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Published: June 24th 2006
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The bus
How we get to San Isidrio. It is a dusty/muddy road, depending on precipitation. And we all squeeze in; 3-6 to a seat. But it is fun! 9-22-06
So yeah this week I was a teacher in a school 15 minutes outside of the capital of Managua. The kids are awesome, and really know how to get down. (Check out some of the pictures if you don´t believe me.) They learn how to dance like when they are 3. Anyway, I also took the time to write more insightful observations about the children I met.
The Youth: I really love the students… of course I do. One, Janet who is 16, wants to be a doctor. We always talk after class. Another friend, Fatima, who is 27 years old, has come to the Fabretto Center to learn English. I think that she is smart and intelligent for sitting in the class with many teenagers. We should all wish upon ourselves and our friends this kind of bravery to break out of comfort zones and to defy convention in order to improve oneself. Fatima had an extra worksheet today that I thought she had gotten from Mike. Nope, she has other sources, and is studying on her own. Today I taught her about the future tense and about the contraction won’t. Wow, if I could teach
Baile Folklorico
Janet is dancing the Marimba. her one-on-one. No wonder those Spanish student teachers must get great satisfaction. Niels, who is 15, wants to be an accountant, and he goes to special accounting classes on Saturday, in addition to coming to the Fabretto center, which is already on top of attending the public high school. Nicaragua, there is hope, and it is in your youth who are working hard to take advantage of all the opportunity that there is in the country… whether or not the government provides it. (Which ideologically and politically speaking, I, of course, think more funds from Nicaragua’s government should go to education.)
I have never seen how clearly education, even in (maybe especially in) a developing country can be a sure next step for a professional development.
But as I was told today, for every 100 kids with a positive outlook and great goals, five will go on to the university level. Opportunities are scarce for those who cannot afford to pay 500/month. Nicaragua does not have the advanced loan program that the United States has.
When I asked Ana, one of Fabrettos Becadas (scholarship receiver), who is a 17 year old first year student studying communications at
El Palo de Mayo
Check out this girl´s moves. She is probably 3 years old, and dances way better than everyone I know back home! the University of Nicaragua about the economic standings of the average UNICA student, she told me that most of the students that attend classes are rich. I didn’t follow along that path, but instead asked about her transition from spending her whole life in the small and remote town of Cusmapa to the relative metropolitan settlement of Managua. She answered saying her friends all cried, but she has made plenty of new friends here in Managua. She checked her email today and got 2 messages from her friends in Cusmapa. Ana comes back to the San Isidrio school to teach music giving recorder lessons (Recorders are the plastic wind instruments that look like clarinets). She originally learned music while attending Fabretto’s music program in Cusmapa. The music education is a self-sustaining ever growing circle of culture. That is very exciting!
Religion: Religion is taken seriously at the school. The children here in San Isidrio are really raised correctly. They are so respectful; to teachers, to each other, and to religious customs. The children are hardly supervised, but I have yet to see a fight, or see another kid make another one cry. I am sure that it can
La musica
These guys were just playing a song, but the little fellow under the marimba had the best seat in the house. happen, but they all just seem so well behaved when I compare them to what I think of when I think of a large group of young kids from the US. Of course this could be lack of hours and hours of violent television, or maybe I am biased against US children’s behavior, thinking that it is worse than it generally is, just because I grew up as a kid in the US, and I know what we all were thinking and actually doing. But maybe, just maybe, it really has to do with how they are taught to be giving and loving individuals. Most likely by their parents, and with the conscious model of an ever loving God. Maybe.
Personally, myself, I am happy to be a Christian and to be seeing all this joy. I may be unclear of Fabretto’s official stance on its relationship with religion, but on the ground, it’s presence is strong, and respectfully taught. The teachers led a trip of some students to a local dump where many families go to pick trash, searching for food they can eat, as well as for anything that they might be able to sell - from recyclable material to many things I couldn’t even think of. Eliza, a fellow Gtown SFSr, and I were lucky enough to hear some of the reflection on the experience. They felt bad for the children, and then gave thanks for the extra opportunity that they have for education and food, praying for their daily bread. I guess the difference is that they didn’t mention the need to pray for the other children, just the facts that the children should give thanks for what they have. This is different. I wonder if it is because the children already have so much hard ship, that what they really needed to learn from a trip like that is that they do have much, especially when it seems like they could be at the bottom of the world. But the reflection, which was guided by the professors, seems a bit incomplete after thinking about it. Then again, the children aren’t directed to pray for anyone else at any other time, it may be a religious difference.
Religion part II: I was a Spanish Conquistador today, along with a church group from Cleavland, Ohio. They brought 300 copies of the New Testament in Spanish, and wanted to not just give them to the kids, but to distribute them during class, ask the kids to write their name in a list on a piece of paper, and then to read 4 bible passages together. The kids seemed to appreciate the Bibles, but it was just wrong the way that the volunteers barged into class without even asking the teachers. They really treated the teachers as if they were lesser people by just walking into the classes. They didn’t even knock. Well, it went okay. I translated for them, I said what they asked me to say for the kids, we read together in Spanish. The passages were good. Everything went OK.
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anonymous
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Amanda, You dont know me, I'm a friend of your dad's, who by the way is quite incredibly proud of you! But you probably already know that. I just wanted to comment and tell you what a incredibly fantastic job I think you're doing and to keep up the good work. Thank you for doing this blog because its all quite interesting. You're a remarkable young woman........Cathy