la vida de Emily: Yes I actually work!

It recently occurred to me while talking to a friend on the phone, [She strait up asked are you actually doing any work] that I haven't actually dedicated any time here to say what I'm actually doing work wise here. Of course I'm working, sometimes 6 days a week. I guess that I haven't dedicated any time to it , because I didn't know if anybody would actually find it that interesting, and I kind of felt like once I wrote about it, its like a one time shot and I could never write about it again. But I am assuming I'm wrong on both accounts, so here goes...

Wow this is way harder to explain then I though I have written and erased like 5 times now, maybe this was the real reason I was avoiding writing this. As I explained earlier (I think) I have 2 counterparts is with a NGO which is a Guardaria and the other is with the school district of Choluteca my contact being the superintendent.

My schedule is supposed to be I work with the Guardaria Monday through Wednesday and the Distrital Thursday and Friday. That has not actually happened yet in the 2 months that I have been working here thus far. Stuff changes here daily, and you have to remind people of stuff 50 times and that does not mean that its actually going to happen at that date or time.

You can see how this might be a little wearing on a control-freak, workaholic like myself ;) To help myself deal with this problem each month I compile a list of things that I have actually accomplished. It especially helps on those days that I go into the office and I'm not sure what it is I am accomplishing in that moment. Its not like being a full time teacher and knowing you are going to teach something specific and measurable each day.

So Here's What I have actually done so far (Sorry that some is in Spanglish & Spanish- and Im not really up to translating)

Month: October

Accomplishments/Quantifiable work

· Presentation / introduction (about me, PC, and future collaboration activities): all of the asistentes tecnicos, 3 sub meeting of asistentes (around 60 principals/directores), all the teachers at the guardaria

· Hand washing charla- whole group at the guardaria (7-17 year olds) 2 presentations to kinder classes at the guardaria.

· Autoestima/ self-esteem charla- 3^rd through high schoolers (yo merezco curriculium)

· Merienda escolar & Redes educativas- assisted presentación escuela rural

· Training: center based instruction- guardaria teachers

· Translation- of letters for sponsors (guardaria)

· Flood relief- assisted passing out supplies and wrote formal report and documented damage to send to sponsor organizations (video, photos, report). Guardaria

· Disaster response plan (World Vision, UNICIEF, Distrital) Translated checklists for emergency educational kits, helped create action plan for kit implementation, tech support.

· Attended science fair at local high school (Distrital)

· Participated on Choluteca birthday parade (Distrital)

· Facilitated games during canceled class rain days

· Red de Mujeres- taller de género (attended)

· Attended training and helped with multiple presentations on the “ley de tranparencia”

· Attended and observed 2 meetings of the Choltueca Comite Civico

· Yo Merezco- began program, co-teaching lead presenter on Wednesday

Supported other volunteers requests for resources and information on teaching methods

November Work

So Far

· Capacitaciónes:

1. Pistas de implementación de centros de aprendizaje y Oportunidad de crear materiales

2. Como identificar estudiantes que necesitan ayuda

a. Ideas para evaluar las necesidades y practica

b. Escuchando

c. Lectura

d. Escritura

3. Usando el data de los evaluaciones para desarrollar metas y actividades para mejorar

4. Introducción de uso de computadoras: funciones básicas y usando el data show

· Yo Merezco

o Clase de abstinencia

o Clase de autoestima

· Attended: Capacitaciones sobre el nuevo censo de docentes y el nuevo sistema de digitalizar data de graduación. Asistí a presentar información en una junta de un asistente técnico

· Entrevista en canal 27 sobre becas y mi trabajo en Choluteca

· Presentación de becas semillas para jóvenes y un sesión de apoyo de llenar las formas

· Asistí en una brigada dental con asistentes de distrital (2 doctoras) presentación de salud bucodental, practica de cepillar los dientes y un tratamiento de flúor.

· Presentación de cepillar los dientes practica y tratamiento de flúor en un jardín de niños (yo sola = sin doctoras)

· Presentación: Becas semillas para docentes (ppt)

· Asistió sellando miles de diplomas y certificados finales en el distrital

· Translaciones

o Cartas para estudiantes, y maestros para/de padrinos

o Correos electrónicos y informes a ONG quien apoyan la guardaría

The most clear and consistent thing that I have been doing is a weekly teacher training at the Guardaria, and a abstinence class with 5th and 6th grade girls. So when I have down time at work I am usually prepping for these two activities. Once the new school year starts in February I am supposed to start with English teacher classes which will add lots of work and I hope consistency as well. More details to come about that later.

As for other stuff that has been going on. There has been a flood of celebrations going on aka lots of cake: Host mom's birthday, host mom's finance's birthday, host aunts birthday, confirmation, graduation, wedding...

The top 3 ways to know you are at a wedding in Honduras (taken from my recent experience)

1. The invitation says a start time of 6:30 but the bride doesn't actually enter the church until 8:15

2. You are asked to carry your chair from the church to the reception. Then scramble to get a table (no assigned seats)

3. The wedding party [bridesmaids & groomsmen] are the servers (they bring you dinner and drinks and collect your trash).

Yeah this stuff would NEVER go down in a American wedding

Here's some party pictures for your enjoyment!