La Buena Onda

La Buena Onda was my hostel of choice for Matagalpa. It was one that I booked from Leon and boy was I happy with my decision. As I read in reviews, this place was rated as a hotel. It was super clean with a  nice courtyard, a flat screen T.V. with DVd selection, nice food options for breakfast and snacks, decorated rooms/huge bathrooms, hammocks, rocking chairs, and a nice balcony.  All at the whopping $7 a night (the price of a Subway sandwich meal).  This was the happening place for travelers and there were a couple big groups. One from USA and the other  bgroup from France. I didn’t take much interest in the groups, but there were some nice solo travelers to get to know.

The best two girls were working at the front desk.  The one girl was 18 years old and stuck in a shell (Project 1).  She was too afraid to speak with English guests because she had fear they would laugh at her English (common fear).  It was so cute as she would always hang out near me to talk.  Sometimes she would not initiate conversation, but she would just come close to my space-to my spirit.  She loved having someone to talk with about her life and dreams. She loved Math science and dreamed of being an Engineer.  Noone took the time to just hear her speak, to listen, to smile, and let her know her dreams are possible. Many of these travelers have the ability to travel the world, they have the knowledge, the skills, and they don’t share it except with other travelers. How does that make sense when someone local needs much more. They are curious as could be wondering about YOUR life. They love to hear your stories, experiences, passions-share it with them. It’s not just me who has the ability to listen and respond-it’s not.

Tourists are not expected to sit and practice English for realistic situations of the hostel. Priscilla had the duty to help this girl face her fear with English-to give her homework, reading assignments, and suggestions on movies/ videos with lyrics, and to challenge her day by day.  The tourists could just have a few simple questions and listen a bit more, but this is not required of them. I spent time working with her because she demonstrated motivation and a desire to learn English. The one tourist thought I was an employee because I was spending time with her. Why would a tourist spend time with a local teaching her?

When teaching her, she soaked up what I said like a sponge and retained it perfectly.  It’s like she had just been waiting for a good teacher to come along.  She was such a sweet girl who just wanted what every other 18 year old had in life. 

One day, I instructed her go up to the group and ask them “What are your plans for tomorrow?” They were totally nice and friendly (many tourists might be clueless, but most are nice and respectful to staff).  That moment was precious to me and she came back with a confidence. She continued to practice a few more conversations independent of my instruction! 

These moments are the ones that make my purpose worth it.  They light up my spirit and make me thankful I spent this time with her instead of watching a movie, writing, or reading a book.  This is a human life I am impacting. There is nothing better than that-nothing.

Case Number 2

The other girl was around my age and had two children.  She lived in USA for ten years, therefore, her English was absolutely perfect.  She shared with me all her struggles on Day 1(very common for my daily work).  We brainstormed how to make things work as she had no one to babysit her kids and she had enough money for just 3 days a week.  The owners(Netherland and local woman) were not really too accommodating or helpful with her taking off work. They were already pretty patient with her schedule changes. She was just a single mother trying to do everything on her own and my heart went out to her.

One day she mentioned her son was sick and home alone. She was so worried and I could tell she was a good mother. This made me want to help her. Her house was only two blocks from the hostel so I offered to go over there to check on him.  She was so happy and thankful.  For me, it was just something to do of service.

When I hear someone in need, it’s my job to try and help them or assist them in finding a solution.  It’s just the nature of the work from up above. Again, people don’t understand the reasoning, but we do. We get it. 

 

Good Bye

Magic of Reading

When it comes to reading, the human impact is endless.  When one reads to a child, there is opportunity to teach, connect, share, learn, laugh, and language building. Reading promotes literacy, but it also provides a time of growth. Children who are learning a new language are given the space to ask questions about pronunciation, characters in the story, how to enunciate, and connect visuals with the language. Conversation is one of the best ways to learn, but reading is also a powerful, powerful tool.

Reading is powerful on it's own, but it can receive an extra boost with the teacher. Do you remember being a teacher and having someone read to you or with you? What was that experience like? Was it rewarding? Was it boring? Did you fall asleep midway? 

