Advertisement
Published: November 13th 2012
Edit Blog Post
Lesson Plans
Oscar and some of the volunteers at La Brisa Loca Hostel discussing lesson plans and ideas In the city of Santa Marta, on Colombia's Carribean coast, you can find all of the modern conveniences that we in the Western world have come to expect: bars, restaurants, shopping malls, cinemas, etc. Add to this the Carribean sea, some lovely old colonial architechture, churches, and paradisiacal beaches and lost ruins all within the nearby vicinity, and you have yourself a pretty decent backpacker destination. But if you look beyond the sun-kissed plazas and the tourist track, you will see that the city of Santa Marta has economic poverty as well as geographical riches within its vicinity. If you venture beyond the city centre and go to a district of the city misleadingly named "Oasis" then you will find the perfect example of the poverty and deprivation that plagues many of Santa Marta's residents. Past the main road and the old rail track, the paved roads stop abruptly. The old and young alike sit outside run-down shops and houses and regard us as we step out of the taxi and head towards
Mariposas Amarillas (Yellow Butterflies), a free school which Oscar Cortes first began to set up 7 years ago, to provide education to the area's children. A lack of
Walking to Mariposas
On the way to school along the unpaved roads public transport, and the low standard of education provided by the nearest "proper" school, means that many of the children do not attend a formal school. Children play in the rubbish-strewn streets as we pass, some of them without shoes to protect their feet from the rocks and dirt. A number of the children rush to great us, shouting
"Señor! Señor!"(teacher) to get our attention. Other children are already waiting outside the school building as we arrive.
Earlier that afternoon I had gone to La Brisa Loca hostel in Santa Marta where Oscar and the volunteers meet before class to exchange ideas and lesson plans, and then take a taxi together to the Oasis district. Oscar explained to me how the
Foundación Mariposas works, advising that volunteers have the option of either helping out at the school in the
Fundadores district, which runs for 4 hours in the mornings, where the classes are more formal and structured, or at
Mariposas Amarillas for 2 hours in the afternoons, which is somewhere between a formal class and an afterschool club. With my rather limited command of the Spanish language, I decided that 4 hours each day might be slightly too ambitious,
and opted to volunteer in the afternoons. The other volunteers warned me beforehand that the kids
could be a little crazy and difficult to control. It was perhaps lucky then that my first class was on a Friday, which is usually an art class, which the kids tend to be quite engaged with. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, when it comes to maths or English classes, the children are sometimes less attentive and more rowdy!)
The school building comprises 3 small rooms, so upon arrival we began laying out the plastic tables and chairs and divided the children up into seperate rooms depending on age. I helped out with the
pequeñitos (little children) with Oscar, who had prepared a lesson that allowed the children to learn shapes in a creative and interesting way, by cutting out different shapes and sticking them in such a way as to create a picture of a train. After being warned about how uncontrolled the children could sometimes be, I was pleasantly surprised to find that overall they were very well-behaved and focused. After the class we all noted this, and attributed the success of the day's lessons to both the fact that they were art, and
also to the high number of volunteers present that day, which meant that we were able to give the children individual attention. This illustrated how important it is that there are an adequate number of volunteers!
On Monday the heavy rain meant that the school could not open for class; unfortunately the streets in the Oasis district flood after heavy rains, making it too dangerous to take the classes. Luckily the rains kept away over the next couple of days, so we were able to open the school without any problems. On my final day of volunteering we used the lesson plan which I had worked on, that focused on geography. Overall the children seemed to respond well to the activities, which included learning and drawing flags, learning South American countries and capital cities, filling out worksheets and completing a wordsearch. In fact, what was more of a challenge was keeping the kids engaged once they had completed each task. Rather than resisting working, most of them tended to be eager to do the activities and it was lovely to see them helping one another to answer the questions. Once the geography activities were complete and the kids' attention
was wavering, we carried on with an activity which two of the other volunteers had done with the kids the previous day, and that they had all enjoyed and responded well to. We handed out cardboard letters for them to draw around to create words, in English or Spanish depending on their ability. This allowed them to learn to spell words and also to learn new English words, as well as learn colours by colouring the letters in once they had created a word. After getting lots of hugs from some of the children and exchanging our goodbyes, we closed up the school and made our way back.
I had only volunteered with the school for a few days and yet still I felt sad to be leaving. That evening as I was rummaging through my handbag I found a little folded piece of paper which had been wrapped up, which one of the girls in the class had given me earlier that day as a present and asked me to open later. I unwrapped it and unfolded the paper, and found that she had used the cardboard letters to write my name, and drawn hearts around the border.
Mariposas
Beautiful photo of one of the children at Mariposas It made me happy beyond words. Volunteering at the school can certainly be challenging, but the work is so rewarding that it is worth every minute. It is sad to see children who have so much ability and affection, and are so eager to learn, living in such poverty and being denied a formal education. If you are planning to visit the area then I would thoroughly recommend that you get in touch with the organisation. The voluntary opportunities are very flexible: you could spend a few weeks or, like me, just a few days. Alternatively if you would like to contribute to the organisation, then you can donate by going to this webpage: http://fmacolombia.weebly.com/donations.html. Mariposas receives no outside funding so it depends on its volunteers and donations to run, and any contribution, whether big or small, can make a real difference to the children who rely on the school for an education and a safe, supportive environment. For more information on the organisation, have a look at their website here: http://fmacolombia.weebly.com/
As always, thanks for reading, and if you did decide to donate, then an extra big thank you; it really is a worthwhile cause!
Hasta luego,
Laura x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.119s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0467s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb