Yooth

I filled out a Vacation Request Form, took a picture of it, and emailed it to my program coordinator.  If it gets approved, I’ll be back in the States from December 8th to the 28th.  That will more than wipe out all my accrued vacation days… Also, I’m really happy to have a job where I have vacation days, and health care, and the ability to stay in my house reading David Sedaris books all day if I feel like it.  I’m also really happy when the ice cream truck (literally, a truck with a cooler in the back that plays Chinese jingles over a loudspeaker taped to the cabin roof) comes around. They have this cake-flavored popsicle that has little flecks of cake in it, and as soon as you finish it (which is fast, since you’re on the surface of the sun) you start thinking about what your neighbors would think if you chased the truck down the street with cakesicle smeared across your face and down your shirt. Better to take off the shirt first. It would even be possible to calmly walk out to the main street, and pay a motorcycle taxi to drive you down the street and drop you off in front of the ice cream truck.  However, then your 10 peso treat has turned into a 70 peso sugar-fueled brainfreeze binge and weekly meetings in the capital.  Which… is covered by health care!

The CTC has been hosting about a dozen volunteers from a local private high school every Wednesday (and any other day they decide to come), and it has been pretty interesting.  I suggested something similar to my project partner about a month ago, and presto, she made it happen.  There are kids working in the radio room, in the office, in the library, and with adult literacy classes.  They all come in their school uniforms, and look like professional bumble bees.  They’re polite, smile, and dance bachata with each other when they get bored.

I also had the second meeting of my Escojo mi Vida/Brigada Verde/Encargados del Futuro youth group.  10 kids showed up, which is about right, and we talked for a bit about the environment before playing a few rounds of Mafia.  We had to keep starting over because everyone kept cheating on every turn.  It isn’t suspicious AT ALL when every single person points at the killer immediately after the first round.  Come on, kids.  Besides being finely-tuned game-cheating machines, they seem like a good group of kids, and are excited about picking up trash and planting trees.  Actually, I suppose they were only interested in those things after I mentioned that we should think about designs for T-shirts. 

It is sort of hard to think about leading this group, because I don’t think I would join it myself.  I’m not really a joiner.  I don’t know what I can really offer them… all the charlas I can think of are sort of lame, and I don’t have the crazy energy necessary to keep a dozen kids focused and interested.  I’m more apt to just stop mid-speech and say “Yeah, ok, you got me--this is lame.  Do you want to go play cards, or go online or something? I’ll teach you English if you promise to stay awake!”  I think there is a reason that I am not a Youth & Families volunteer. I like teaching, but this is different. Maybe I can just put on a movie or entertain them with YouTube videos of pets doing funny things. Fake it till you make it?