FBT in Baja Verapaz

This past week, the youth development training group traveled to BajaVerapaz for our field-based training. The first few days, we stayed ina quiet little village high in the mountains. We traveled for hours on a one-and-a-half-lane bumpy dirt road that snaked around the mountainsides to get there. At one point near the end of the trip, we lookedout our van down the mountainside and spotted a deceased camioneta (public bus) that had obviously lost control and tumbled halfway downthe ravine to be abandoned there.

After this long, peligroso journey,we were surprised to find a thriving village with a picturesque town center and many little tiendas. It was in a lovely place, nested in mountains amidst the clouds, manteled in tropical forests.We were there for the first few days, staying in a hotel with running water and cable (luxury!). As much as I love my family, it was very nice to get away and have some independence and spend time with the other people in my training group. We even got to have a pajama party in one of the rooms, with Little Miss Sunshine, beverages, and a lot of laughing. It was also exciting to visit the volunteers in the area, see where they live and work, and hear about their lives. It made it seem more real, and I began to feel very excited for when I´m at last in my site, on my own, and beginning the real work.

The first three days, I had to co-teach three charlas, so I began every day with a knot in my stomach that didn´t go away until the charla got over in the late afternoon. We taught the first two in a classroom of about 50 students. It was a wonderful class, very engaged and participatory. After the first day, we took them outside to playgames for about a half hour (including one that they suggested that turned out to be a kissing game... which we didn´t realize until a boy strode up to my compañera and kissed her on the cheek). When wefinished our second class, the kids surrounded us, begging us not to leave and asking us about the States. It was cool to feel a connection with them, despite my bad Spanish.

The second classroom was about the complete opposite. Even though there were only 20 kids, it was much more challenging. When we asked questions, they simply stared at us and refused to speak. We hadto randomly call on them to get any kind of participation, and even when we stopped to play a game, they did it half-heartedly. We´ve been warned that we will undoubtedly have classrooms like that, since mostGuatemalan schools (especially telesecundarias) involve an extremely passive teaching style. Basically, the kids copy stuff down and read from a text book, and have no need for critical thinking. But it´sgoing to be hard when our curriculum depends on discussion and interaction. Hopefully it just gets easier.