Week 5

OOPS! we havent updated for about two weeks. Sorry everyone...we have just been so busy and have been sucked into the "island" time warp. So while Kody is teaching his family how to set up video chat I am going to take some time to write a little.

I will start with week 5:

This week we stayed with Steve at the wonderful Casa Sirena and were lucky enough to be able to enjoy every single breakfast that is served there. Seriously, the breakfast was amazing. We usually live in houses or small apartments, this is the first hotel we have stayed at and it was the perfect week to stay there because we had some free time this week. We were in between schools and so we were working in the office everyday instead of teaching and so we had a little more flexibility in our schedule and were able to enjoy our time in the hotel and relax a little bit. Also, Steve hosts happy hour on his roof top bar every evening. Every evening around 6 all of the guests would go upstairs to hang out and enjoy some alcoholic beverages before going to dinner. The hotel is pretty small so everyone gets to know each other pretty quickly, so that was pretty fun. After a few days of living there we felt like we had known everyone for years. Everyone we met was so incredibly nice and supportive of what we were doing, if any of you guys are reading this THANK YOU SO MUCH! Special thanks to Dawn and Fran for feeding us and leaving us presents at our door before you left!


2/15/2010

Carnaval started this week so Centro was transformed into a magical wonderland. The theme of Carnaval is Aves de Paraiso so there is a flock of enormous flamingos in stationary flight all around the main stage where the festivities will take place. People are running around in elaborate costumes ready to dance at any moment. People are riding around in giant trucks in their costumes with music blaring and every couple of blocks they will stop the truck and do a couple dances. A lot of our students were participating in the festivities so it was fun to see them all dressed up and having fun outside of school. They had a performance at the middle school early in the week that we were able to go see and we got some good videos that we will post. The middle school teachers even did a performance dressed as giant flamingos...only in Mexico. In all honesty though, they were pretty awesome. I am not sure about Kody, but the dancing has been my favorite part of Mardi Gras.



We mostly did office work this week and then had three classes on Friday at the public high school (Colegio Bachilleres). The students at this school are much different than at the middle school in that they are pretty knowledgeable about sexual and reproductive health. So far we have only worked with three groups, but they all seem like really awesome kids. There is even a girl who lived in houston for a year and did one year of high school there.

The after school meetings with the kids are still not going very well. Only one kid showed up this week and it was worse than no kids showing up at all, it was extremely depressing. Poor guy, I dont think he is ever going to come back. So we left the Cruz Roja, yet again, looking defeated and with a bunch of unopened snacks. I thought about telling them that at least one kid showed up this time but decided not to. The one kid that showed up told us that nobody would come to any meetings until after Carnaval was over so we canceled the second meeting for the week and the Tuesday meeting for the following week. Better luck next time I guess...



On Saturday morning we woke up to devastating news about Guadalupana (the squatter's settlement on the Island, we wrote about it during Week 4). There was a fire that burned down 18 houses and 9 families lost everything. Luckily nobody was seriously injured, but there is nothing left of the houses. PEACE, the organization we are partnering with, is working with La Gloria English School and the women in the Guadalupana community to help the families get what they need over the next few days.

Week 4

2/6/2010

We had a week full of ups and downs, to say the least. Poor Kody has been sick all week, I was sick before and must have passed it along to him. He ended up getting a cough so I made him go to the doctor after the 5th day thinking it would help but it just made things worse. Really, I feel terrible about it. He had a horrible reaction to the antibiotics, muscle aches, cold sweats, and barf everywhere. On top of the reaction, the whole ordeal cost about 700 pesos. The doctor was very nice and only charged us half because we told him about the project we are working on, but the antibiotics were really expensive. Anyway, he stopped taking the medicine and has returned from the dead.


We worked in the private middle school this week, there is a big contrast between the private and public school. There were 8-12 kids per class instead of 30-40 and the classrooms were much more conducive to learning and teaching as well. We had a little bit more flexibility with time and only had 3 groups instead of 5. I think the highlight of the week was when we were doing the condom activity with the oldest group and one kid whipped a giant carrot out of his pocket that he had brought to school with him to use instead of the carrots we were going to hand out to them, he was even nice enough to let us use it for the initial condom demo.

