Exposición

I was very proud to celebrate the hardworking jóvenes that participated in the drawing and painting class on Monday. We started out with over 50 hopefuls, and ended up with a nicely sized group of about 20 dedicated students. Some of the kids came over to the casa comunal at 8am to clean and mop the floors (probably for the first time in years).

I'm embarrassed to admit how ridiculously difficult it was to make those letters. 

Just getting started! 

Here is some of the students' work:

I replicated a photo of my grandma. It's not very good, but I set the sell price at $1,000 for kicks. 

While we had the open house, the carrera de cinta was taking place outside. This made things troublesome when our referigerio arrived and grabby people threw their hands in my face for panes and wanted two more for their friends outside. It kind of defeated the purpose of the exposición de la clase de dibujo y pintura. We're here to celebrate the KIDS! They didn't even look at the paintings. I got fed up with some bolos and told them they had to tell me what their favorite painting was, who painted it, and how much it costs before they could collect. That at least forced them to acknowledge there were paintings in the room.

The open house was worth it though. I'm so, so, so proud of the kid's work! Leo has been a great partner and teacher as well, and I hope he continues with the class.

Art and... a carnival?

This week we started the Art and Gender Empowerment classes. We were awarded over $2,300 to buy art supplies for a drawing and painting class. You might think that is a lot of money, but trust me, we can spend it. For the classes I had envisioned our core 20 students, participating in fun gender charlas and learning shading techniques from Leo. A very quiet and organized affair.

OH, HOW NOT SO.

About 50 children, jóvenes, and adults showed up to class with about 10 more "looker-ons" who stood in the door ways and watched. It was a bit of a carnival. Free art supplies! Everybody run to the casa comunal!

The first class was intended to be an introduction to a more formal experience. You can't miss more than 3 classes, you can't be late, and you can't use your cellphone. I mean, common. The materials are expensive and we have grant requirements to fulfill (i.e. GENDER CHARLAS). We need some order!

Leo, being the ever patient and inclusive being that he is, insisted on passing out full sized layer paper and shading pencils to everyone who showed up. They were supposed to replicate a drawing Leo had done so we can split them into levels. Although I was pleasantly surprised by some students, others were simply too young to participate. Things like sitting still, not tracing Leo's art, not braking the pencils... These are concepts that are far out of their reach. I also had about 50 people screaming my name because their brand new eraser was "too small", poking me to get another pencil because fíjese que they lost the first one, and pulling my shirt to ask me to draw for them. That makes 100 little hands grabbing me. Obviously, personal space means nothing here. I had to take a few minutes outside before I could continue with the grabby hands.

Rules! Order! Expectations! 

Getting started on the drawing. Some blank stares. 

Ana, one of my 9th graders, is actually really good! (She rolled her eyes when I told her that. So sassy.)

Erik, too. He's taking on the advanced drawing on the nice easels the grant money bought.

We had some adult men show up. I hope they stick with it because they'll make a great addition to the gender charlas we WILL eventually start. 

It was a pretty overwhelming experience. In the midst of it all, a representative from the ARENA political party showed up and donated refrigerio (mini orange sodas and crackers) to the class. He even ran out and bought enough for 50 people. He didn't give a stump speech, thankfully, but I still felt a little weird about accepting food from a political party. We have the mid-term elections coming up in March and the parties are already getting ruthless in my community.

Selfishly, I wish we had a smaller group. Preferably teenagers and young adults. Preferably those who respect my personal space bubble. I'm genuinely interested in gender empowerment and equality here. For example, as the class dragged on a large group of young men showed up in the cancha to play fúbol. I got the same panicky feeling I always get around groups of men that at any second they were going to say something inappropriate towards me. I never used to feel this way before El Salvador, but now it's a daily fear for me. I know that after a wildly under-planned class I could not handle a rude piropo from this crowd.  And that is why I want to work on gender here. Because women should not have to feel hunted like this. I know I can't change that part of the culture, but I can at least get a conversation going among young men and women.