People may believe that reading a story is easy, but there is a magic to storytelling. In Morocco, storytelling is a gift- a gift that has been passed down from generation to generation. These people hold such passion for their stories and they share them with enthusiasm, wit, humor, and love. It's a form of entertainment and excitement for those participating.  Having passion for a story can create this extra boost to one's reading.  Of course, just reading books in a classroom is a bit less exciting, but that excitement that the Moroccan storytellers hold can be transferred to the classroom. When people have that passion, that is when magic happens.  Children get excited about reading and learning something new.  It's already hard enough learning a new language so why not make it fun?

Therefore, there are two different types of teachers. Those who are reading to satisfy and those who are reading to get it done.  Of course, reading can be boring if you don't make it fun, take appropriate breaks, and answer questions effectively. When you read to satisfy-you are reading to make the child feel satisfied with their experience, you keep them awake, and give the extra effort.  When a child acts how to enunciate a word, you have them repeat it until they get it.  When a story is connecting to something of real life, you ask further questions to practice their English(or new language). When there is an animal on a page, you ask "What sound does that animal make," when a child looks disengaged or bored you take over reading for a bit and rebuild the excitement, when you see them struggling with a word you have them repeat it and at the end you review the word(s) again. It's not easy being a great reader, but it can be learned with practice and positive efforts. Don't just read to read, but read to satisfy, read to feed the brain.

As far as the reading at the schools. It seems like such a simple thing to do, but it's truly a beautiful when it's done right.  When you make the teacher smile, when staff is learning from you, when ten children all gather around in a bus seat to hear you read, and when you encourage others to read.  It's refreshing to see a child enunciate, to see a child ask about a word, to see a child identify a color, to a see a child's interests whether in science, history, or geography. 

These children were age 7-12 with bright minds and great potential. 

Reading should leave you inspired. Empowered to learn your language of choice. Satisfied with Self.  Interested in the next chapter. And belief in the beauty of storytelling...PRIS 

Believe in Me Summer Camp

When you work with children, you gain experience each and every time.  You know what exercises and activities are a hit and when students can handle a challenge. It was my mission to make sure everyone was participating and at least putting in some effort.  Kids were often seeking my praise, which increased their motivation and interest in learning.   

Overall, the camp was quite successful with the kids and the community.  Local parents, teachers, the pastor, and others responded very well to my work and dedication to the community.  Each day things were hectic and some days were better than others, but with teamwork we achieved our goal. 

With the help of a few parents and And it was the amazing commitment from Mrs. Ravel, which made things come together with short notice.  

There was plenty to do in the daytime between the 50 to 100 students in attendance, meetings with parents, and community outreach.  It was my responsibility to plan all the activities and it was Mrs. Ravel's responsibility to get the kids to show up.  This required going around the community and reminding everyone of the camp.  Each morning we started with a song followed by aerobics. The activities following involved therapeutic and psycho-educational verbal exercises and games. It required some serious creativity tailoring exercises for the age 4 to 13 age group.






We planned to split them up, but the volunteers partially showed up.  And with our limited resources, we had to limit the materials we used.  I did go to the store with Mrs. Ravel to purchase a few things, but supplies in Belize are limited and super expensive.  There are only a couple stores that sell arts and crafts and they sell $7 crayons-it's ridiculous. How do these poor people afford anything.

When we walked in, I was like, "Um this is it?" 

She said, "Yes, welcome to Belize."

 "Um, isn't there just a dollar store or some discount store?" 

"This is it." 

With that said, I bought a beach ball and some other fun and easy activities with balloons. I was advised to not purchase anything, but I went against the hierarchy.  I had been advised to not purchase anything for the program-not one thing. 

With this community, the kids were very respectful saying, "No Maam" and "Yes Maam." When it came to me assigning leaders to tasks or asking for helpers, they could not have been more eager. When activities were starting and ending, there were always kids cleaning up-sweeping the floor, pushing in chairs, and picking up papers.  From their upbringing, they help out at home and are taught to respect their teachers and adults.  



