Las Escuelas Peruanas

Showing off their voter ID Cards

My work in the schools has continued throughout the last several weeks, and there is always something to participate in. Recently the Shiran primaria had their school elections, which were conducted in an official manner, following the exact replica of Peruvian elections. The students were responsible for monitoring the election process and electing representatives to work in distinct themes within their school. Considering that democracy has only existed in Peru for about 30 years, there is still a significant amount of skepticism towards politics and the electoral process within the country. It seems like a valuable practice to involve young students in a form of politics from an early age to acclimate them to becoming actively engaged citizens. The students were extremely excited about their voter ID cards and the whole process in general.

Official voting boxes

I’ve started giving various English tests in each of my classes, so it’s been interesting to see how the students are progressing. Overall I’ve been impressed with the amount of information the students have retained; learning a language is such a long process, but you have to start somewhere. There is an obvious difference in the students who are genuinely interested in learning and those who have no desire to speak English, and the exam scores definitely illustrate the varying levels of interest. Two of my classes have over 35 students, which is just so many people. At times it can be difficult to maintain their attention, answer each student’s particular questions, and tailor the activities to the range of abilities. However, we’ve progressed pretty well and most of the students are respectful and participate. Once they grasp a concept, it’s fun to see how their level of participation changes. I’ve managed to get even the “toughest” guys in my classes to do their work and even play my ridiculous English learning games.

As I’ve mentioned before, teen pregnancy is a huge issue in Poroto and sufficient sex education is lacking in the community. The Consejeras de Salud youth group that I’ve been working with has started giving educational sessions to their peers on a variety of different youth issues including sexuality, drug abuse, alcoholism, STDs, etc. I’ve been working with them to prepare these presentations and accompany them to the classes when they present. This week we’ve been giving our STD sessions, which has been interesting. The presentations were pretty graphic, including photos and descriptive explanations of the symptoms and consequences of STDs. Considering the sensitivity of the topic, I was pleasantly surprised the school was willing to allow us to present on such issues. I found that most of the teachers and staff were excited we were coming to discuss such issues. Honestly, I think everyone is getting to the point where they are sick and tired of seeing pregnant 15 year olds and realizing they need to be more realistic with their provision of sexual education. As you can imagine, controlling a class of 35+ young teenagers during a presentation that involves the proper use of a condom was a bit of a challenge, but all in all they were respectful and interested in the presentations. I definitely give the Consejeras de Salud credit for presenting a topic like this in front of their peers.

In addition to my English classes and educational sessions, I’m often invited to help in other classes and school activities. Recently I taught the second grade class how to make French Toast, which was quite a success. The secundaria second grade class is almost 40 kids, so it was a bit chaotic, but in a good way. We used a portable stove in the school, but ran out of gas about halfway through the process and they don’t sell gas in Poroto. Don’t worry though one of the students also drives mototaxis, so he volunteered to drive off to the next town to pick up some gas so we could continue our cooking lesson. I can’t imagine allowing a 13 year old to leave to drive a crazy motorcycle taxi to a nearby town in the middle of the school day, but the teacher didn’t seem to have any problem with it. Sure enough, he returned with gas in hand and we continued to prepare about 50 plates of French toast with our one tiny frying pan. The kids brought fresh bananas, strawberries, and honey, so they turned out quite well.