Hi all, just got back to Tolé from Panama City. I am so glad to be going back to my site, it seems like years since I´ve spent any time there. Actually, I´ve only been there for three days in the past month. However, all the activities I´ve been doing have been very worthwhile, even if they all had to occur at once.
So I just helped facilitate the Gender and Development youth seminar, which was a great success. Thank you to those who donated money to the cause, rest assured that every one of the 55 kids had a life-changing experience thanks in part to you.
I was going to bring my two kids, but one of them didn´t show up to the meeting point to travel to Panama and her parent´s cell phone was turned off, so we had to leave her. The other boy I brought, a 15 year old named Efigenio, was homesick at first but at the end didn´t want to go home and asked to come back next year. He is a very mature and helpful kid, and I think he will have benefited from this a lot.
Among the many activities we did was a trip to the Panama Canal, which most of us had not visited before. We watched the Miraflores lock fill up so a Greek ship could pass through. It was interesting, but for me not the most exciting thing in the world.
There were four days of workshops about various themes that are important for adolescents to know, such as self-esteem and self-image, values, making decisions, making plans for the future, avoiding teen pregnancy, and sexual health. They really enjoyed these sessions, even the ones that are embarrassing and hard to talk about. I was in charge of one group along with another volunteer, and also had to teach about values. We tried to make it as fun and interactive as possible, so there were plenty of things to help them loosen up and become more comfortable, as well as practice working in groups and thinking for themselves, which is not stressed in Panamanian education. They also got egg babies to take care of, which more than half of them lost because they left them behind and the counselors snatched them up.
The other photos show my group´s tower of straws, which was the highest of all. I also led a game as the Queen where a kid from each group had to bring me whatever I asked for to win points for their team. There were countless little games, but the last night we had olympics, and although there was a serious cheating issue with almost all the kids (Panamanians are very competitive, and if this means ignoring the rules then so be it), it was pretty fun. There was a ping pong tournament as well, in which I played my first ping pong in my life and the only reason why I didn´t get stomped is because the other guy let me score some points. We had a movie night with popcorn and soda, and watched Horton Hears a Who, which the kids absolutely loved. They thought it was hysterical.
All in all, everything went great. There were no major problems and very few minor crises, most of which occured during the traveling on the way to the city. There were about 14 of us volunteers that were running the show or helping out, and many of them are quite impressive when it comes to teaching these themes. I hope that when I get to the point they are in their service I will be as comfortable with the language and be able to teach as well as they do. I definitely want to be involved in this again next year, it was a really good experience.
And now, back to work in my site. That is, if I still have any English students left after a month of vacations. And hopefully there will be a little more time to rest. Well, talk to you later at some indeterminate time in the future!
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