This is picture of Kody giving a demonstration of how female condom works. It is really interesting to see how the teenage girls and boys react to seeing a guy explain how to use a female condom. In the past I have usually done this part of the class but we decided to switch it up this week and I think it was a really positive experience for the students. Also, it probably helps that all the little girls have huge crushes on him and pay more attention to him anyway.


We were supposed to work with 4th and 5th graders as well but even though the school was in complete support of the program, there were parents who were not comfortable with their children learning the material and so we were unable to finish working with them. The teachers and director of the school all feel that it is very important for the students to finish the program and going to talk more with the parents and hopefully we will be able to come back. Unfortunately, in many places in the world not just Mexico, there is a belief that children are to young to learn about sexuality and their bodies and then when they are entering adolescence or adulthood it is time to cram all that information into their brain. Sexuality is not something a person can learn or began to understand through one hour of sex ed class, it is something that a person has to build on their entire life through age appropriate education and information. The more a person understands about their body and how it works, the more respect they will have for it.

We got a new meeting space at the Cruz Roja (Red Cross), however, no kids showed up to our after school meetings. At first we thought there was some drama going on, but as it turns out our meetings just conflict with dance practice for Carnival festivities. We are going to work with the kids to see if we can figure out a different time for the meetings until after Carnival and hopefully things will pick up again after February 13th or so. We have also been working with Anna to work out a long term plan for the group and what the different options are.

Also, Thanks to Daniel and Manuel, some very generous humans who are also teachers at the private middle school, we had a place to stay this week. Thanks Guys!! We have had a great time with you! And Rubi, thank you for being so excited to see us everyday when we get home from school.


-Lena

2/1/2010

Today was a school holiday, so we didn't have any classes to teach and spent the late morning and early afternoon in the office getting ready for the rest of the week.

It has been raining the past couple of days but after we left the office it cleared up for a little bit and so we walked down to the beach.


This week we are staying in a part of Isla known as La Gloria. Just down the road from us is a new community called La Guadalupana. Right now La Guadalupana is a squatter community. In Mexico there is a law that if you live on government land for a certain number of years, meaning you spend every night there for X amount of time, you gain ownership of the land. As of now, this community is not recognized as a colonia and there is no running water (and maybe no electricity).

The people on the island seem to have mixed feelings about this community. Some could care less, while others would rather it not exist, which is why it has also been called La Invasión. While working in La Secundaria we saw an incident where some kids were making fun of one of the students because they lived in La Guadalupana.


While walking along the beach we came across some interesting creatures in some tide pools. We encountered snails, sea urchins, hermit crabs, and something neither of us had ever seen before. We still aren't sure what they are, perhaps some type of echinoderm. They were all different colors, their bodies are extremely rigid, and they crawl along the rocks. Of course I tried to flip one over, but no dice, these creatures aren't going anywhere they don't want to unless you have a jackhammer on hand. We couldn't find any information about them, so if anyone knows what they are, let us know.



-Kody

Week 3

This week we stayed with Allison and Jeff. They run an organization called Isla Animals and are dedicated to improving the lives of animals on the island. They organize free spay and neuter clinics and rescue dogs and puppies and adopt them out to families in Mexico, The United States and Canada.



We are finishing up at the secundaria this week and have started meeting with the students outside of school to form a group that will carry on with workshops and other events after we leave Isla. Right now we are working on building the group so we can start planning for a community fair for the end of February. Our first meeting was on Tuesday and 4 students showed up, we are hoping this is because it was also a school holiday and not because we bore them to tears. We have been looking for a meeting space because there was some kind of mix up with the place we had reserved and it is no longer available, so we had our meeting by the water instead. Luckily, on Thursday about eight kids showed up and more kids started asking us about the program at school. So far it is a really awesome group of kids and we are so happy we get to continue working with them after we finish our class at the school this Friday.




Our box is beginning to fall apart...please help us!



