English Overload

My official Peace Corps assignment is to support three English
teachers at three different public schools. I am supposed to help the
teachers with their English and share new ideas about teaching
methodologies. The goal is to work alongside the teachers in the
classroom. To co-plan with them, co-teach classes. Then I am also
supposed to help them with their own English skills.

A second part of my assignment is to help the students at the three
schools with their English. This is accomplished by the (hopefully)
successful co-planning and co-teaching going on. Also, it is assumed
that I am going to start an afterschool English club.

A third part of my assignment is to work on the English proficiency of
the community. I am supposed to create opportunities for
speaking/practicing English in my community. My answer to this has
been to start a beginner’s English class for the adults in Chimurria.
We start this Monday.

A fourth part of my assignment, and this is what I am most interested
in, is to work alongside community members on other, sustainable,
non-English related projects. The trouble is, with all the demands
that goals 1, 2, and 3 have on my time, I am worried that I won’t be
able to be able to commit myself to any substantial, meaningful, and
capacity-building projects. Right now my non-English community
activities are not substantial, sustainable, or capacity building. I
am worried about that.

I wrote about the kid’s art workshop I taught. It was
fun, and I am glad I did it, but I'm not sure how high it it would rank in
a substainial, sustainable, or capacity building competition. Another
non-English related project that I’m working on right now also falls
into the entertaining kids category. Once every year my little town
throws a party. A yearly community party is almost obligatory in my
part of rural Costa Rica. All the communities have one, and it is the
event of the year. People have been talking about this party since I
got here in early December, and the party isn’t until the last week in
March. It lasts for four or five days, and there is music, dancing,
bull riding competitions, food, and general festiveness. I wish I had
a digital map to put on this blog to give perspective to the
importance of the party in my town. In Chimurria there are 3
community places: 1) the community center, which is just a big room,
with a kitchen and storage shed on the outside. 2) a soccer field with
2 sets of bleachers. And 3) the bull fighting ring. The bull fighting
ring they use once a year for the party.

This year’s party, the town council decided to try something new. For one of the five days of the party, they are going to have a kids day. For Kids Day they are going to have a clown, two piñatas, prizes to give away to the kids, and the town council asked me if I could help plan it. They thought to ask me for help with the party mostly because of the
success of the kid’s art workshop. During one of the days of the art
workshop, I painted the kids faces. The kids LOVED having their faces
painted. Many of them had told me that they had never had their faces
painted before, and that they had always wanted to have their face
painted. This one event made me pretty popular amongst the kids, and
the adults in the community were amazed that I knew how to paint
faces. “Where did you learn to face paint?” they asked me,
incrediously. “I think there is a clown in the next town who also
knows how to face paint, but no one knows how to do that here.” Mind
you, I am no face-painting expert. I am, in fact, bad at painting
faces. But in Chimurria there is a myth that first you must know how
to face paint before you actually do it. This myth holds true for
other skills, and learning as you go along is not yet embraced as a
learning philosophy in this little town. However, my ability to face
paint, was memorable to kids and adults alike. And my invitation to
help with the Kids Day had almost everything to do with my
demonstration of my face painting skills, and the town council wasn’t
about to let my incredible talent go wasted. They had to have me for
the Kids Day.

Of course I said I would be delighted to help out. I am
glad to help with non-English town projects, and I am all about giving
the children in Chimurria something to do. The one tragic detail is
that I will not be in Chimurria for the party. I have to go to Peace
Corps training that week, and will miss the entire event. All four to
fives of it. The training is mandatory and there is absolutely no way
out of it.

So instead of face-painting at the Kids Day, I am holding,
wait for it…a face-painting workshop. Brilliant, right? I am going
to build the face-painting capacity of the adults in Chimurria.

Somehow, instead of just being in charge of face painting,
I have been given the responsibility of planning Kids Day. I am
really disappointed that I am going to miss the entire event, but I’m
glad I can at least help out and be a part of the planning of the
fiesta.