(In case you were wondering, I didn't hear any piropos. But I'm not so optimistic to think that nothing was said amongst the group.)

Leo asked me how I was doing and I started freaking out about the charla schedule. We're all off now! How am I going to work with all these people!? We have responsibilities to uphold the stipulations of the grant!

He just smiled and said, "Yes Ale, but we have soda." He drained his mini soda and got back to helping the kids perfect their 2D apples on a branch.

I couldn't help but laugh at the simplicity of it all. Soda and some time to draw. Everyone was welcome. It was crowded and hectic, and yet all so simple in the end.

I know the group will eventually tapper off. This always happens when something is new and free in the community. I guess we'll just have to see how it all pans out. In the meantime, enjoy a soda.

More PCV Visits

I've been on a PCV visiting roll lately! This week I visited PCVs Amanda and Emily in northern Morazán. We didn't get to Amanda's site until late in the afternoon, but it was a welcome sight to see her clean, flea free pet dogs. They even had flea collars! We had a nice dinner with her host mom and set off the next morning to Emily's site about an hours walk away. (Keep in mind that 1 hour mountainous walk = 3 hours normal walking.) Leo, an artist from my community, is building a table and chairs from bamboo for a project Emily and Amanda are collaborating on. The idea is to have kids find new and creative uses for bamboo through a multi-school competition. Leo and I are currently working on a grant to buy art supplies for a drawing and painting class, so it really helped to spend the day together and learn about the grant Em & Amanda are writing. Today we have our first meeting with the kids in the community, wish me luck!

Pearla, my favorite.

This ugly Chihuahua was not.  

Amanda, pointing out that the little houses in the distance is our destination. 

Bamboozle!

Teamwork makes the dream work.  

Leo and an almost finished table! 

Emily, me and Amanda with the bamboo table

Busy days!

One thing I love about my community is that there is ALWAYS something to do. I'll look at my blank calendar on Sunday thinking, "Gee, I have a lot of free time." Then BOOM and now I have 15 meetings, intramurals, cooking, art, women's groups, ADESCOs, NGOs, this, that, and more! It's great and it's exhausting.

Today I ran around with the kids from my school for their annual intramural extravaganza. Of course, the boys play futbol and the girls either sit around or some play softball. They never mix and the girls never play futbol. Besides the gender divide, the kids really like having time out of class. And they're getting bastante time off! Three days this week are spent in the cancha playing sports and next week is Semana Santa, which is like spring break but with a lot more church.

Kenny and his friend. The mayor donated the uniforms for kindergarten. 

Two of my 9th grade englsih class students are in *love*

Finally got a pic of Kenny and David. So cute here, so loud when they're at home. 

Kids really wanted me to take a photo...

Me with my 9th graders. I asked the teacher next to me to take the photo, but he made a big deal about finishing his cortido and beans so he could be IN the photo. Guess I should work on my speaking skills some more.

Some girls playing softball. There were so many dust storms. Where's the RAIN!?!

Then I showered up and zoomed into town for a presentation from Asociacion PROESA. I'd like to think that my NGO b.s. meter is pretty accurate at this point, thanks to all the failed projects and false expectations previous NGOs have brought to my community. PROESA seems pretty OK to me. They work with the mayor's office to build capacity for production and local economic growth. I like their mission statement and their output goals are reasonable. They're going to start decentralized meetings across the municipality this month, focusing on the strengths of Osicala's producers (cafe, henequin, artesania, coopertivas, corte conffecion, etc) and how to improve their technical skills and organizational capacity.

I was feeling extra confident today and even read a paragraph of the powerpoint slide out loud when no one answered the presenter's plea for participation. I stumbled on a few words but everyone seemed impressed with the gringa's mad Spanish skills. I'm just here to make people smile :)

Artisan

The other day as I was waiting for the bus I met Leo, the town artisan. He makes amazing jewelry and he can paint great murals. Check it out: 

Mural on the alcaldia building. It only took him 1 week. 

So that's how you spell maguey! 

This is what they make tequila out of in Mexico. Here? We make rope.