November part I

I've discovered the secret to successful volunteer tutoring: Franklin the turtle. Franklin is a turtle about seven or eight years old whose adventures are chronicled in a series of books in the school library. At some point in September or October I realized that the students in Sara's Adelante class really don't learn much in the class, and would be much better served by individual reading time. I'll spare you my rant about how infuriatingly ineffective Sara is as a teacher, especially as a teacher of kids with behavioral problems who come from very dysfunctional homes... Let's just say that that feeling of frustrated helplessness that never truly goes away for me in Peru is currently due to feeling like I have to learn on the spot to manage a special-needs classroom, because if I don't stand up and make the kids pay attention, Sara does nothing and it's total chaos. (And I always said I didn't want to teach high school because I'd rather not deal with discipline; if you want to learn, come learn, and if not, fine with me, go do your thing elsewhere! is my thought on education.)

Anyway, everyone benefits much more if I take the kids one by one to the library and have them read about Franklin and then answer questions in their notebook. They like it, too, because they feel special with all the individual attention, and I try to be a broken record of positive encouragement, to counteract the negative things I suspect they hear about themselves at home and in school. The down side to that is that then they hang on my arms and hug me and whine for me to stay when I tell them I'm leaving for the day. And since they're not particularly cooperative when I'm with them, I resent the implication that I'm a bad person for not wanting to stay. (more later on this dynamic of, "Nooo, Katalina, don't go!! Stay here so we can keep taking what we want from you when it's convenient for us and then putting you aside the rest of the time!" ...It's not just the kids I feel that from.)

November was a busy month. Not in the sense that I woke up from Monday to Friday and felt happy thinking of the day ahead, but in the sense that many things happened to interrupt my boredom and loneliness.

Sissy Corr, the director of my volunteer program, came to visit me and my fellow volunteer Katie. This was awesome for many reasons: (1) I felt recognized and valued for my work. Sissy followed me around to my singing classes in the school and my Confirmation group in the parish and told me how great it was that I'm doing all this. She has the perspective to be able to say, Look what you've accomplished from nothing! She also took great pictures of my elementary-school singers and the high school youth group.

(2) I got to go on retreat. Katie came down from Tambogrande and the two of us went with Sissy and Sister Maria Laura, who directed the retreat, to a house outside Chosica (farther out beyond Dr. Tony's, getting up into the mountains a little and out from under the Lima cloud.) The retreat was an excellent experience, although the task--reflect on and try to understand the past two years of my life as an NDMV in Peru--was way too big for the three days we had; just getting started on the process was exhausting, and I would have preferred an extra two or three days to just sleep. Here's me and the fish pond in the pretty retreat center.

(3) I got to spend time with Katie. I always knew this year would be harder without Catherine, but I sometimes forget just how lonely I become for someone who shares my experience. Plus she's a cool chica. :)

So Sissy's visit was good. Plus talking with Sissy about the practical details of running a volunteer program, I realized the enormous amount that I've learned about what works and what doesn't, and I now have some ideas of things to share with the administration at Fe y Alegría to help out the next volunteer, whenever he or she comes along.