I'm going to start this blog off with a promise: I will think of better, slightly less cliche titles. (Still, did anyone catch the Electric Six reference?) Until then, there's a lot to be said about my first two weeks of service here at the Healing House and my life in Cusco in general. If you haven't already read it, click this link to learn a little bit more about my various duties as a "volunteer intern." If you've already read it, you'll know that just like any other intern at any company, the majority of my time is spent doing small tasks around the House to help things run smoothly. Even though this is a nonprofit international development organization, it's still an organization that needs people to do small every day things (like cleaning and gardening) to allow it to grow and flourish. It's not all about swooping in and saving lives during all my volunteer hours, it's largely been about learning how things run around here and figuring out what sorts of things I can contribute to what's already going on.
So speaking of what's already going on, each Saturday here at the Healing House anywhere from 5-35 neighborhood kids show up in the afternoon to participate in our programas para niños, our creative kids programs. Both boys and girls anywhere from 5 to about 13 are here from 2 pm to 4 pm to do some yoga, sing or play instruments, make an art project, and have a healthy snack, all in that order. At least that's exactly how it's been for the past two weeks. The program has actually existed for much longer, and has gone through a variety of changes, but that's where it is now. It's quite successful in a variety of ways. The kids who come seem to really like it. We offer them a safe place to be and some cool things to do on a Saturday afternoon. Plus, the kids' parents, I've been told, really like it because to them it's free babysitting. However, those of us in charge of the program have also had a few meetings so far about what we can do to improve. We've all agreed that we need some long-term objectives for the kids. That's a sort of hard thing to accomplish because most volunteers are here for a short period, usually around three months, and then they leave. We're all trying to work through that by making a lesson plan book that contains what we covered each week and ideas for the weeks to come. The idea is to have a theme that ties all their activities together each week, like talking about gratitude or our dreams and aspirations.
We threw out loads of ideas, and last Saturday we did a jungle theme and talked about deforestation of the Amazon. Our yoga section featured a variety of animal poses, and for the music, we taught them "In the Jungle." This week one of the other volunteers, Tori, made a PowerPoint about the different jungle animals and what's happening in the Amazon. After that we made masks of our favorite animals for the art section.
All in all, it went quite well, and I was particularly pleased with the music section. "In the Jungle" features the repeating awimbawe, awimbawe section that everyone can keep going while different groups of kids could take turns singing the chorus. That's a great way to keep everyone participating and engaged while keeping behavior issues at bay. We do spend a lot of time trying to get kids to focus, and that's a pretty creative way to accomplish that without stopping and asking them to listen.
I've had quite a lot of fun working on the music program for the kids. Two guys, Giancarlo and Daniel, already run it regularly. They live in Cusco and work playing gigs around town, but donate some of their time to help the kids on Saturdays. Most of my contributions to this creative kids program have been in conjunction with their efforts. They'll still be here after I'm gone, so I've been doing what I can to help them do their thing. The three of us do make a pretty interesting team with my classical training and their tremendous affinity for more contemporary music. We sort of balance each other out. I've actually gotten to know them pretty well over the past couple of weeks, having some late-night jam sessions playing and singing tons of classic rock favorites. They're pretty cool guys, and I look forward to working with them over the coming months.
Another program that I've recently gotten involved with is our Wednesday night live music yoga class. That's one of our more popular offerings, and I can definitely see why. That class is really focused on getting people to try new things, experiment and create within their personal yoga practice. Meanwhile, a few musicians improvise songs to go along with the general mood of the class. I'll be honest, we have rehearsed one or two songs as a good go-to and also to get people in the class singing as well, but it's mostly just 90 minutes of raw improvisation on our part. The class environment is very freeing, and I found that I've been able to really let go of some of my inhibitions and experiment creating my own stuff, without too much fear of noodling around before I figure out what key everyone's playing in. A large part of that is Shevaa, one of the House residents. She's absolutely wild about music and makes a lot of her own instruments. She's never had any formal training, but she's wonderful about just putting herself out there regardless and just making some noise. She's really nice and encouraging to others too. Having her there makes me feel a lot more comfortable about doing a bit of experimenting myself. Also, she's let me borrow some of her instruments for the class including her mini harmonium which is wicked cool.
