One Week In

Well, we have survived (and thoroughly enjoyed) one week in Guaimaca.  We have been incredibly busy this week with school preparations; we used this week to make outlines and schedules for the entire trimester, start planning some activities and projects and clean up and organize the school.

I think some specifics about the school itself are in order.  The school includes grades 7-11 (there is no 12th grade), and this year there will be about 70 students, all who come from one of the aldeas of Guaimaca, and who go through what sounds like a pretty intense interview process to make sure they will be committed to their studies and to developing as a person, developing in their faith, and developing as a member of the community.  Each family contributes to the school in some way, so that the families themselves are invested in and feel a part of their daughters' education.  Their contributions are completely based on what they are able to contribute, whether it's a few hundred Lempira, a few thousand, or some food that they have grown and then bring to the school.

The classes are based on a distance-learning format and are completely different from any type of class that I have had, even the most free, dialogue-based courses I had in college.   It's a system that was developed specifically for the thousands of students across the country who can't go to school past the sixth grade and therefore basically have to teach themselves.  It is only required to go to school through the 6th grade in Honduras, and most schools in the aldeas (the more rural, small agricultural villages) are a one-room classroom, with one teacher, and all of the ages all together.  With these needs in mind, the developers of this program created a radio lecture for each subject, which the students listen to, then complete exercises and read more information.  Once a week, a traveling tutor will come to the aldea and help students with comprehension of material, and then bring the state approved final exams.

The Hondurans are very proud of and invested in this program, so we in the school still work from the basics, even though we are there every day of the year.  Our students will listen to the radio the day before class, do some exercises and read, then we will come to class the next day and work on the material through activities and our own experience.  This first trimester I will tutor Biology and Chemistry and review Math from last year for the seniors, el Segundo Bachillerato.  It feels weird to say "tutor," just like it felt weird to say "tutor" last fall when working with the students who had been expelled from the high school, but that's the word that they use to describe my position.  We are in fact teachers, but it is in this system that is completely different from our own classroom experience.  I feel like I have an advantage, however, because that experience last fall "tutoring" really helped me prepare for this style of learning and teaching, and gave me a background that I would not have had otherwise.

Still, I feel like I will have to tone down the lecture portion of the classes.  I have already planned a few projects and big activities for both classes, which will be different for them but hopefully really help with their comprehension, but I need to come up with a lot of small classroom activities and labs to do while at the farm.  If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them!

Oh, one more thing-- we also each have some physical education classes.  I have three, and the other gringo tutors have two each, most of which are shared between us (my third is by myself).  We came up with a plan for this trimester, which includes a variety of activities and games, and a more intensive unit on basketball.  I'm pretty excited for these classes because it will help us really get to know the students of all the grades, and these classes will help them develop as a whole person, something in which both I and el Centro Marie Poussepin strongly believe.

I'm getting really excited for the start of classes on January 31st, but also pretty nervous.  The transition into this style of teaching will be difficult, not to mention the language barrier.  I can feel that my comprehension and expression has really improved in just this one week of immersion, and we have one more before school starts, but I know that at times my students will feel like they are not getting through to me, or vice versa, and I'm worried about how this will affect the class experience, especially in the beginning.  To help alleviate this problem, I will set up a box in my classroom for Preguntas, and if we don't get to anything, or I am unable to answer something, they can put it in the box for me to read through and answer at home.  I'm excited for the day that I say "Como?" ("how?" or "what?") in less than 50% of my conversations, hopefully that comes sooner rather than later.

I hope everyone in los Estados Unidos is happy and doing well.  I hear there's a lot of snow in the Northeast...that seems weird to me already.

El Molino

Today I learned a lot about simplicity at the farm (la finca).  After spending the morning at the school getting oriented to their philosophy and style of teaching, we drove through town with Emilio, our neighbor, and Mary, a nurse at the clinic.  We brought with us a few buckets of beans in the back of the pickup, and, of course, we were also in the back of the pickup, sitting on the side.  Later, talking with Mary, we found out that sitting in the back of a pickup is illegal, just like in the US, and that drivers can lose their licenses and incur a fine.  However, if the police are even around, they don’t seem to care because everyone piles into the back of pickups as the preferred means of transportation.  

When we got to the farm, we carried the buckets of beans in to a shed where we found el molino (the mill).  Here is where they grind up the beans and seeds into a very fine flour, which is then used to provide sustenance to malnourished children and adults.  The mill itself is a small machine with a feeder funnel and two small millstones that rotate because they’re attached to an axle, which is belted to a nearby motor.  One person pours the beans and seeds into the funnel, while another uses one stick to hold the belt in place and another stick to push the beans down.  The ground beans and seeds spit out from the grinding stones and is collected below at a surprisingly fast rate.

