Training

This is a long entry that I have kind of written over time but am finally posting it online. It isn’t exhaustive but at least it is an update and summary. Be sure to check my photo album periodically because I keep that better updated. I haven’t written many cultural aspects but I plan to do that in the future. Training has taken up a lot of my time such that I haven’t taken the time to write and reflect as much as I would have liked. On that note:

What is sustainable development?

Go in search of the people
Love them
Learn from them
Plan with them
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
But of the best leaders
When their task is accomplished
And their work is done
The people all mark
“We have done it ourselves”
-Lao Tso

This is a quote that I enjoy rereading from the main training center room where we meet generally every Monday for general training on medical issues (diarrhea, STDs, food preparation, etc.), cultural training, and technical training.

As for my technical training in the Escuelas Saludables (Healthy Schools, or HS) program, the most interesting aspects for me so far have been visiting a primary school lacking in resources and receiving ideas on how to best implement the program. Four of us trainees living in the Santo Domingo Xenacoj community are visiting a small US-charter equivalent school (here called PRONADE), in an “aldea” or small town of the municipality Xenacoj called San Antonio. San Antonio itself has an approximate population of 300, is mostly if not all indigenous Kaqchikel, and while it has wells and springs for water, it does not yet have electricity. I am wondering if they don’t have these resources because most of the residents come from a different municipality (San Juan Sacatepéquez in the Guatemalan department). I am curious now why they have come from San Juan, being that it is relatively far away from Xenacoj? Regardless, our group has been working in a school of 30+ students of two classrooms split about equally. There are only two teachers. The first and second graders are in one classroom, and they mostly only speak Kaqchikel but most understand Spanish. The other classroom has the upper four grades, so you can imagine it is difficult to teach 4 levels. The kids at this school are adorable and intelligent, but the lack of especially running water creates a daily habit of unsanitary conditions, like not bathing/brushing teeth daily and not having sanitary latrines/toilets. PC had some extra toothbrushes lying around the center that they gave our group (because this is probably the neediest school for our Healthy Schools training).

Each of us trainers has given a practice lesson plan to the students on a health related topic. My topic was on brushing teeth. I chose a lesson out of the published “Por Una Escuela Saludable” teacher’s manual that was created after many other Healthy Schools volunteers. I started with a Rompehielo, or ice breaker, which was a funny song about using all parts of your body to brush your teeth. After that, I had prepared cut up apples and I told the students to imagine they didn’t have teeth. Then, I asked them to try to eat their piece without using their teeth. Obviously, they could only suck on it. Thus, the lesson revolved around the importance of teeth and the need to take care of them, or else one can’t eat the foods we want to eat, for example. After this, each student had his or her donated toothbrush and some toothpaste/water (that I brought for them) and we went to the outdoor sink (“pila”) and they brushed their teeth. It was a good lesson, I thought, but at the end of the day, everything was donated to them and I wonder when we leave if their parents will buy the supplies. That is the idea of sustainability. In the schools I will work in, the parents will be encouraged to buy these supplies in the same way they buy the standard pencils, notebooks, etc. In general, the San Antonio school experience is difficult because this is our training school, and thus we are only there for 3 months.

On another note, for less than a week, we went on Field Based Training (FBT) in the eastern highland departments Huehuetenango (“Huehue”), Quetzaltenango (“Xela” pronounced Shela), Chimaltenango (“Chimal”), and Totonicapán ("Toto"). We spent most of our time in Huehue, where we visited with two volunteers who are about to end their service when we begin ours in April, or in Peace Corps terms, they are about to COS (Close Of Service). Two of us will be replacing them. I kind of want to replace one of them who lives in an area where Mam is spoken, because I’d like to be in an indigenous community and want to learn some of the language, enough phrases to greet and have small talk. It was nice to visit some of their schools, where we mostly formally met with the teachers, saw a few health lessons, and see different infrastructure projects that the volunteers facilitated. It was an overwhelming experience because of all the travel and all 17 of us trainees were together but it was informative and the volunteers were very helpful. It was also great to see how they live. We visited three other volunteers’ houses in Toto, Xela, and Chimal (in the city Tecpán). At the one in Toto, many volunteers who are almost mid-service came to meet us and it was good to hear their perspective. A week after FBT, I got the chance to visit one of them in Toto for 5 days. It was nice to get the one-on-one opportunity to live how the volunteer lives, ask an infinite amount of questions, and go with the volunteer to school. I would say that it has been the highlight of training so far because it most closely reflects what my life will be like when I finally become a volunteer. She has a sweet set up in her house, and I’ve posted pictures online (coming soon). Some of my general opinions of the places we visited are that Huehue’s (the city) scenery was beautiful because of the Cuchumatanes mountain range, the highest in Central America, and Xela the city has a nice cosmopolitan feel to it.

I find out on Monday, in a few days, where my site will be! It is exciting yet I am anxious. The departments where we are being placed are in Huehue, Xela, Chimal, Alta Verapaz, and Sololá. I am hoping for Chimal or Sololá because they are closer to Antigua, but as I mentioned earlier, I would also like to be in Huehue. I think that the APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director), the director of Healthy Schools, will give me first generation schools because I have some experience teaching, which is little. (Some background information: each school that signs on for the Healthy Schools program is in it for four years and thus has two volunteers, the first one starts it as “first generation” and the second one hopefully certifies it in “second generation"). If the case is that I am given first generation, I will probably not get Huehue because I think those replacements are second generations. Regardless, I am flexible and open to any option and, at the end of the day, eagerly awaiting the move to my site!