Planning the new year

In honor of my return and my ever-wavering commitment to finish my service, I bought myself a real mattress and some new pillows. Luckily, the house I moved into last June was fully furnished. However, I never had a proper mattress. For awhile, I slept on the colchoneta (futon) that was here. It was flat and uncomfortable on a wooden bed frame. So I was cheap and replaced it with another colchoneta which has almost completely flattened. On Friday, I bought the real deal, $125 worth of glory. I mean, it’s no pillow top, but it has made my bed a happier place. And with a few fluffy $3 pillows, I’m set. Congrats.

Moving on, I had a pretty successful meeting with my teachers last week. On Tuesday morning I went to the school for the first time since I’d been back. No one had been there all Summer, but the teachers come back two weeks before classes start every year to begin preparation for the new school year. Anyway, I planned a meeting for the following day. So on Wednesday I showed up for our eight o’clock meeting, which inevitably started at nine. And although two of the teachers didn’t show, it went well. I explained that I wanted to work with all the classes this year in order to help improve my working relationships with all the teachers and their students. I also made a last ditch effort to get someone to come with me to an HIV/AIDS workshop in San Vicente the 26th-29th. The day before I had asked both my 7th grade teacher, whose class I had worked with on the topic and who expressed interest in the topic, and my health promoter to go, but they couldn’t. So, I opened up the slot to all my teachers, still knowing that it was during the first week of classes. And after explaining what it was and how it worked I got an overwhelming amount of interest. Peace Corps it basically putting us all up free for three nights during the workshop (free transport, free food, and free lodging). And luckily, my school director gave permission and encouragement to the teachers to come (it is the first week of school and all, meaning we’ll be one teacher short and three days less of class for one grade). I’m sure it’ll be worth it though.

So here’s the deal with HIV/AIDS in Peace Corps. Peace Corps El Salvador has recently hired a former volunteer to come work on an AIDS initiatives in El Salvador. So, he has been running workshops around the country on youth, men’s, and women’s health (focusing on STDs and HIV) for volunteers and their counterparts (any community members that volunteers work with –Salvadoran professionals).

So anyway, my prior second grade teacher, and this year’s sixth grade teacher, Niña Digna, is coming to the workshop with me to learn how to educate the youth on HIV. I’m excited to be working with her because she is one of the only teachers that lives in the community (most teachers commute in for work) and will hopefully be able to assist in other community projects relating to the topic. I think this is a really good opportunity for her to learn more about HIV and for us to work more together in health education.

Anyway, so here’s my outline for classes next year, another discussion point from the meeting. Kindergarten will get story time, for fun. First and Second grade will be receiving a reading comprehension course with some of the new books we received in our library (I’m really trying to encourage reading because people here don’t read). Third through Fifth grades, will be receiving a general environmental and health education course. Sixth grade will continue to receive Cómo Planear Mi Vida (How to Plan My Life, a life skills course which gives them an opportunity to examine their futures). Seventh and Eighth grade will received a modified sex ed course, stemming from Cómo Planear Mi Vida Sections and my prior HIV/AIDS course. And ninth grade is a work in progress. I won’t be teaching a class exactly, but I’m working on an enrichment program. My first idea is to get them to help me paint a world map in the school because lord knows, these kids are blind to geography and have no visual concept of how the world is set up. During this time, I’ll be looking for funding to create my enrichment program, hopefully consisting of trips, mostly to the capital, to visit museums and cultural centers. I want to give them an opportunity to see what else is out there in the world, well at least in El Salvador. So, my teachers seem to be on board with all that.

And, as much as I couldn’t wait for the school year to end last year I’m actually looking forward to its return. I mean, I want to keep teaching, but I also really need a routine in my life right now, just to keep things moving. Besides, these kids desperately need something to do. They’re currently driving me a little nuts.

Also, now that I’m back I’m giving my women’s group another shot. I stopped by Niña Elba’s (my health promoter) this week and dropped off some material on domestic violence for her to look over. We’ll be meeting this week to discuss the details and the group will meet in two weeks when I’m back from the HIV workshop. Hopefully this time around everything goes a lot smoother. So, we’ll see. If not, I’ll find something else to try.

Some things to look forward to. . . This weekend I’m heading out to San Vicente to stay with my host family because there’s a big anniversary party happening on Saturday. And apparently, the brand new volunteers will have just gotten in, so a few will be in my old training community staying with my old host family for the party; looking forward to meeting them too! Also, the first weekend in February, twenty-six of the volunteers from my training group (obviously including me) are all heading out for a beach weekend, celebrating of one year of Peace Corps. Should be fun.

So, luckily, things are starting to get back to normal around here and I have some fun things to look forward to. I’ll keep you posted.
Talk to you all soon.

P.S. Finished The Help. SO good. Thanks Aunty Phyl.

P.P.S. I ran from a cow stampede the other day. Actually Ran.