WE´RE GOING TO SING A SONG!!!

A seminar in English, the first day of school, and presentations to the community about my first 2 projects. That´s what has been going on this past week. Yes, I FINALLY have determined what I will be working on!! Oh, and my family took some good photos when they were here that illustrate some things they were wondering about. They´re on Snapfish. Click on "View Photos" on the right and then choose "12/05 Family Visit" to view them. They have captions.

Why this is the toughest job I´ll ever love...
Last week, I attended a 3 day workshop in English. Each of us (volunteers) were allowed to take 1-2 people from our community to learn about new creative ways to teach English. We met in the Peace Corps office in San Salvador and another volunteer, Jared, asked me, "So, who are you going to take to the workshop?" I said, "Well, I´m bringing 2 people that are REALLY energetic. I mean, REALLY..." We took a private bus to Playa Pimental, a beach in the state of La Paz, and arrived at this GORGEOUS hotel right on the beach. It had tons of greenery, animals, hammocks, pools, etc. We couldn´t believe how nice it was!

Anyway, we started the sessions, which were all very informative. But in the afternoon, there was one session that was incredibly boring. Anyway, people were falling asleep, drawing, text messaging, etc. So, one of the community members that I brought, Mauricio, stood up in the middle of the session and just started running around the room screaming, "WE´RE GOING TO SING A SONG!! WHEN I SAY YES, YOU SAY NO! YES!" Silence. With everyone in the room just staring at him. I mean, there was no warning. Nothing. Just standing up and screaming and running around the room. But my goodness. He had everyone in that room shouting by the end of it. He just kept running around, jumping, and yelling until everyone was responding. I was laughing SO hard; I had tears rolling down my face. And I looked over at Jared, the volunteer who had asked me who I was bringing, and he just looked at me and shook his head. Later he told me, "Michelle, I never thought I´d meet someone more energetic than you. But you´ve managed to find someone." And I said, "I´m not even in the same CATEGORY as Mauricio!!" Of course, each day after the sessions ended, there were bonfires, there was karaoke, dancing, lots of talking and laughing, etc. And, of course, Mauricio stealing the show with his one-man acts at every turn. At the beginning of the conference, everyone was saying, "Oh, and where are you from?...Oh, you´re with Michelle..." and by the end, I was asked, "Where is your site again?...Oh, you´re with MAURICIO." To which I was responding, "No...he´s with ME!!" :) Anyway, our group was definitely memorable for everyone. There is just a glimpse into the craziness that ensued for the 3 days. I woke up Friday, the day after the conference ended, and felt like CRAP. Nausea, diarrhea,...everything. So I just stayed inside all day. But around 7, Mauricio came to my house and told me that he had to talk, so I reluctantly listened.

He said:

I went to work today and everyone was saying, "We haven´t seen you in so long. You look tired. What´s going on?" And so I explained that we went to the English workshop and I was learning how to better teach English. And the director said, "Really? We´re looking for someone to teach English to the security workers and janitors at MetroCentro (the big mall) in Sonsonate. Are you interested?" I showed them my diploma and met with the MetroCentro director in Sonsonate and now I have another job!! I´m going to be teaching 2 hours a week, 2 days a week, for 2 months and they´re going to pay me $300 per month!! Michelle, can you believe that?? And I can keep my regular job, too! For the first time in my life, I feel like I´m going to be doing something that is EXACTLY what I want to be doing! And I have you to thank for it! You´ve changed my life and I just want to say thank you.

Wow. What do you say to THAT??!! It was amazing. The guy that is ALWAYS joking about stuff, always on stage. To hear him say that, in total seriousness, beaming at me because he was so excited. THAT is what Peace Corps is all about.


Inauguration...
For the first day of school here, which starts in January and runs through mid-November, they have "inauguration", where the director and some keynote speakers are heard and teachers are introduced. All of the students go to the high school and listen to all of this, and that is their first day. Not much to report on this...just interesting to attend.


My work plan...finally!
Ok. Everyone and their brother has been asking, "So what do you DO there??" So, now that I feel like I know the community and have been able to identify things that the community needs, I have decided that I´m going to start with 2 major projects: (1) a community effort to teach/learn English, and (2) creating a technology committee that will bring Internet to the community (with smaller projects that include getting a computer lab in the school, etc.).

So, this week, I´ve given presentations to various community groups about these 2 plans and how I came to decide on them, and why I think they´re important for the community, and what the heck they are. (Everyone has HEARD of Internet, but most people have NO idea what it is.) The most memorable presentation occurred at the ADESCO meeting (like a city council meeting). I had a PowerPoint presentation all ready to describe Internet and its benefits, etc. And, of course, the laptop decided that the monitor needed to stop working. So...after 30 minutes of messing around to try to fix it, I gave up. So much for the "computers are so easy to use" speech. Anyway, I ended up just talking about it, using my body as the visual aid to describe how it worked. And I was pretty nervous. I was thinking, "These people are going to say, ´We don´t need that here!´" So, at the end, I said, "So, I´ve started to develop a technology committee, and it´s pretty important that there is a representative from this group. So, does anyone have an interest in joining?" And EVERY SINGLE PERSON wanted to be on it!! I was like, "YES!!!" Just another example of how AWESOME my community is!! We´re going to receive a presentation in a couple of weeks with 3-5 options of how we can get Internet in San Isidro, and I´m going to ask this group to develop a plan to make it happen (select which option is best, figure out how to build an Internet cafe, etc.) Anyway, I´m PSYCHED about this project!! And yesterday, the director of the school and I went to the Ministry of Education to formally request a computer lab in the school. He wrote the formal request and I made some edits and added the Internet and how we wanted to use it as a second informational page. After the meeting, the director said, "Well, I can tell you that the decision is going to be made in the next couple of months as to which schools are going to receive these labs, and I´d say you have a 90-95% chance of getting one." AWESOME!! And if you want to know about the English project, let me know. I can talk about it in future postings. This one is getting pretty long...


And finally, the thing that has made me laugh the most this week
(well, besides Mauricio running around the room screaming at the English teachers)...
I received a Christmas card yesterday from the president of my old company. It took a month to get here, but I got it! Anyway, the letter inside started out, "Can you believe it? The last Christmas letter I sent out was in 1993..." Yeah. I don´t even want to think about what that means in terms of when I´ll receive the promised recommendation letter from him...or what it´s going to say!


Ok. That´s it for me right now...