I am the best volunteer in the world. Hear me roar.

There are those really crappy days. And then there are those really good days (defined by a few good moments). I’ve been teaching a lot of English lately. It’s not supposed to be my primary project, but it is intertwined with the goals of tourism (teaching guides to speak English so they can communicate with tourists) and micro-enterprise (teaching a businesswoman that is interested in exportation of her product to communicate with potential markets). I teach about 10 hours of English a week in about 5 classes (okay, they’re not “classes” technically, more like one-on-one tutorials because that’s what I end up with when I fervently try promoting English classes). I have had a few people approach me randomly and ask if I can teach them and then I tell them when my classes are and tell them to show up…and usually they don’t. But then sometimes they do and it’s wonderful. Like this new high school girl that I started having a class with this week told me that her goal is to be a foreign language (particularly English) teacher and wants to study linguistics in the university so…ta da! She has a purpose to have the “ganas” to learn. And I have to say that the Kid’s Club that Pat and I have is the feel-good activity that every PCV should engage in. Honestly, we come in and plan a few games and activities and next thing you know we’re the kids’ favorite people and they shout our names from down the street, the back of the truck they’re riding in, and *gasp* show up ON TIME every Monday for Kid’s Club lest they miss some stimulating activity (such as running around trying to pop a balloon tied to your friend’s leg). And the proof of my celebrity status (not just in the fact that a kid gave me a raw egg with seasoning as a gift) but during my English classes that I have twice a week at night with Sonia, her daughters (who are in THE club) actually want to hang out with me and sit through the class and ask me to teach them English as well. Okay, so maybe it’s just that all kids are that way, but whatever man, nothing beats the moment when you do your Kid’s Club secret handshake with a member of the most exclusive club in the world (in a place such as a tienda) and all the non-members can do is stand around and gawk and wonder, why am I not in the Kid’s Club??? (usually the answer is because the person is an adult, but whatever) And it’s at those moments that you feel like you’re actually doing what a volunteer is supposed to be doing. Yeah, you heard me, volunteers make up secret handshakes and make friends with kids in the 7-10 age range. And we’re pretty darn good at it.

I have to give props to my mom here for teaching me my most successful to-date English activity for low-intermediate and up students…where you show them a picture from a magazine or book and they have to come up with as many sentences as they can about the picture in the language that they are learning. I even got a request for a repeat to play the game again (by Sonia’s daughters who were playing in Spanish…who were actually very good at the game – creativity goes a long way). Thanks Mom, I’ll move on to the “color-jumping” game next since it seems like a winner as well.