Perhaps the title is not only cliche, but also slightly misleading. There really isn't one struggle that I've faced or been faced with in my six weeks here so far. There are a lot. I've dealt with some personal challenges, such as overcoming my fears of saying what I want and expressing myself honestly and staying healthy despite all the cold/flu sickness that's been going around. I've also been faced with some more external struggles such as those of the people I met who the the Healing House aims to help and the compelling stories I've heard from homeless I've spoken with.
There's one struggle though that's really been hanging over me like dark cloud, although recently the weather here has been truly fantastic. That is the struggle to maintain a blog. It's hard enough to find time in the day to just meditate and reflect on my own life, but also to synthesize that into a readable post for friends, family, and colleagues elsewhere in the world is quite a challenge. Especially when you fall a bit behind and get off track, it feels nearly impossible to start back up again and get writing. I'm still a week behind in my personal daily reflections, and I feel like I need to catch up there before I can post here. Never fear, however; I'm overcoming that and getting back on track. Today is my half way point. I've been in Peru for seven weeks now and I'll only be here for another seven. Perhaps realizing that is what gave me that extra impulse to continue.
So a few weeks ago, I got a job as an English teacher at a bilingual school across town and started performing on the weekends with a jazz/rock and roll group. Both were incredible opportunities that have taught me a lot so far. Still, those new responsibilities coupled with my continued service at the Healing House got to be quite overwhelming. Preparing lesson plans, practicing songs, and even just finding time to work shifts at the House were enough already. The week that all started, my writing and daily reflection fell off to the side. Recovering from that has been tough. There's no way around it. Still, there will be longer posts about those experiences in the coming couple of days.
There's an even bigger underlying reason as to why it's been hard for me to blog. I do have some great isolated stories about the adventures I've had so far, but it's not what I planned in the least. The Saturday creative kids program at the House has gone well in the past couple of weeks, and I've continued to help out however I can with that. Still, I can't report triumphantly about how the plans I made while I was home have been a huge hit. Actually, we haven't been using the lesson plans I wrote. Each week at our creative kids volunteer meeting we decide on a theme and then come up with different art, music, and yoga activities that correlate.
This coming week we're going to just focus on art though. We'll be explaining to the kids about plastic and how the insane amount of plastic bags used here affect the environment. Then we'll be decorating tote bags that we had sewn out of recycled flour sacs to give the kids something cool to use instead. The main point is though that we get the kids to be more conscious how their individual actions affect the world. It's a really cool lesson, but I'm still skeptical of how effective it'll be. The reliance on plastic that I've seen here (and I mean they use plastic bags for everything) seems more like a symptom of something larger. Perhaps they're so widely used because it's just cheaper in the short run and not something everyone can afford to go without.
Anyway, this coming month each weekend Tori (my fellow FSU Global Scholar) and I will be carrying out our prepared lesson plans each Saturday. Tori brought with her some disposable cameras for a photography project and I've still got my plans and songs for a choir class. I'll admit I've amended them quite a bit given what I've learned and experienced working with the kids each Saturday, but I look forward to really taking the lead when it comes to this social project.
Well, that's all for now. Stay on the look out for a few more posts covering these past few weeks.
Paz,
Sylvia
There's one struggle though that's really been hanging over me like dark cloud, although recently the weather here has been truly fantastic. That is the struggle to maintain a blog. It's hard enough to find time in the day to just meditate and reflect on my own life, but also to synthesize that into a readable post for friends, family, and colleagues elsewhere in the world is quite a challenge. Especially when you fall a bit behind and get off track, it feels nearly impossible to start back up again and get writing. I'm still a week behind in my personal daily reflections, and I feel like I need to catch up there before I can post here. Never fear, however; I'm overcoming that and getting back on track. Today is my half way point. I've been in Peru for seven weeks now and I'll only be here for another seven. Perhaps realizing that is what gave me that extra impulse to continue.
So a few weeks ago, I got a job as an English teacher at a bilingual school across town and started performing on the weekends with a jazz/rock and roll group. Both were incredible opportunities that have taught me a lot so far. Still, those new responsibilities coupled with my continued service at the Healing House got to be quite overwhelming. Preparing lesson plans, practicing songs, and even just finding time to work shifts at the House were enough already. The week that all started, my writing and daily reflection fell off to the side. Recovering from that has been tough. There's no way around it. Still, there will be longer posts about those experiences in the coming couple of days.
There's an even bigger underlying reason as to why it's been hard for me to blog. I do have some great isolated stories about the adventures I've had so far, but it's not what I planned in the least. The Saturday creative kids program at the House has gone well in the past couple of weeks, and I've continued to help out however I can with that. Still, I can't report triumphantly about how the plans I made while I was home have been a huge hit. Actually, we haven't been using the lesson plans I wrote. Each week at our creative kids volunteer meeting we decide on a theme and then come up with different art, music, and yoga activities that correlate.
This coming week we're going to just focus on art though. We'll be explaining to the kids about plastic and how the insane amount of plastic bags used here affect the environment. Then we'll be decorating tote bags that we had sewn out of recycled flour sacs to give the kids something cool to use instead. The main point is though that we get the kids to be more conscious how their individual actions affect the world. It's a really cool lesson, but I'm still skeptical of how effective it'll be. The reliance on plastic that I've seen here (and I mean they use plastic bags for everything) seems more like a symptom of something larger. Perhaps they're so widely used because it's just cheaper in the short run and not something everyone can afford to go without.
Anyway, this coming month each weekend Tori (my fellow FSU Global Scholar) and I will be carrying out our prepared lesson plans each Saturday. Tori brought with her some disposable cameras for a photography project and I've still got my plans and songs for a choir class. I'll admit I've amended them quite a bit given what I've learned and experienced working with the kids each Saturday, but I look forward to really taking the lead when it comes to this social project.
Well, that's all for now. Stay on the look out for a few more posts covering these past few weeks.
Paz,
Sylvia
Hi Sylvia. I really enjoy your blog posts but don't beat yourself up on keeping to a super rigid schedule. Especially since you are staying longer than the 2-month minimum requirement for the program, you can be a little looser on the every-week requirement. As you write, it's most important that you are taking the time for your own personal reflection before forcing yourself to codify that into something written for others. Also, you'll still have the capstone project as a chance to coalesce all these thoughts/experiences into a well-crafted reflection. Your schedule sounds like it's keeping you really busy! That's so cool that you found a band with whom to play--I love that kind of collaboration!
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