I have made it through the second week of training – a week
that absolutely flew by. It was a
typical week with language and technical sessions Monday – Thursday from 8 – 6 (because
of an hour of tutoring at the end of the day).
There were a few highlights and new experiences this week including
classroom facilitation, a trip to the movies, a Peru
21 fiesta, a visit to Lima , and
McDonalds.
Classroom Facilitations
This Thursday we were in a school facilitating sessions for
the first time. We were all grouped into
groups of 2 or 3 with people of varying language abilities and given 45 minute
lesson plans. I worked with Yesennia on
a lesson about “Los Valores” (values).
We gave the lesson to 3 classes back to back.
I was pretty nervous since my Spanish is still elementary at
best, but the experience was really great.
I was able to introduce us and lead a few dinamicas, games, and
discussion (with the help of Yesennia jumping in when my Spanish failed). It was awesome to meet the students and be in
a classroom. It made me very excited for
the work I can do when I get into site. It
will definitely be an adjustment for me to be working with students in
secundaria (essentially high school) rather than my previous 4 year olds up to
5th grade.
We will have our next facilitation in new groups in Week 4
at the same school, I believe. So
hopefully I can have a few more words in my repertoire to use next time.
El Hombre de Acero
Thursday night I went to the movie theater in Santa Clara
with my host brother, Samuel, and 16 year old niece, Estephany (I’m not
actually sure how to spell her name but I’m working on it.) We went to see Super Man dubbed over in
Spanish. It was quite an experience!
The movie theater was not really that different from those
at home and we got the typical popcorn and drink combo – though this time I had
Chicha instead of my usual Diet Coke. I
enjoyed the movie but it was pretty funny to see Amy Adams on the screen and
then hear a totally different voice. Somehow
it all seemed more dramatic with Spanish voices – like the funny Spanish soap
operas. They also do something weird with
the sound so the sound effects like doors closing, wind blowing, are incredibly
loud while the talking is still typical volume for a theater. It was fun but after 2 ½ hours of Spanish of
which I only caught a small percentage, I was ready to speak in English.
Feliz Cumpleanos, Seth!
Friday was one of the trainees’ birthdays and his host mom
had all 35 of us over for a “fiesta.” It
was a lot of fun and a much needed time for our group to relax and have
fun. His host brother had transformed
the house into a discotec of sorts complete with a disco ball and strobe
lights.
Visit to Lima
After a busy week and Seth’s fiesta on Friday, I was ready
to catch up on sleep, but we had a trip into central Lima
with our language facilitators. We went
pretty early and had “cultural” activities until about 1 and then were left in Lima
to hang out and find our way home. Our
cultural event included going to the Palacio de Gobierno, (the White House of
Peru), a catholic church, and up some mountain to see a big cross. Going to the Palacio de Gobierno was pretty
neat, it was very huge with ornate decorations. My favorite part was when a group of soldiers
came in and took their places around the palace – they reminded me of the guards
at Buckingham Palace Lima trying to settle my
stomach. Luckily, one volunteer had ridden
in the front seat and was nice enough to let me take it on the way down and
that made a world of difference.
After ending our “cultural learning” excursion and telling
our facilitators good-bye, Scotney, DD, and I made a getaway to the
McDonalds. For those of you who know me
at all, I was beside myself excited to enjoy a McBacon, fries, and a Coke. While the 4 of us who ate at McDondalds were
happy, we decided to really take advantage of the trip into Lima
and went to meet a few other people at Pizza Hut for some delicious pizza to
finish off our food binge. I was incredibly
pleased with my food coma and totally satisfied with my trip to Lima
J
This coming week we have our site shadowing trip that I am
really excited for. All 35 of our
training class are sent out to the sites of different volunteers around Peru
to shadow them for a few days. I really
lucked out in my site shadowing placement thus far as I got the shortest bus
ride – I have a 5 hour bus ride while
another group has a 16 hour bus ride – and I am shadowing Morgan, the volunteer
of the week from our first week of training.
Each week there is a volunteer of the week that comes to training for
the week. They assist with our training
sessions and also provide a person to chat with about questions, experiences,
and more. Morgan was our first volunteer
to focus on learning Spanish and integrating with host families. I am so excited to see her site and spend
time with her and her host family. Two
other trainees, Karl and Keiko, are also shadowing Morgan so that should be
great, too.
So Wednesday I am off to Ica
and will share my shadowing experience after!
**Also, I added photos to Facebook of this week so enjoy :)
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