This phrase
in Peace Corps is usually used with a negative connotation. When no one comes
to a meeting planned months in advance. When you leave with all the intentions
to get a few house visits in and none of the moms are in their homes. When you
want to get back to site at a certain time and there happens to be no cars to
take you... This week, though, I was pleasantly surprised by my Peer Educators.
In our program of “Pasos Adelante” (Steps Forward), we spend the first year
training a group of students in their confidence, self-esteem, and leadership
skills so that they are comfortable enough to go into classrooms and teach
sex-ed to their classmates. At 13, 16, heck probably not even at 18 or 20 years
of age would I have been comfortable teaching about STDs and contraceptive
methods to a classroom full of my peers. But it’s our job to get 10 students to
conquer this universal stage fright and “step forward” to the task.
The
volunteer I replaced never was successful. Numerous volunteers I talked to from
my year who were ahead of me in the process, told me about how difficult it was
to get the kids in the classroom. Our health program team assured us it will be
hard but doable. I was dreading this step so much, doubting my group would ever
be ready, expecting they would need a month of preparation before they stepped
into the classrooms. Nope. In one of our weekly meetings, I announced that they
would be giving replicas this month and now was the time to prepare materials.
They excitedly talked about who would go into which grade, with whom they would
present, and got busy making their materials. Then two groups told me that they
wanted to present the next day, because they had a free period. I assured them
that if they were ready, of course they can present tomorrow but next week is
also a possibility. No, they wanted to do it ASAP. The next day, two groups
killed their sessions on STDs. I’m pretty sure that was the easiest thing I’ve
done so far in Peace Corps! And it felt awesome! I felt so proud almost to the
point of tears watching these teenagers (who right before, did ensure me that they were nervous) stand in front of their
peers. I elatedly received complements from the teachers who told me my work
with the kids definitely shows. I was happy so see the other students listening
attentively and asking questions to my “student leaders” who answered tough
questions with confidence and accuracy.
Many of the
results of our work in Peace Corps are hard or impossible to see. But sometimes
there come special times when we do see clear, significant, and (do I dare say
it:) life-changing results of our hard work. And those “that didn’t go as
expected and I’m so thrilled” moments make you forget all of the “that didn’t
go as expected and I now I want to give up” moments.
HI Lexi, Isn't it a good feeling to see the work that you put in being fulfilled .. It makes it worth the effort.. Good Job. Love you,
ReplyDeletegrams
How awesome is that!?! Good job to you and your students Alexis! We miss you!
ReplyDeleteWow great accomplishment
ReplyDeleteAlexis you must be very proud of what you have been able to do, would you have believed this was possible two years ago.Love you
ReplyDeleteAlexis, how great, I have to say, I never ever doubted you'r ability to do anything you set your mind to do. You have been that way forever, I should know, seeing you grow up has been wonderful. Love you G.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Peru? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Peru in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez