So it's the start of the National holidays and today, well, to be precise this evening, we will embark on our first real escape from Guayaquil. We're going up to Canoa in the North of the country - it's beach time baby baby! It's a little fishing village and everyone who talks about it says that it's lovely so I'm super excited (well at least I am in theory, but I'm so knackered that getting excited is a bit of a challenge at the mo!). As it's 8 hours away we're travelling over night which has been organised by Lily who was Karen's Spanish teacher and has taught many of the other Juconi and CMAP volunteers. Knowing how good I am - NOT! at sleeping on buses, I would've preferred to travel in the day, plus this would have meant getting to see some of the countryside but as Lily organised it all, so be it. Hopefully we'll travel back in the day on Wednesday which will mean seeing some of the journey and we have to be in work on Thursday morning, so an overnight trip is definitely not gonna be something I'll be keen on.
Right now I'm praying for sunshine. All of you get out there and start a sundance for me please!! Then again, as you guys have been dealing with some pretty cold wintery weather by the sounds of it, I'm sure you don't wanna think about us guys chilling on a beach! But my God, do I need it?! I've been suffering since Wednesday night with a dodgy tummy and all the associated fun and games that goes with that. Helen's had the same and Kelsey, an American volunteer, too. All I want to do is go and pass out on the beach so the fact that Canoa is meant to be super mellow sounds just perfect to me.
Last night was Karen's leaving do - she's off to travel Colombia for the next three weeks and then we'll be having a last supper when she's back in Guayaquil before going back to the UK. I was there in body but not in spirit. I felt exhausted, ill and just not really all there. I also felt super lonely. Kelsey went home early. Karen was obviously the belle of the ball and Helen was chatting to some of Karen's friends. I was sitting with some of the organisation staff but wasn't involved in the convos and my brain was so tired I couldn't keep up with the Spanish or make an effort to be involved. Ah well, suppose they'll always be days like that in a new country, new job, new culture, new language with nothing familiar in the slightest. Probably just felt more negative about it than I would have normally tho' due to feeling so rubbish. Nevermind. Today's a new day and adventure awaits....!
So, what else is new... well everything of course! Everything's new all the time! So yesterday at Isla - the most energetic, spirited, hyperactive and uncontrollable of all our groups we'd agreed that the Juconi workers would run the dinamÃca - which is like the warm up game or icebreaker. I turned up in the yard of the school where we run the session, having been helping Kelsey set up as she was gonna take the diddly ones (i.e. the under 6's) who actually are not meant to even be there and in our team meeting last week, we'd discussed the little ones who often disrupt the session hugely as they obviously need a totally different type of intervention. Often it's that the older ones are looking after the younger ones which is why they all end up coming to Art Club. So, as I said, we'd discussed the fact that the little ones are not meant to come but immediately after that meeting last week, we'd had little ones in the Isla session. Plus we'd also decided that the limits on group size need to be enforced, i.e. 25 in all the groups, except Isla which is 30. Despite all these lovely agreements, the reality is that they´re not enforced by the workers, so it makes it meaningless! Yesterday in Isla for instance, we had 40!! It's a shame 'cuz it means it becomes a lot about group management and we do not have the time to be supporting those who need help. Really, it would be better to have much fewer numbers and be able to make a difference. Not to mention the whole arriving half an hour before the session starts in order to ensure we have set up and have briefing time - again, that went straight out of the window the day after it was agreed - as we arrived at a session half an hour after it was due to start, i.e. a whole hour late being that we'd agreed that workers would be there half an hour early. Ah well. It's challenging but I have to try and relax. It's about choosing your battles wisely isn't it? I mean, we are not in control of what time we arrive as we have to go in with the Educators, therefore, if they're late we're late!
Sylvia the English woman who founded Juconi, saw such a situation unfolding on Thursday morning - our Sergio Toral session. There was a whole team session with the Psychologist who comes in every 2 weeks (none of them have any individual supervision despite the intensity of the work that they're doing - this group session is the best they get), which started late, overran blahblahblah which meant the workers weren't out of the meeting until 10.45am, bearing in mind we are meant to start Art Club at 10am :O Add that to the fact that as Sergio is so far out, even with the driver driving us in the Camioneta, it would've taken us another 40 or so minutes to get there thus meaning we would've arrived at half 11 - half an hour before the session finishes. So the session was scrapped. WOW! It's so rubbish that we let these kids down and I've seen it happen, and apparently it's a regular occurrence, that workers just don't ever get to their appointments with the families. Terrible really - but it's just part of life here. It doesn't mean that they don't care but there is just no culture of starting things on time. Being on time. Keeping to plan etc etc. Like I said; choosing my battles wisely is my thing at the mo. I can't fix the whole culture of Ecuador single-handedly!
So, as Sylvia saw this happening first hand on Thursday, having already had a chat with me about the lateness issue on Wednesday when she knew we were hanging around waiting to leave for Balerio Estacio - where we finally materialised at 2.30pm! She's suggested that I drive one of the organisation's Camionetas (pick up truck thing) to enable us to get to Art Club on time. this would mean that we would be more in charge of the scheduling and people would have to meet us rather than us wait for them. However, there would obviously be numerous challenges: the style of driving, which is pretty insane; not becoming a general driver for the organisation and getting pulled in all different directions by everyone; actually negotiating my way to some of the sectors and knowing the way; learning to drive in the sectors were roads are sometimes no existent; and of course, the biggest challenge would be that if there was a Gringa driving, we would be even more susceptible to be robbed, attacked, carjacked etc... So, vamos a ver as they say - we'll see. Ultimately, I'd just like to know that we were more in control of actually getting to Art Club and actually having a full session, and if me driving the Camioneta is the way forward then I'll do it despite all the risks!
But as I was saying paragraphs and paragraphs ago (Tangent Woman to the rescue!), yesterday at Isla we'd agreed that the Educators would run the dinamÃca. However, after helping Kelsey set up for the little ones, I arrived to find a huge group of kids in a circle and nobody knowing what game to do. They asked if any of the kids knew 'Boom Chicka Boom' - a fun, call and response song, where the leader says something and they have to repeat...
I said a boom
I said a boom
I said a boom chicka
I said a boom chicka rocka
I said a boom chicka rocka, chicka rocka, chicka boom
Ah ha
Oh si
One more time ... this time a little bit more (happy/noisy/sad/quiet etc)
I've always loved this game having done in at home and last week one of the workers, Y, (who is the only Educator who seems to have the group dancing to her tune) had them all doing another version of it. So when the Educators realised noone knew how to do it somehow I got volunteered to do my version. I have to say though, it was super fun plus it gave me a chance to be a bit theatrical and play a bit! Most of the kids, I say 'most'! of the full 40, were involved and it was really great for me to just have to do it! I mean I've been thinking how much I wanted to run this game for ages with many of the groups, but particularly Isla, but have been too shy and worried about my ability to express the instructions well enough in Spanish. So yesterday was good. I just got thrown in and had to do it without thinking and it went well. But we definitely need more games like this as in some sectors our games/those done by the Educators have not been working....Ah well, creative planning on the beach me thinks!
Anyway, enough about work... Off to pack I go and then with my dosh in my secret hiding place (the buses sometimes get robbed), I'll be ready! Viva Canoa! Viva la playa! xx
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