Wandering Words: Where the cool kids hang out

In January and February, the youth of Cajabamba are on vacation from school. Consequently, Linnea, Jessica and I are attempting to lure all these free-roaming jóvenes into hanging out with us - and possibly learning something - in our summer camp classes. This year, the three of us are joint-teaching the following program:

High school:

Personal development (leadership, self esteem, sexual health, tolerance, planning for the future, gender equity, drugs/alcohol)
Public speaking (communication skills, speaking in front of groups, confidence, teamwork, debate)
Community art (identify and discuss a problem in Cajabamba, design and paint a mural about it)

Elementary school:

English (every parent's favorite)
Culture (music, dance, art, theater, creative writing, poetry, food)
World map (lessons on geography and world cultures, plus painting a world map mural)

It may seem like a lot, but each class only occurs once per week for either 1.5 or 3 hours, and there are three of us to split the lesson-planning work, so it works out really well. You can see from the list of topics that they all err on the fun side of academics - we decided what we wanted to teach based on a) what the kids would think fun enough to motivate them to attend a non-obligatory class during their vacation, and b) what we feel it's important to teach the kids and what we would enjoy teaching. For example, public speaking - Peruvian kids drive us nuts in our regular classes with their timidity and so-quiet-they're-impossible-to-hear voices. Thus we consider it a really important skill set to teach, and it's also something that's highly interactive and heavy on the student participation - definite musts for a summer class. Another example: culture class. How do you entertain 35 elementary-aged children for an hour and a half? Have them draw pictures of imagined animals, teach them to dance the "Electric Slide," or let them be silly with theater games.

For me, summer camp is always an extra-fun time of year because it's pretty much the only time I get to work with elementary students (they're not exactly the focal age group of the economic development program). And kids that young are just plain fun to be around - they're enthusiastic, affectionate, super goofy, and chock full of energy. Plus - bonus! - every single one of them will come greet you with a kiss when they arrive and leave the classroom. What's not to love? Here's some pictures from our first week and a half of camp: