The classroom I sponsor in San Pablo la Laguna
The primary project I’m involved with, which exists around the south side of Lake Atitlan and also in the Antigua area, is Pedagogia Basica. This consists of a series of exercises to promote laterality, as most children in the rural areas are carried on their mother’s backs for as long as two years, and therefore don’t crawl or receive enough early stimulation to promote good bi-lateral brain development. There are also activities to promote serial memory, spatial orientation, and improve reading ability.
I also sponsor a preschool classroom with Estamos Listos and lend support to a local Guatemalan-led project to teach disadvantaged children to paint, which promotes the creation of traditional-themed murals on the walls of the pueblo.
A local project to promote computer-literacy for children also interests me, as does one for spaying and neutering stray dogs, one for introducing environmentally-sound ideas to children, and one to help clean up the lake.
You can’t live in a country like this without being assailed with ideas like these on what might help improve living conditions, or education, or health care. The problem that each volunteer runs into is how to accomplish these things. How to introduce ideas to minds accustomed to the way things have been for decades. How to do so respectfully, in a way that is culturally-relevant and provides options for the people we are serving. And how can we learn from them at the same time?
Many suggest that the concept of “trying to help” is suspect. As is “giving.” And the idea of “recipients.” These ideas are batted around by volunteers and visitors, folks here and folks at home….and they should be. We need to examine our efforts, as we ask the people here to examine their own ideas.
As a long-time social-worker and counselor, it is difficult for me to look at these issues in a new way. Beyond the need to be respectful and a really good listener and observer, beyond being attentive to what help is being requested, and whether the help you want to give actually promotes something (teaching a man to fish rather than handing him a fish,) I have yet to answer these questions for myself, but they come up over and over.
Latest posts by mirapope
- Marketing Techniques - July 27th, 2010
- When it Comes to Fundraising, Be Persistent - July 13th, 2010
- Be the Change You Want to See - December 11th, 2009
- Farming Practices — Changes are Coming! - November 24th, 2009
- Environmental Crisis, Community Opportunity - November 10th, 2009
- Culture of the Shaman - October 23rd, 2009
- Finding a Volunteer Situation that Fits - September 24th, 2009
- Money, Money, Money - September 3rd, 2009
- Adjustment - August 26th, 2009
- Living at Lago Atitlan - August 7th, 2009
