18 August, 2008

Plans and promises

August has felt a lot like starting over here in Las Marias. After being gone or busy for most of July, including a wonderful trip back to the U.S., it is nice to get back and get some work done. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that great of a homecoming. I arrived back at my house to find that someone had broken in while I was gone and made off with a good deal of my stuff, including my camera, so unfortunately I won’t be posting anymore pictures. It was a tough blow, especially because I had been using the camera for my research efforts, but the community has been very sympathetic and offered very heartfelt apologies; everyone seems to think that it reflects badly on them personally. My landlord is putting bars over the windows to make the house safer, and all my neighbors have been on high alert ever since I’ve been back, but so far no one has any leads on who the culprit may be.

My boss from Peace Corps came out and helped me give a workshop to my teachers. It was a bit stressful having to plan an entire day’s worth of activities, but the workshop was a success, and I think everyone learned a lot and had a good time as well. That, plus a whole box full of books that First Pres of Elgin sent down, has put bumped up my street credit around the school, where up until this month I have kind of been feeling like someone that the teachers just put up with.
I’m pretty sad that the school year is almost over, as we are entering our final quarter, and school will be out for vacations after the second week in October until January.

In response to some pretty diligent requests on the part of a group of guys that works for one of the coffee fincas (think plantation when you read this word), I have started a small English course that meets Tuesday and Thursday nights. I’m thinking of it as kind of a pilot program; if I do alright as a teacher, I’ll probably start offering some more classes as my schedule allows because people have been asking me to teach English since I got here. The bottle project is going well, but I am still not sure if we will have enough bottles by the end of the year to actually build a bodega. Everything else is just kind of trucking along… life is busy and good. I’ll be going up to visit a friend’s site on Wednesday to help her give a workshop to her teachers about trash management lessons, so that should be fun, but other than that, not much new to report. I hope everyone’s getting the most out of the end of summer and that those of you going back to school have a good start. More soon, Peace.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

sorry to hear about the thief, bud. I hope the person is caught. Keep up the great work and take care Kyle!