People say that "all good things must come to an end". In some ways, I suppose this is true. The best of days inevitably come to a close, that tasty dessert always has a last bite, and internships in Peru have an expiration date. But I think there are always exceptions. I might be leaving El Bichito, but there are still people willing to help these kids, they will still always be in my heart and that good thing never has to end.
We have had a good last week here at El Bichito and in Cajamarca. We taught every morning at the elementary school and have now taught at least one English and Computer skills class to each grade. Each class was different and knew different things about English and computers so we adjusted accordingly. To most classes we taught English greetings, animals and numbers or colors. For Computer classes, we have taught the parts of a computer, how to take care of them, how to turn them on and sign in and to some classes we taught them how to open and save a word document. The teachers seem very happy to have us come, some stay and learn with the kids and others just leave and let us teach for the block. All of the kids are very excited to be learning both English and computer skills and we try to make each class fun. I think it would valuable for the next group of interns to come up with an actual curriculum with learning goals to be accomplished. That way the kids can learn something that they can use in the future, even if it is simple.
Our after school program at El Bichito is going very well. We have a couple new kids stay every week, and we have already seen changes in some of the kids. Hector is leading the way with the most stickers and he deserves every one. He comes in after school, eats his lunch and gets right to work. No matter how long it takes him, he always sticks with it. It is especially rewarding to see Hector work so hard at his homework because the first week of school he was constantly distracted and needed to be reminded to keep going every 5 minutes. There are other kids with similar stories and it just makes me so happy to see them work! We have also had some great activities this past week. We taught about not littering and took the time to clean up the street and field behind El Bichito. The kids loved the competition of picking up the most trash and of course everyone loved the treats they received. Hopefully they will remember the lesson behind out little clean up day. I also taught a short lesson about self- worth. I got the idea from the interns working at the Aldea who had asked each of their kids why they are unique. I took the same idea and had our kids write why they are special. I made sure each kid had something to write and when they were done the decorated their page and we posted them on the wall.
Many thanks to everyone who made this trip possible!
-Cynthia
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