Today's presentation was certainly an interesting one! We arrived in the town of Esquincla, immediately burst into sweat from the heat and humidity, and were greeted by an overwhelming number of excited and noisy children in the school. They enthusiastically clamored to the windows to see who their new and foreign visitors were. We toured the school and ascended to the computer lab, generously donated by a company called "Telefonica" who chose Esquincla as the most in need out of 150 candidates in Guatemala. We then proceeded to descend back to first floor and noticed that about 100 children (of the 500 total!) had come out of class to listen to our presentations in the tiny courtyard.
We began presenting in front of the students, who were a very tough crowd to please. They were very immersed in their own conversations and were not quite as interested in our information as previous groups. This certainly made the presentations difficult and made us talk very loud, but we nonetheless saw it as a great learning experience that we can use to tweak our presentations, as well as another exposure to a different side of Guatemala. Every so often, however, the children would scoot closer and closer to me or Evan, indicating that they had some interest in the problems and solutions of the water crisis.
After the massive presentation to the children in the courtyard, we decided that the reception was not what it should be, so we did two smaller presentations in classrooms where the children were much more focused and eager to participate. We made our presentations much shorter, which kept the kids from chatting with their neighbors. These went much better, and in the end, they were able to learn from us, we were able to learn very much from them, and, like always, they were sad to see us leave as we boarded the van to return to Antigua. See you tomorrow!
Kyle
Kyle
I woke up in the morning expecting that I was going to go to Señoras house without anything weird happening. Whoo was I wrong. I got to their street and lake Antitlan was sitting right in front of their house. My first thought was " why is there a lake in front of their house?" Then I thought about it some more and nothing else popped into my head because this was so mind boggling. Anyways my morning proceeded to be the usual by doing my blog and them going to the school to present our project.
ReplyDeleteThe presentation today was a little bit different. It started off by as soon as we got into the proximity of the school, the temperature immediately rose to about 90 degrees (maybe a little exaggeration but not much). Then, once we started our presentation, none of the kids were interested in what we were saying. All they could do was eagerly stare at our wrists because they wanted the silly bands. They were like hungry hyenas lurking on their prey and when they got the bands, they did that screeching awful laugh/ bark. It was a hard one, but we recovered it to make it a collegiate standard good
After traveling about an hour to get to the school, we were greeted by 500 kids. This school was very different from the other ones, as it was much larger, and the kids were rowdier. In order for them to hear us we had to practically scream, but after our main presentation it was nice to get to talk to smaller classrooms. Because of the broken pipes, I showered in rain water, which was not really a big deal. The water rushing down the street was interesting to see, because I could not recall the last time it rained. Today was awesome, and I am looking forward to going to a school with a more mild climate.
ReplyDeleteToday really hit me as a day to remember. We all traveled to a school that was about an hour away and the sight of it astonished me. First of a, it was Atleast 100 degrees due to humidity and the sun and also about 500 kids ran up to us and greeted us. As I walked around the school, I noticed that there was only water source there and it was out of a dirty tap which everyone used. The water just came from a normal river and all of the kids were drinking out of it as if it was clean to them. This school I felt was a school that needed the most help and development. Tomorrow we are visiting another school and I hope that we present well and send our message across to them.
ReplyDeleteYesterday was one of the most memorable days of the trip. First, we woke up to a flooded Antigua with no water to shower. I guess some water pipes had broken overnight so while we were lacking water inside of our houses, there was plenty for us to dodge in the streets. The street we all had to cross to get to Señora's house was filled with water like a permanent puddle.
ReplyDeleteLater, the school we visited was completely different than the other ones we'd been to. They warned us that it would be warmer, but we were in no way prepared for the sauna-like weather at that school. Not only was it so warm we could barely breathe, the kids in the classes were all talking nonstop, so that all students could be heard screaming from any point in the school. I felt bad for them, and for the teachers, because even though they must be somewhat used to the weather you could visibly see the sweat glistening on everyone's face. Our presentation was frustrating because we couldn't get them quiet and instead of paying attention the students just swarmed around with their eyes glued to our arms in hopes of receiving a silly band. I was surrounded by kids who unashamedly just stood and stared at me during the presentation. Some even reached out to touch my hair, and then talk about it to their friends because they knew I didn't understand them. Once we were finished with our presentations we neglected the usual playting with the kids for an hour or so and looked forward to the bus ride home with air conditioning. It's sad that we could barely survive an hour there, while other kids are privileged to have the opportunity to learn in such a miserable environment.