Big stuff!

Thursday, May 20

So here was a big day. Maybe you'll get to see Katie's take as well, but here's mine.

In the morning we had a meeting with the teachers and the director of the school at Cieneguilla. There are only about five of them, so it's easy to talk and find out what they're thinking. The teachers are particularly excited, and are willing (it seems) to negotiate regarding scheduling and such. The director is another story, but I'll withhold judgement for now. Right now we're a bit limited as to the number of hours that we'll actually have to work with the kids here. That said, the days will be plenty full…more on that in a moment.

Villa Maria is quite different in that there are actually far too many kids for us to work with, and the director is personally meeting with us every time we go, inviting us for tea/coffee and etc. We've got the room cleaned up, so now we're waiting for the grant money to arrive at the end of the month, after which we'll buy the computers and get them set up and ready for the inauguration there on June 2. So good things are happening, but we also have to be a bit patient because we're waiting on the money.

Today, we had a meeting with the parents. We were initially quite worried about turnout, and whether or not anyone would be willing to come and discuss the project. Katie's host mom suggested going around door to door to introduce ourselves and invite people out personally. It turned out to be a great idea. Of course the 7:00 meeting began more like 7:30, but that's to be expected here. We had so many people that we couldn't fit in the computer lab and we had to use a full-size classroom instead. I would estimate about 35 people were there. We established a schedule for teaching the adults to use the computers, and the 20 spots were filled and more still wanted to sign up. We have to try to work it out so that we can teach everyone who wants to learn while also having some hours at night of general access. Right now the classes will be 6-7 and 7-8pm on Wed and Thurs. The plan is to have access open 6-10pm every weekday, and 11am-10pm on weekends. Who opens it? Us. What does that mean? We will be overloaded. So of course it's urgent to find a volunteer or possibly hire someone to take over some of the hours, or we will collapse in a heap sometime around next Thursday. If we're exhausted, how can we possibly be good teachers in the evenings?

So many new issues are presenting themselves. I like that. It's preferable to be slightly overwhelmed than to be left twiddling your thumbs for most of the day. That was my issue initially in Villa Martha, back in 2007. It took a long time to actually be busy. Here we're jumping in with a bang, doing as much as possible and more. From there we will be asking for, and by that I mean demanding, help. It makes sense, because someone needs to take over completely by mid-August when we leave. They'll need a couple months to get comfortable, so it has to begin now.

This week is the trial. We'll have our first schedule that slightly resembles what we'll do for the next three weeks. I fully expect it to change several times, but more or less it'll retain the same format. After this week we'll also be able to truly evaluate how busy we can be and what is feasible going forward.

Oh, and it was perfectly sunny today! First time in two weeks. Last?

Matt