary schools. I have two elementary schools, Jose Miguel Valdez and Florencio G. Molina in which I will be doing these projects. Joven a Joven is another project geared towards high schoolers that helps prepare them for life after they graduate-for example teaching them how to write a resume or aiding them with deciding what to study in college if they choose to go. My counterpart and I plan on starting that project within the next couple of months. Besides these hands-on projects I am also going to start working on a baseball manuel that incorporates life-skill trainings. This will eventually be taught in what Peace Corps calls a TOT or Training of Trainers in which I, with another volunteer, will hold a 4-5 day training on the manuel. This is part of a job that I am inhereting from volunteer that will be leaving soon. In September I will be the new Peace Corps Volunteer Coordinator of the baseball league that works with the Honduras Baseball Federation. I will be in charge of organizing/supporting/providing trainings to approximately 25 teams around Honduras that have a Peace Corps volunteer. I'm very excited to have this responsibility.
As for what I am currently doing, it is not far from what I thought I would be doing when I came to my site. I still travel to a surrounding villages to give trainings or talks about domestic violence to our women's group (which still consistes of women throughout our municipality and has started to include men as well). In addition to helping the Women's Office in the municipality with this project I am also supporting them with a project called La Red Departamental where we go to different places in the department of Yoro to give trainings to other coordinators of the Women's Office so that they have the skills to start the women's groups we have formed in Victoria. I have started giving English classes to elementary school teachers (TEAM 1 and 2 or Level 1 and 2) and will have that project until September. As a baseball team we are on break, but we just started a baseball team garden, so I will still be working with my players while we're breaking from baseball. Another interesting project that I've been working on is the Colgate Dental Program. I work with a dentist from Victoria and we travel to a far-away small village to give talks about dental hygiene and work on the teeth of the students (grades k-6 about 200 students). I of course can not do any dental work on the children but I did help floride some of the kids last time we went. BTW I didn't know this, but you shouldn't wet your brush before you use it to brush or teeth!

I am still popping my head in the high school about once a week to work with the seniors on a leadership program I conjured up- hopefully some of the classes will be helping me with projects around the community soon. Good news about scholarships! I have been working with 3 different "kids" or high school graduates applying for a scholarship to study in the United States (a very competitive scholarship) and one has been selected! We'll all very proud of her and excited for all the great things she has yet to experience.

Lastly, I have been working to try to build up the library in one of the elementary schools in my village. It hardly has any readible story books but plently of reference books- too bad the reference books do not really attract the children in the schools. I have therefore, after trying to have a Reading Club without many books, been trying to get story books into Victoria. I applied for a donation through one organization from the United States, and they gave me great books, but only 30 pounds worth (their agency's limit). I am now on a mission to get more. With the books to fill the library I know it will open the door for children to get interested in reading and expanding their worlds. I plan on having different Reading Clubs (with the help of my high school seniors), specific talks or clases on analizing stories and creativity, plus going into the poorest parts of my community and others near it to read to the children who can't afford to go to school, nonetheless have a book to read. For those who are unaware, Honduras has the lowest reading and language scores of all of Central America and the department of Yoro (where Victoria is) has the lowest scores of Honduras. There is a great need.

A better reading and language program in Victoria can only be possible if there are books to read, and the children cannot improve their scores and knowledge without a program that addresses the issue at hand. To try to improve the school, I have created a wish list on Amazon.com under the name "Victoria Children's Library." If you would like to help and donate a book or two, it would greatly appreciated. I am having the books sent to my house so that I may take them back with me (at a cheaper rate) when I return to Honduras after visiting the U.S.


Well, it's getting ready to rain here in Tegucigalpa so I should wrap this up. I'll be updating my blog soon, but meanwhile if anyone has any specific questions on what's going on in my community or my Peace Corps experience let me know.


Paz

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Sara I am so proud of you! You are doing wonderful things! The pictures are beautiful and I am so happy that you are getting this experience. Keep it up girl:)

Unknown said...

Sara, Are you safe?
Let someone know here.
Aunt Gale

Sara said...

Thanks Amber!! I am really glad to hear from you and to know that you're thinking about me out here. And no worries, things are calm here in my site. Everything is cheque leque here.