On reading and dancing

A couple of days ago I attended a teachers' meeting where it was revealed that our school is doing very poorly even according to Salvadoran educational standards. Some of the teachers, even the ones who teach 4th and 5th grade, were complaining that it was hard for them do follow the assigned curriculum because the kids still couldn't read and write. Still!

"What strategies can we use to teach these kids to read and write?" asked the principal.

Of course, this completely flabbergasted me -- I, who was taught to read at age 3 or 4 and was reading the newspaper in kindergarten. I probably spent most of my childhood shut up with a book, and for years as an aspiring journalist, my life revolved around the written word. I straightened up and prepared to launch into a diatribe about how we really need to get the parents to encourage them, get them to read for pleasure, show them how exciting and stimulating reading can be.

But luckily I stopped myself as I considered exactly how we were to do that. Most of these kids' parents can't read or write themselves, so they can't teach the children the way my dad taught me. They don't have books in their house that they can encourage the kids to read, because they can't afford books. And I have only seen one library in this country so far, and that was in the capital. An area that doesn't have paved roads or potable water isn't going to make libraries its first priority.

It's frustrating to think that I came here to help improve life for these people, but the only way I know how to do that involves resources we just don't have.

Although I've been trying to focus on working in the school lately (I even gave up a trip to the beach this week to teach lessons and attend meetings!) my life has inevitably been taken over by the poor disorganized church youth group.

Here's the deal. They meet every Saturday, and I had missed meetings for nearly two months because of technical training, my trip to the States, a soccer game, a meeting cancellation. During these entire two months, the youth knew that fiestas patronales, or the celebrations that honor our village's patron saint, San Jose, were coming up and it would be time once again to have a celebratory dance. But they did nothing about it.

Then I came back to meetings, and bam! "Oh my God, we have to have a dance, we haven't even started trying to come up with the money, please help us!" says one of the youth group's leaders. It's so last minute that by now I couldn't care less whether we have a dance or not, especially since I am still not comfortable with dances here, as I only dance while intoxicated and am not allowed to drink at my site. But some of the kids wanted to do it, so I told them I would help them as much as I could, being so busy with school and all.

This has turned into the leader showing up at my house every day at about 5 pm, when I am just winding down after a full day of work, and asking me to do this or that with him, stuff he could just as easily do himself. I always say yes, but if I ever tell him I'm too busy to do something or another the next day, he gives me a mournful look and says, "I hope you will support us in all our endeavors. You just have to think positively!"

Yesterday, I finally lost my patience and told him I don't give a crap about thinking positively, the only thing that makes these projects work is enough planning in advance, which he clearly did not do.

So whether or not we have the dance still remains to be seen.

In fairness to the youth group, this is a hard time for them. Their best leader started working as a police officer in a faraway department of the country and rarely has the time for meetings anymore. Other members have left the group to work or attend university. And even the ones who still make an effort are super-busy now that school has started again. And the group has no money, meaning they can't really afford many fun activities, which is even less motivation for them to show up.

Yesterday I walked around with them handing out invitations to all the youth in the community to come to our meetings every Saturday. But I hope the invitations work, as they were two long paragraphs of Bible quotes and then one short paragraph about the meetings, with no mention of hikes or trips or dances or any of the other fun things the group does. I suspect if the youth want to listen to more preaching, they'll just go to Mass more often.

For those of you who are not on Facebook, this is my new favorite photo of myself, courtesy of Peace Corps Volunteer Nick Padowski:
Paz y amor.