So, I've really been learning a lot about the different programs offered at the Healing House, how they go about helping others (quite creatively if I do say so myself) and actually being helped out myself, freeing myself to experiment musically. I'm quite excited for the weeks to come and especially this Saturday. We're going to be singing a song one of the guys wrote and talking about our dreams and aspirations. It should be great.
Well, that's all for now. I'll keep ya posted!
Sylvia
So speaking of what's already going on, each Saturday here at the Healing House anywhere from 5-35 neighborhood kids show up in the afternoon to participate in our programas para niños, our creative kids programs. Both boys and girls anywhere from 5 to about 13 are here from 2 pm to 4 pm to do some yoga, sing or play instruments, make an art project, and have a healthy snack, all in that order. At least that's exactly how it's been for the past two weeks. The program has actually existed for much longer, and has gone through a variety of changes, but that's where it is now. It's quite successful in a variety of ways. The kids who come seem to really like it. We offer them a safe place to be and some cool things to do on a Saturday afternoon. Plus, the kids' parents, I've been told, really like it because to them it's free babysitting. However, those of us in charge of the program have also had a few meetings so far about what we can do to improve. We've all agreed that we need some long-term objectives for the kids. That's a sort of hard thing to accomplish because most volunteers are here for a short period, usually around three months, and then they leave. We're all trying to work through that by making a lesson plan book that contains what we covered each week and ideas for the weeks to come. The idea is to have a theme that ties all their activities together each week, like talking about gratitude or our dreams and aspirations.
We threw out loads of ideas, and last Saturday we did a jungle theme and talked about deforestation of the Amazon. Our yoga section featured a variety of animal poses, and for the music, we taught them "In the Jungle." This week one of the other volunteers, Tori, made a PowerPoint about the different jungle animals and what's happening in the Amazon. After that we made masks of our favorite animals for the art section.
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| a hilariously candid photo, credit to Tori |
I've had quite a lot of fun working on the music program for the kids. Two guys, Giancarlo and Daniel, already run it regularly. They live in Cusco and work playing gigs around town, but donate some of their time to help the kids on Saturdays. Most of my contributions to this creative kids program have been in conjunction with their efforts. They'll still be here after I'm gone, so I've been doing what I can to help them do their thing. The three of us do make a pretty interesting team with my classical training and their tremendous affinity for more contemporary music. We sort of balance each other out. I've actually gotten to know them pretty well over the past couple of weeks, having some late-night jam sessions playing and singing tons of classic rock favorites. They're pretty cool guys, and I look forward to working with them over the coming months.
Another program that I've recently gotten involved with is our Wednesday night live music yoga class. That's one of our more popular offerings, and I can definitely see why. That class is really focused on getting people to try new things, experiment and create within their personal yoga practice. Meanwhile, a few musicians improvise songs to go along with the general mood of the class. I'll be honest, we have rehearsed one or two songs as a good go-to and also to get people in the class singing as well, but it's mostly just 90 minutes of raw improvisation on our part. The class environment is very freeing, and I found that I've been able to really let go of some of my inhibitions and experiment creating my own stuff, without too much fear of noodling around before I figure out what key everyone's playing in. A large part of that is Shevaa, one of the House residents. She's absolutely wild about music and makes a lot of her own instruments. She's never had any formal training, but she's wonderful about just putting herself out there regardless and just making some noise. She's really nice and encouraging to others too. Having her there makes me feel a lot more comfortable about doing a bit of experimenting myself. Also, she's let me borrow some of her instruments for the class including her mini harmonium which is wicked cool.
So, I've really been learning a lot about the different programs offered at the Healing House, how they go about helping others (quite creatively if I do say so myself) and actually being helped out myself, freeing myself to experiment musically. I'm quite excited for the weeks to come and especially this Saturday. We're going to be singing a song one of the guys wrote and talking about our dreams and aspirations. It should be great.
Well, that's all for now. I'll keep ya posted!
Sylvia
Wow, as a yoga practitioner myself and a music and general improv lover, this sounds like such a fantastic organization! I totally understand the desire for some long-term accountability but the planned/connected lesson plans sound like a good way to start (and recording them works as an archive that allows the future volunteers to see what's been accomplished before). It's also great how it seems like the project is connecting local and international volunteers--I want to come volunteer here (or at least take that Wednesday night yoga class)!
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