As far as the older kids, ages 8 to 12, they were open to discuss their feelings and share their experiences.  I always have this close connection with boys and these group of 6 to 8 boys were fantastic. They were so kind, polite, we worked and we had fun together. We had a mutual respect and with this we met our goals while having fun and enjoying activities. Their biggest challenge was working together as a team and making compromises.  They were encouraged to push through activities they did not want to complete together and they learned a dose of patience.

Mrs. Ravel would say, "Priscilla they don't know anything about teamwork."

 I would say, "Well now is the time to learn."

That is the whole point of my presence to challenge them and help them learn better social skills, listening, teamwork, and coping.  
With Priscilla's  therapy, there is always some skill being practiced even when they don't believe it.  
                                   Jump!

                         Pris morning workout 

Musical chairs

                                  Deyra 

\

Herbert 

]

Mrs. Ravel´s kids I adored

Singing Jesus songs in the Church

Bracelet making 

Our two wonderful volunteers

Brother and Sister

Feeling Exercises 

They won the Scavenger Hunt

Favorite Little Boy 

Favorite boys 

Soccer with Rock nets

Volleyball

Sponge Relay Reward 

The Teamwork Train

The Hardest Part

  

     

  

The Hardest part is not the work, but the hardest part is saying good bye. It's a short time you build connections, you make people feel good, you listen to them, you challenge them, you empower them, and then you leave. It's why organizations encourage you to volunteer for longer periods of time. Sometimes you can be "hurting" rather than "helping" a community when you come for such short time with no goals and just a strong desire to "help people." This is not enough to make an organization grow rather it's just temporary work to satisfy your own self rather than benefit the actual organization. 

As a clinical therapist for years, social worker, life coach- I am aware of the positives and negatives with working short term in an organization. With hard work and dedication to making a difference, there can also be amazing seeds planted for the community or even for new volunteers.

As a human being, I made the choice to make the most impact possible per organization.  With a short time of 2 weeks per organization in each country, I made a community and or clinical assessment on what needed to be done and I did it.  Instead of just "volunteering", I made a commitment to leave something permanent at each organization whether full behavioral reports, rewards systems, power point trainings, and full efforts with staff and clients working to my potential  . It was me leaving something useful for them rather than just playing with some kids and walking out the door like many volunteers.

With these short term connections, it becomes difficult to leave. When you are working with preschoolers and young children, it becomes even more difficult to leave. With the preschoolers, they don't always understand why I am leaving and they look at me funny. You get the questions, "Where are you going?" "Why are you leaving?" One student even said, "Can I come with you?" I joke that I will just take everyone with me and we will all take a big bus together and travel through Guatemala.  I will feed them fruit and lots of ice cream.  We will all be content with each others company not in need of another intellectual to give us their directives.  It's just a dream I mentioned and the teachers absolutely love this idea. There is no harm in a perfect dream.  

In reality, I have to leave to go to the next project, which was organized ahead of time. It's not an option to stay longer when I made a commitment to another NGO.  Organizations like Mayan Families with clients and a community who touch my heart-saying goodbye is the hardest part.  While the teacher did make an announcement, many children don't actually comprehend what is happening and leaving my favorite clients is difficult.  

In my case, the teacher made an announcement and many kids ran up to say Goodbye. My favorite client and my little learner, Angel, looked surprised to hear me leaving and he didn't look content. It made me sad to see his little brown eyes look like a puppy dog. Me encanta el!  This little munchkin was walking to the door waving his little hand. It continued to waive out the door as he was walking with his father. We just kept waiving at each other until distance was lost- difficult, but life keeps moving and more clients keep coming.

The teachers were so sweet and thankful saying I was the best of everyone in Mayan Families. It is so sweet that they recognize my work and my commitment to people-that's a wonderful connection.  It was truly a blessed experience and I would definitely consider visiting again and potentially working with the indigenous community. 

With beautiful communities comes people who carry your heart into a distance, which brings you closer to a better tomorrow .  -PRIS-