You Down With VMT? Yeah You Know Me!

Youth coordinators don't sleep in when they have a workshop on Saturday, so hell if I'm going to be caught snoozing on the job. Perhaps I should explain. On this past Saturday the Buena Voz program held the first of three youth coordinator workshops. Each of the eight schools in Buena Voz has a general coordinator to oversee everything, several teachers (from the respective school) to lead students through the lesson plans, and 4-6 youth coordinators (also from the respective school) who are graduates of Buena Voz and act as teaching assistants. Since they are in the same age group, the first timers can easily relate to them and hopefully become more excited about and invested in the program. Melissa, Wendy (a former Grupo GEA employee who is trained in leading leadership/teamwork building workshops), and I (sorry to interrupt myself but this 35 year-old Australian dude is whistling and singing along to "Sweet Child of Mine" and is absolutely MURDERING it. OK song's over. I'm back on the level.) all pile in Melissa's car around 2pm to drop by the Juan Valer school in Villa Maria del Triunfo. It's about a 30 minute drive and the Spanish between the two ladies is flying faster than a Micro Machines commercial, so I decide to take a quick catnap. Once we arrive, I establish myself as the dominant male with the two school guard dogs. Seriously, there are two guard dogs that live at the school and seem to bark at everything (including children, inanimate objects, and bad jokes). Having affirmed their loyalty and subservience, the dogs go on their way and us three head up to the school library. This library was strikingly different from the school libraries to which I am accustomed. It was just a large classroom with three rows of tables and chairs running the length of the room. No books to be seen. In the corner there was a door leading to a small room (roughly the size of 1/3 of a portable classroom) containing some books, a television, a computer, and lots of dust. It was a reminder that despite the enthusiasm of teachers and students, these are schools which are seriously deprived of teaching resources. Anyhow, we cleared the tables out of the way to make an open area in the middle for the group of 12 youth coordinators (not all schools were attending this particular workshop). Wendy started things off strong by having one coordinator give his name. The next coordinator in the circle would have to say her name, then the original guy's name. The third person would have to name the original two, and so forth until everyone has given their names. Let's take a guess about where Andrew is sitting. For all of you who postulated "at the end of the circle," excellent work. Mind you, these are Spanish names and much harder for me to remember than Mark or Judith. Now, let's take a guess as to who was the only participant to ace the name game. For all of you who hypothesized "Celeste," you are painfully incorrect. I rocked this game (despite my disadvantageous circle position), and to make sure the coordinators appreciated my efforts I did a celebratory five-minute rendition of "The Hustle." Truly face melting. After that we participated in a number of activities designed to affirm their self-esteem, ferret out opportunities for self-improvement, and discuss what makes a strong youth (now he is whistling the saxophone solo in "I'm Never Gonna Dance Again." Shoot me please.) coordinator. My favorite activity was designing a personal shield with my abilities, areas to improve, personal slogan, and logo. My abilities were: I like to write, I am good with computers (false), and I am an upbeat person. My areas to improve were: Spanish, organization, and figuring out what the hell I want to do with my life. Personal slogan was: you can change the world with laughter. And lighting. And my logo was a threatening cloud with a lighting bolt. Cut me some slack, Jack, my Spanish and drawing abilities are mediocre at best. I was very impressed by the optimism, ambition, and sophistication of these kids (they were all about 15 years of age). Despite very (and I mean very) adverse environmental and social pressures, they manage to be an extremely bright and enthusiastic group of normal high school students. I sincerely hope that they are able to attain whatever dreams they create for themselves, and hopefully Buena Voz will be an empowering tool in this regard. This was probably the first moment where I really felt that Buena Voz was making an impact, and I was definitely glad I tagged along and participated.

After finishing up the workshop the three of us headed back to Barranco (where I live, and halfway between where Wendy and Melissa live). Before breaking for the night we stopped in at the "Juanito" bar. This is an institution in Lima I'm told. It's been around for over 70 years and has been run by the same family the whole time. Writers, artists, and various luminaries have all passed time here over beer, wine, and the famous country ham sandwiches. The atmosphere is really cool. You enter through narrow double doors and are greeted by a bar running down the right side and some tables on the left. There are white cabinets with glass windows affording views of many, many bottles of alcohol, and these bottles are stocked all the way up to the high ceilings. It's really hard to capture the feeling of the place so I will just give you a picture.

We had a few drinks and sandwiches, although Wendy opted for the "patita" or pig's foot. The server was nice enough to inform her that it was the right one. Nothing like this Liman hospitality, I tell ya. Anyhow, after passing an hour at Juanito's we headed back to our respective abodes. I don't think I contributed a whole lot to the workshop today, but it was really motivating to see the program in action and meet some of the students who make it successful. I've learned that I will basically be in charge of Buena Voz in August because Melissa is on vacation for one month, and while that is incredibly scary and potentially disastrous, I feel much more motivated to make sure everything runs smoothly. I might even try to look for some ways to improve the administrative end of things. Look at me being ambitious and empowered! Those activities DID work! And now I get to continue my night with the Aussie signing along to "I Will Survive." Sigh.

Also, there are more photos in the Flickr account. Enjoy!