Since moving in July to the
small, rural town of Parramos, Guatemala to carry out my Princeton in Latin America fellowship, my world has
gotten a lot smaller and a whole lot bigger at the same time. Parramos has just under 10,000 residents and
is located in the central highlands of Guatemala, about a fifteen-minute drive
from Antigua. Living and working in the
confines of a small town has required me to adjust to living out the majority
of my days within about a three block radius of my host family´s home. While
the geographical space which I occupy has shrunk significantly since moving
here, my knowledge, skills, connections with the projects and people of
Parramos, and my desire to become even more involved in this community in the
coming months have expanded beyond what I thought possible.
While I am involved in a number
of projects here in Parramos, my primary work site is at Centro Educativo Trilingüe
Nuevo Amanecer, a school in Parramos where I work with elementary, middle, and
high school students teaching English. It has been a rewarding and challenging
experience finding ways to engage kids, even those who think they will never be
capable of learning English, through singing, Total Physical Response, and
various games. I have learned that it requires endless amounts of energy and
creativity to be a successful teacher, and everyday I gain more knowledge about
how to provide that energy and creativity to my students.
In addition to teaching at Centro
Educativo Trilingüe Nuevo Amanecer, I have worked the past few months with a
team of citizens to coordinate a summer school that will take place in November
and December, when the Guatemalan school year ends. In addition to recruiting
volunteers to teach Mayan culture, physical education, dance, math, and
English, I have been working hard to advertise the school to the children of
Parramos. It has been really rewarding to see the kids cheering and clapping
when I enter classrooms to talk to students about the vacation school, and I am
excited that they will have productive, interactive activities to participate
in during their vacation months. Another
benefit to coordinating the summer school is that it has allowed me to develop
connections with dozens of citizens in Parramos and given me an opportunity to
learn the strategies I need to use to organize projects here in rural Guatemala.
I realize now, for example, that going directly to someone´s home and talking
to them face-to-face is a hundred times more effective than calling or emailing
them.
In
Parramos, I have had the privilege of engaging in projects not only in
education, but also in public health through my work at the town´s local health
post. During my first few months at the
post, I have had the opportunity to learn how to vaccinate and supplement
patients. Now that I have spent a few months working on those skills, I am
currently transitioning into learning how to provide patient consultations with
the health post´s doctor. She is
teaching me to diagnose basic illnesses and to decide which medications and
dosages to use to treat patients. Given the large Kaqchikel indigenous
population in Parramos, it has been interesting to see how cultural perceptions
of health and well-being affect medical care and strategies for patient
education. This newly acquired knowledge regarding how to provide culturally
sensitive patient education has proven to be very useful in talks I have given
in a public school here in Parramos on family planning and substance
abuse.
I did
not expect to find myself this deeply intertwined in the Parramos community
this early in my fellowship, but the collaborative nature and warmth of the town´s
residents make it so easy to get involved. Life in Parramos is wonderful. Between waking up to mountains and fog every
morning, drinking fresh blackberry and
pineapple juices, and getting to say “Buenos
días” about fifteen times to acquaintances during my two-minute morning walk to
work, I´m really learning that I need to savor every moment I spend here. I
can´t wait to see how my perspectives, relationships, and work in this small
but vibrant community will grow and change in the next seven months.
Casey with two elementary level students at Centro Educativo
Trilingüe Nuevo Amanecer
Casey working at the health post in Parramos
A beautiful view while hiking a volcano
A street in Parramos very close to Casey’s house
