Michael Opieczonek
Wabash College
Volunteer at Germinalia
May 14th – June 30th
San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico
Working with Germinalia
I volunteered for seven weeks at a non-for-profit organization Germinalia located in San Cristobal, Chiapas. I taught English to university students and was responsible for educational activities with the La Chozita. La Chozita is a program for indigenous kids. The kids receive a monthly stipend of $30 and the purpose of the program is to keep them in a place where they can learn something meaningful instead of working for that money in a different way. The kids do their homework, participate in a sexuality workshop, and take part in educational activities, all of them having an intention to enrich their educational experiences. My task was to prepare activities that would help them learn something new and interesting and also make them think on their own and use creativity. I was given a free hand and the preparation of activities was up to me. Later on, I found out that from my bosses that it was a sort of an experiment to put me in charge of the activities. They had some volunteers in the past but they were more interested in having vacations in San Cristobal. My bosses told me later that the kids had fun and enjoyed my activities. There was a period of time when my bosses were talking to the first lady of Mexico and securing funding for their organization in the capital, and I was put in charge of the kids for that time.
During the first day of activities I delivered a power point presentation about Poland. The purpose of that activity was cultural and geographical awareness. Next, based upon a polish legend the kids prepared a spectacle of how the dragon from Krakow was defeated by a shoemaker. The kids did seem to enjoy reading the legend, getting to know the history of the dragon, and crafting a spectacle to present their version of the legend. I also noticed the kids especially paid attention when I played the slides with captivating pictures from Poland. Particularly, they liked the slides showing the pictures of the polish castles and manor houses. I told them about the polish folkloristic dances. I played a polish song and there was the “musical chairs” dance activity. The kids needed to take a seat once the music stopped. After every stop, one chair was taken away. The winner had to compete for the only left-over chair. The kids really enjoyed this game. Using colorful visual aids, including music and some dancing games and a few crafting activities when they had to use their creativity were things that got their attention and kept them engaged.
Following the geographical activities, I prepared the “map of the world activity.” I taught the kids how many continents there are and asked them to point them out on the map. After they had learned the names of the continent the kids were put into two groups. Each of the groups received 25 countries on pieces of paper and had to place each one on the map of the world. Another competition included ordering the names of five countries according to a series of pictures in power point representing each country. The last activity included linguistic awareness where the kids had to name the language. I played them Snow White in 6 different languages and they had to select the correct language from the board. The overall experience tells me that the kids like visual aids, creative activities including crafting and getting to know different countries. Also, it is noticeable they like to compete for fun, therefore I would encourage educational activities which have the element of competition.
During another day, I took the kids to the local museum of amber. There were four groups and each group received a question sheet. The purpose of that day was collaboration and research in a group. The kids enjoyed the amber displays and the research activity. The kids expressed that they like field trips. I would suggest having more field trips, not only museums but also including some natural sites where they can get out of the city.
The last workshop pertained to honesty, lies, and truth. After noticing some problems with honesty in La Chozita, I prepared activities that would unravel some problems and help the kids grasp what honesty and truth are really about. This workshop was particularly dedicated to a group of a mischievous girls who do not realize that their behavior has a negative impact on the other kids. I began with a shock therapy. I showed up one hour later. I told my boss to inform the kids that I had an accident, which I acted out. I showed up with a bandage, a crunch, and covered in fake blood. Most of the kids really believed that I had a car accident. The kids paid attention and were sorry for me. Then, I revealed that this was just a “lie.” This then led to the discussion why the kids thought I did it, why I lied to them and how they felt about my dishonesty. Later, the kids had to write the definitions of lie, honesty and truth. We discussed their definitions in the group and related them to the problems of the La Chozita. Next, a sequence of activities pertaining to trust followed: a human carousel, drawing blindfolded, guiding the blind partner, and watching a clip from Pinocchio. The kids did really enjoy the engaging physical activities. I wrapped up the day with my bosses discussing the point of the whole workshop. I told the kids what I saw was good and bad in La Chozita. The kids realized why I prepared this workshop and understood better the consequences of dishonesty and lying.
English Classes
I had two groups of students: one in the morning and another one in the afternoon. The English classes went very well. The trick to keep the students attentive is to make the classes as engaging as possible. I played music from the internet, used youtube clips to play some movies, utilized different internet resources for pronunciation and English seen in action. I had them write the words they had learned or act them out. I made the students move and interact with each other. We had a lot of dialogues, students had to present out the words and phrases they had just learned, or sing them out. If we learned the alphabet it was with the help of nursery rhymes or funny songs. I had them learn words from songs, utilizing karaoke from the internet. We had a lot of crosswords or drawings of new vocabulary. I moved around the students, used a lot of humor and made the class engaged. I stressed the speaking part over learning the grammar.