We were given the opportunity to do two 40 minute sessions at one of the elementary schools on the island. The first one we did was with the parents of the 4th and 5th grade students and the second was with the 4th and 5th grade students. With the parents we went over how to talk with your children about sex and by what ages children should be aware of different aspects of sexuality and health. For the kids we decided to focus on anatomy and puberty. This is the first time that either one of us had taught a sex education class to elementary age kids, so we didnt really know what to expect. We brought our materials that we use with the older kids but had done some research on other activities to do for elementary age kids...once we got there we decided to scrap our giant posters of penises and vaginas and go with the simpler and more relevant activities, specially since we could not separate them due to the time and space constraints. Over all the sessions went really well and we are looking forward to doing more like them. These last couple of pictures are from the basketball court at the school. Can you imagine going to an elementary school that over looked the ocean this like?!?

Week 2

This week we stayed with Zina in her guest house. If you ever visit Isla Mujeres and need a place to stay, we suggest getting in contact with Zina!

This week we started working in the secondaria (middle school) teaching a 2 week long sex education course. We went to Cancun on Sunday to get copies made since we needed over 1000 copies and probably would have used up all the ink on the island. We went to the office depot to get our copies and the people working in the copy center were so incredibly helpful, even after making over 100 copies of reproductive organs. They even gave us a free cardboard box to put everything in.

Now that we have all of our supplies and materials, Zina's guest house has now been transformed into a fully functioning teacher workroom and materials library for sex educators. We have giant pictures of reproductive anatomy spread out on the floor as well as posters detailing the cause and effects of sexually transmitted diseases and infections, AND we have are using the cardboard box office depot gave us to hold all of our information packets, condoms, and carrots (for the condom demonstration). There is even a nice papeleria across from us that is open late, hurray!

The wonderful civics and ethics teacher, Cristina, has allowed us to take over her classes for the next two weeks and has been teaching with us a lot. She is AMAZING!! She is extremely knowledgeable about sexual and reproductive health and it is obvious that the students really trust her. I hope we get this lucky at every school we work at...

The kids are really full of energy and the classes we are teaching are HUGE, there are a couple with 40 students in them at least. The classrooms seem to amplify the kids voices, but drown ours out. We need a megaphone or something. However, they do seem very engaged and interested in what we are teaching them and are very willing to participate.

I think the word is starting to spread around school about who we are and what we are doing there because everytime we walk through the courtyard of the school with our cardboard box, kids start following us asking for "condones" (condoms) and wondering when we are going to come and visit there class. Every once in a while a condón will disappear from our box and we will se it floating over the school with writing all over it, or being launched across the courtyard like a water balloon.

Week 1

We are finally in Isla Mujeres! The past couple of months it has seemed unreal that we would soon be working and living in Mexico, sharing this experience together. There are a lot of things running through my mind right now about the experience. Along with feeling very excited and anxious to start working and to meet all the students and people we will be working with, there are a lot of questions in the back of my mind.....Have we lost our minds? Will we want to kill each other after spending 24/7 together? What if the kids don't like us? Or what if we fail miserably? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Anna, the directora of PEACE, met us when we got off the ferry and took us to our first "home" on the Island. There are some very wonderful people on this island who have donated housing to us, and many other wonderful people who have donated and supported the program in many different other ways. This has cut down on the cost of the project significantly, and surely would not be possible without them. We are going to be in Isla Mujeres for about 2 months and during that time will be moving every week to a new house or apartment. We have just arrived and haven't heard very much about the other places we will be staying, but we are eternally grateful for a roof over our head. This first place is sooo cute (Que Barbara), so we will be sad to leave it. It was donated by a wonderful couple, Bonnie and Ariel, who also own a dive shop called Sea Hawk Divers. We haven't met them yet but we love this place.


This first week it looks like we will be spending a lot of time meeting with city officials, the health director, and local teachers to work out some more details of our project. It looks like it will be a very busy week.

We had our first day of work on Saturday, the after we arrived. Some how we got our clocks set wrong, so we showed up an hour early. It took us almost the full hour sitting out in the drizzle to realize that this had happened and that we hadn't fallen victim to "mexico time".

Also, it seems as though we have arrived here during the coldest days Isla Mujeres has seen in a very long time. I am wishing I brought more warm clothes and less bathing suits.