A few things struck me about this process.  First, getting to know Mary a little more made me stop and appreciate the level of simplicity with which people conduct their lives and the level of commitment each person has to the community.  Mary is a nurse in the health clinic and is currently running it by herself because one of the Sisters from the mission, who normally is in charge of the clinic, is in Colombia with her family.  So, Mary’s daily responsibilities range from clerical work to the treatment of patients who come in from Guaimaca and the surrounding villages.   Today, however, Mary made the time to collect the beans and seeds from a house where they were toasting (to dry them out), drive up to the farm with her buckets, and grind the beans and seeds into flour.  Even though el molino works pretty fast, it is still a very time consuming process.

Mary, however, was the epitome of patience and cheerfulness.  Even though our Spanish is not very good, she talked with us on our way to the farm, explaining and answering our questions about Guaimaca and showing us where the fields start and what grows there.  She is one of the people I really appreciate because she takes the time to slow down for us and really listens to what we have to say, even if it’s not correct and she has to decipher it.  In addition, as I previously mentioned, grinding flour from soy beans is time consuming and must not be very interesting after doing it as many times as she has.  However, it is an essential function because it provides pinol de soya for local malnourished children, a very nutritious drink that includes soy flour ground at the mill, rice, oatmeal, and sometimes milk.  This drink sustains the malnourished children who come into the clinic with their families, helping them to survive and grow.  After grinding the soy beans, Mary and the other workers ground up a mixture of other types of beans and some seeds, which make a flour that is used to prepare another type of drink for the adults.  This drink is also very nutritious, and is for people who find it difficult to maintain a healthy diet due to economic poverty.

We in the US are so far removed from this simple way of life that it would never cross our minds to grind the flour we use for baking.  Most of us probably don’t even know where our flour comes from, but people like Mary plant seeds of these plants, tend them until ready for picking, pick them, toast them, bring them back to the farm for grinding, and then finally use the flour for a drink that can sustain several people for an extended amount of time.  Most importantly, Mary enjoys her job and is genuinely happy.  How many people do you know who would be happy if told to go to a smelly farm and grind up beans?

Life here is much simpler.  That sentence is both an understatement and a misnomer, because people here deal with more in a day than many of us in the US do in a month.  One of my hopes for this year is that, by living simply and in solidarity with the people of Guaimaca, I will develop my own appreciation for the simple things in life.  Additionally, many of the people I have met have priorities in the most important places-- como la familia, la communidad, el Dios, la educacion-- the list goes on.  Mary is one of these people who is devoted to her job, to the church and mission, to the health of those around her, and to the simple things in life.  Last week, during our reflections at Stonehill, one of my answers to the oft-repeated question “What do you hope to gain from this experience?” was invariably “perspective.”  Even after only three days here, I can see that I will gain the perspective I desire through people like Mary.

Our Community Covenant

This is the community covenant that Cassie, Chris and I came up with last Wednesday after a lot of time together spent on reflections and getting-to-know your values type exercises, with input from Tori after Skyping with her.  It is how we are going to try to conduct ourselves daily and live together.

Honduras Extension Program Community Covenant 2011

 
       As an intentional community, we hope to establish a welcoming home that provides us with a physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually safe environment.  We recognize that this endeavor will be an intentional struggle, a process that we will continually and determinedly have to adapt to and form as we serve together.

       In order to create an environment where we attain these goals, we will live simply and in solidarity with the larger community of the mission and Guaimaca.  Solidarity requires a deeper understanding of the greater community, and to this end we will actively learn about and participate with the cantrachos we encounter daily.  Likewise, we will respect each member of our service community so that we can fully grow into role models-- role models as US citizens, and role models for future Extension Program volunteers.  

When we return to our house every night, we want to enter an environment that will feel productive, positive, and balanced; not only with our work duties, but also with our internal relationships and personal development.  Open and honest reflection, both private and shared, is a vital centerpiece to our formation.  Although we eventually want our community to feel like a family, we realize that it will be a constant work in progress and that we will have to maintain open communication based on a foundation of trust and tolerance.  In order to build trust, we must remain dedicated to each other and care for one another.  

      These are the goals we set for ourselves this year, but they remain flexible.  As we strive to become an integrated part of the Guaimaca community, we will learn more about ourselves and the methods to fulfill our goals.  We will be successful this year when we incorporate our new knowledge and understanding into this endeavor we have undertaken.

Con paz y amor, los amigos de Stonehill College y Northeastern University,

Victoria Godfrey

Christopher McCormick

Matthew Rigby

Cassondra White