Assessment of La Chozita
The first thing that is very noticeable is that kids do not come on time. Most of them are not punctual. Most of the kids show up usually 30 minutes late. The kids should learn to respect coming on time. The kids in La Chozita are smart and intelligent; the problem is that at many times they do not pay attention and do not respect the instructors. They do not have the sense of who should be respected in the organization and that the instructors put their time and effort to organize a fun time and teach them something meaningful. My recommendation is to once again (if it has not been done previously) lay down the rules and make really clear what should be expected. There also should be a penalty system. If the kids really do not arrive more than one time per month to La Chozita, they should not receive their stipend. If the kids are more than 20 minutes late, there should be a small penalty, for example a subtraction of 5 pesos from their scholarship every time they are late. Not respecting the time is a serious problem in La Chozita. This can also be noticed while fulfilling a particular activity. The kids tend to procrastinate, or just waste time away instead of really focusing on finishing the given activity. Their projects should be supervised more strictly. The kids really cannot be let to do what they want. Also, their groups should be randomly chosen – a simple drawing from a sack of numbers. There are some particular groups of friends who want to work only with each other and which is not really enriching for the sake of building team skills. Random assignment of the teammates will create a situation where the kids will collaborate with not only their friends, but also other kids from La Chozita. It will also get rid of the heavy reliance on their “amigos – amigas” and the group-think. Random separation/assignment will teach them more independence and collaboration with other people.
The workshops for a given day should be more structured and organized. The kids cannot be left on their own, because then they will turn to doing whatever they want to. Once there is a given plan for the day of educational activities, the kids should be kept engaged for the whole period of La Chozita and fulfill the given tasks under supervision. They need to be kept moving and doing something the whole period or otherwise they will think that the time in La Chozita is for just for playing. Once I had activities that took the whole period of time, they were not bored and had to do the given tasks. They of course like activities that include music, visual aids, and crafting.
Monday is the homework day. The kids have three hours for doing their homework and using the help of the mentors. The idea of this day is good however it also not working very well. Some kids lie that they have homework and then just hang out doing nothing constructive. The ones that do not have homework are supposed to find themselves something to do or read, but that is not working out very well. Then, the groups of friends are forming again and there is a little havoc in the room. My proposal is to have a small activity prepared for the kids without homework. One of the recommendations is mathematical games, but having someone there to watch over the kids is very important. If the kids say they do have homework, they need to be supervised and constantly reminded that they need to do their homework. If they don’t have any, some activity should be prepared for them. Letting them on their own does not work. They will tell that they have found something to read, but will just start playing with their groups of friends. I also told my bosses that they need more staff for Germinalia. More people can take an adequate care of all children and better supervise the kids doing their homework.
Another recommendation is to advertise Germinalia in the United States or Europe and solicit full time volunteers like Bob or Michael who would spend a period of about three months with the Chozita and supervise the homework and educational activities days. The person coming from developed countries would probably receive a scholarship to come to San Cristobal. Many students need volunteer activities as part of their colleges’ curriculum, professors and teachers take sabbaticals, and employees from wealthy companies get sponsored to volunteer for social causes. There is a plethora of volunteers, they just need to be solicited appropriately. Then they can be a great help to Germinalia and really commit their time to forming organized activities that will make proper use of time with the educational activities. The person would have to make sure that the kids stay engaged and experiment with activities that will get their attention and willingness to learn something new.
A big problem with the kids is that they lie. There is a particular group of girls who are very mischievous and do not seem to enjoy coming to Germinalia. The problem however is that the kids need to be taught what lying is really about. I think that they do not have a clue what the consequences of telling lies all the time are. They lie about their homework, parents’ signatures, numbers drawn for group activities and other things. I prepared an activity about lies and the importance of honesty. The kids need to be better informed, however, about the rules in Germinalia. I recommend that some penalty system, for example, in the means of scholarship subtraction should be implemented in order to have them respect the organization and its instructors.
Also, consistency needs to be kept. The days of educational activities need to have continuity. For example, during one month they will be taught about the human body. There may then be a day of first aid, another day with a karate presentation, another with a small lecture how the eat well, etc. Then, the next month will switch to another significant topic.
The kids are smart and want to learn. The biggest problems are trust, respect, and punctuality. Many times the kids seem not to be interested in activities. There is the activity of reading. Initially the whole group read one book, but then we separated them in two smaller groups and chose a more interesting book to read. The kids still disrupt the activity and do not pay much attention. My recommendation is to separate them into even smaller groups when every person does not have to wait to read their part. Then, at least three instructors are needed for this reading period. To gain their attention, at the end of reading, there should be a small competition between the groups where they ask the other group questions about the material that was read.
Germinalia is a great organization and my bosses are young and dedicated people. My bosses acknowledged all of my recommendations. I found out that Germinalia will receive funding for building their own facility and hiring more people. They will then develop a new plan of strategies, employ adequate educators, focus on consistency and pay more individual attention to every kid. I felt that my bosses had too many tasks on their shoulders and perhaps for that reason there are some problems in the organization. Once the new Germinalia arises with more people to help out, I think the organization will flourish as a great social services foundation.
Un fruto más de la fortaleza de la mujer maya
