Peace Day

September 21st was international Peace Day. Personally, I think that having just one day out of 365 being devoted to peace seems absurd (I also feel this way about mother’s day, international women’s day, African American history month). But, if Peace was getting a day, I was going to jump on the bandwagon to do something extra-special for Peace. When September started I had a vision of evolving Peace Day into Peace Month. I was inspired by one of my best PCV friends, Kelsey, who was planning something similar in her site.

I give a weekly English class in my community, and I thought it would be a great vessel to execute my Peace Month plan. The English classes are a little less than 2 hours long. So my plan was for the entire month of September to devote the last half of each lesson to an activity that promoted and encouraged peace. I’ve been in somewhat of a Peace Corps rut these days, and I was going to use Peace Day as a way to introduce a new series of activities, a new short lived project, into my life. I needed a way to reenergize myself, and I had found my metaphorical cup of coffee.

The first Monday of September I go to my community center ready to launch my first Peace Month lesson. Wrong. I go to my community center only to find it flooded from the day’s downpour. A few of my students and I spent the entire class time sweeping water out of a giant building.

This is not the first time we’ve had to do this, so I’m only a little surprised. However, I am pretty bummed that my shiny new project literally got rained on. I save my lesson plan for another day, and head home to eat my rice and beans. At least I taught the value of respecting community space and pride in community through the cleaning of the community center. Right? Well, that’s how I spun the evening to myself in order to go to sleep a little less sad about the postponing of Peace Month.

Enter the second Monday of September. I had my same lesson plan all ready to go, I was a little less excited, but still looking forward to the opportunity to talk about peace. So I get to my recently cleaned community center early. I always get there a little early to give myself time to prepare. I started setting up. I set up. I wait, and wait. My students collectively show up over a half an hour late. Because we missed last Monday we had to review a lot, there were more questions, we had less time, and we never got to the Peace Month activity half of the lesson. I put the lesson plan back in my bag, and went home to eat my rice and beans. At least my students still came, even if it was half an hour late. I went to bed a little sad that Peace Month was dwindling down to Peace 2 weeks, but satisfied with the material we had covered in class.

Enter the third Monday of September. I arrive at the center. It’s not flooded (good sign). So I unlock the doors, turn on the lights, and set up for class. And wait for my students to arrive. Only three students show up. This is the lowest turn out I’ve ever had for a class. I have a solid group of 8 that come to class regularly. I was a bit disheartened that my students had decided to skip, but glad for the ones that showed up. Low turn out rates is a common phenomenon in Peace Corps land, especially in small communities like mine where there are only 500 people to work with. Not everyone is interested, has time, is brave enough to leave their house, etc. I’ve become less bothered by numbers, and try to focus on the quality of my programs. If I have a really great class with three students, that means that I got to reach three different people. (But sometimes it is hard to quiet the over-achiever voice that demands higher numbers-- tragically I’ve found that I have internalized the “more-is-better” mantra of US culture, as much as I wish it wasn’t so, and it is something that I constantly battle with.)

So, with my three students, we sat down and had a discussion about peace. We talked about what it meant to have peace for the world, for their country, for their community, and for themselves. They were quick to point out that their country doesn’t have an army. Costa Rica solves its international problems diplomatically, without arms. We talked about how that could be a lesson we could each apply to our lives as individuals, that we could learn to drop our weapons and talk about our problems. The discussion went over pretty well- especially considering the participants were a 4^th grade girl, a 6^th grade boy, and a 10^th grade boy. After the discussion we designed “peace doves.” I had cut out the outline of a dove a flying, and asked each student to write a peaceful message on each dove, and then decorate it as they wanted. I had over estimated our “peace dove” needs, and had extra doves. The kids loved decorating their doves, and each wanted to do multiple doves. One of my student’s parents came in the class towards the end and got pretty excited about the doves. She made three different ones and started talking to the kids about peace, and what peace means to her. It was the most parent involvement I’ve ever had in any of my classes. It was so awesome and spontaneous, I was grateful for her input. It was neat to see this mother participating and giving life to my Peace Day activity. After the class was over I had wanted to hang the doves in the community center, but the kids really wanted to put them on their notebooks—and our community is hosting a dance in the center next week—so they pasted their doves in their notebooks. It was a short and simple activity that was delivered two weeks late to a group of three students. I had something completely different planned in my head that what happened. I was satisfied with the activity, but in a different way than I had anticipated.

In a way, this story could be a metaphor for my entire Peace Corps experience. I signed up for this journey with a plan. I thought I knew what I was getting into. I thought I knew what I would be doing. Wrong and wrong. I had no idea what was ahead of me and I’m still getting the hang of things. Yet, I can’t imagine myself doing anything else.

Independence Month

Costa Rica celebrates its independence on September 15^th (officially) but the Independence Day activities happen all month long. Today for instance, the 16^th of September, there is no school. Why? Why not!

The month starts with “civic week” where schools across the nation have morning assemblies under certain patriotic themes. These assemblies are called “actos civicos” or, you guessed it, “civic acts.” Teachers talk to the students about what it means to be a Costa Rican, how to be a good citizen, or whatever occurs to them. My favorite “acto civico” speech was about the dangers of cyber-bullying delivered to a group of 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders—out of the whole group only one 1^st grade girl has access to a computer (without internet). At the “actos civicos” there is a salute to the flag and 3-5 patriotic songs are sung. These songs are long, and the Spanish is so formal and antiquated that I can’t make sense of them, I just hum along.

After “civic week” is over “civic month” begins. There are still “actos civicos” every morning, but now there are nationwide holidays to celebrate, as well. The first is the “running of the torch.” Every year on September 13^th the “running of the torch” begins. The run starts up on the Nicaraguan border where a torch is passed from the Nicaraguans to the Costa Ricans. The Costa Ricans take the torch and the torch travels from town to town until it reaches the Panamanian border. The torch represents the light/hope/knowledge of independence.

September 14^th there is a lantern parade at night. School children and their parents make paper lanterns. Everyone gathers at the school grounds for an “acto civico” and then they all light their lanterns and walk around the community.

September 15^th is the official Independence Day celebration. In Upala there is a parade! Everyone meets up at the high school for the mandatory “acto civico” and then the parade begins. School bands and dance troupes, police officers, and fire fighters march through the city. The parade ends at the park (which is where I went to watch it). In the park gazebo a man with giant speaker announces each group that walks by. After the groups reach the end of the parade route they go to the basketball court to perform their act one last time.

Independence Day/Month is a huge event. Groups practice intensely for the parade, kids work hard on their paper lanterns, and teachers work hard on trying to find relevant things to say for all the “actos civicos” that take place.