Henry has a way of asking me questions that require a much longer answer than I suspect he wants. Though the answer can be traced back through generations of change that has taken place among the Mayan people, I suffice it to say that their parents just don't really want them going to high school. They'd rather that their daughters stayed at home, learn how to manage the house while the father is at the farm, and get ready to become wives and mothers. He seemed satisfied with the answer and we continued our walk from the school. Though a relatively straight forward answer, this isn't an attribute of village life that I particularly care for - and I was happy to hear that Henry agreed.
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| Henry |
"That's stupid. Girls should still go to high school. They should be able to learn how to work and help bring money into the house." Right you are, my boy, right you are.
Answering this, however, was significantly easier to answer than his, "How does someone get AIDS?" question. It's a touchy topic to explain to a 14 year old boy.
This question, though asked at random, is a fairly hot topic in the village. There is a definite divide among families as to whether to send their daughters to high school. In fact, even sending males to high school is something that only became popular over the past decade or so. Nowadays, 75% or more of males in my village go to high school whereas females that go on to high school is only around 25%. This divide is due mostly to the reasons listed above: fathers would rather their daughter stay at home so that she can learn skills that will make her a good wife. With that being said, I can safely say that female empowerment, especially at the primary school level, is something that I wish I could have touched on more (though, I feel like the Student Leader program could open the door to this if another volunteer is to be placed in my site when I'm gone).
Alas, as my old youth leader used to say, "If ifs and buts were candies and nuts, we'd all be throwing parties." With just two months left of service, starting a girls empowerment or leadership group is just something that I can't do, especially with all of the other projects that I have going on. One of these projects, however, does attempt to break this gender divide in an alternative fashion: BRO Club. The thinking goes that if we can convince boys to think like Henry and recognize that by giving girls an education and more freedom, as well as treating them with the respect they deserve, we can improve society as a whole.
This topic is something that I'm hoping to cover with the boys either in the next month or during the BRO Camp that will be taking place at the end of June. For the camp, my work partner, Mr. Coc, and I will be taking 10 boys to Belize District for a week to learn about this and other topics that pertain to them and ensuring that they become strong leaders for their communities.
In order to get to camp, though, we needed to find the funds to pay for the boys travel, so my work partner and I decided that we would host a football marathon in the village. The first step was to select the 10 boys that would be attending camp. The boys had to be well behaved, good leaders, and show an interest in bettering themselves and their communities. After selecting the boys, Mr. Coc and I had a meeting with the parents to ensure that they would be willing to cook for such an event. It we want to make money, we'll have to sell something. Not only did the parents agree to cook, but they also committed to donating the corn masa that would be needed for the panades and tamales. This was a huge step. Getting the parents involved and invested in the camp was almost a sure way of seeing how many students we would be taking with us to Belize.
It's not enough, however, for the parents to be committed. We wanted to make sure that the boys were dedicated to going to camp as well. Mr. Coc gave each of the boys a responsibility that they were in charge of during the marathon. Some boys were responsible for picking up trash, others for setting the tables. If one boys didn't help the others with a particular responsibility, then chances were he didn't receive any help for his responsibility. A couple of the boys fell into this trap and really learned the importance of working as a team. The fundraiser was a huge success and we were able to get enough money to go to camp twice!
Mr. Coc spoke to me the following day and informed me that he was 100% invested in the club following the fundraiser. We had a meeting with the boys and had them elect two leaders. I was very happy with the selection of leaders. Both boys are most definitely leaders among their peers, but they also have a habit of leading in the wrong ways every now and then, particularly being disrespectful and not listening. I really believe that putting these two boys in a position of leadership will put pressure on them to set a good example and be good leaders among the other boys. We also had the boys come up with a pledge:
I pledge on my honor to uphold the objects of San Vicente BRO Club,
To use my head for clearer thinking,
My heart for greater trustworthiness,
My hands to larger service,
And my health to better living for my club, my community, my country, and my world.
I think it's pretty solid, but that's just me.
Aside from BRO, I've also been extremely busy with helping to build latrines, planning a trip for the Student Leaders, lessons for the Pigs Dig project, school sports, and, as of yesterday, Close of Service documents. Didn't someone say that the last three months were supposed to be easier? Or am I just making that up?
The latrine project has been going well. We bought more materials around the end of April/beginning of May, so people have been coming to me constantly in order to get the materials from the Community Center. There are some days where a person will show up to my house at 5:30 in the morning asking for materials, and I'll be up doing work from that point until 7:00 at night. On days like these I'll probably have given out materials to build two or three toilets.
The project will be coming to an end on May 31. I went around the village and informed the people that had come to the informational sessions that if they wanted to get their materials, they must dig their hole by that day. Some time during the first week of June, I will be going into town with Ac Yuam to pick up materials for those toilets. My goal is that by the end of June, we will have helped build 50 toilets in the village.
The pig project is also going very well. We have given out the pigs to the seven students who are participating in the project. The students have been doing a really good job taking care of the pigs and seemed really invested. They have been attending the after school life-skills sessions as well as a session on financial management and pig rearing. There are still a few more lessons that we need to have with them, but I anticipate that they will go smoothly.
The Student Leader program at the school is also going well. The students are planning and trip to Xunantunich, but in order to go, we had to do another fundraiser separate from the BRO Club football marathon. Having two fundraisers in the same week turned out to be a little confusing for some of the parents, especially the ones that were helping with both fundraisers, but we managed. The Students Leader fundraiser was one Mother's Day. The school hosted a Mother's Day event and the Student Leaders sold rice and beans, panades, tamales, bananas, and watermelon. Our goal was to raise $300 so that we could charter the bus up to Xunantunich. I'm happy to say that thanks to the hard work of the students and their parents, we were able to reach the goal!
Aside from these two fundraisers that were used as a way to raise money for the different clubs that I had helped start in the village, I was a part of another fundraiser, this one just for the school. It was a barbecue that required I wake up at 1:00 AM to help. I decided that it would be good if I went out and helped support the school by helping cook, but I still don't think I've recovered from the lack of sleep...
Sports have also been going really well at the school, and San Vicente R.C. School is proving to be one of the premier boys sports programs in the district of Toledo. In December, the boys made it to Nationals for volleyball and got second. The boys also got second at district for football in the Bishop's Cup and will be going back to district for football to participate in the Sports Council's tournament. If they are able to win district for Sports Council, they will get to make another trip to nationals.
The boys seemed to really enjoy Bishop's Cup District, not necessarily because of the football (they weren't too happy to have gotten second), but because of the girls. As I've said the boys have gone out of the village a few times, but I have never seem them interact with girls from different villages before. It was hilarious to watch 13 and 14 year old boys just giggling in the middle of a conversation with these girls. Henry's laugh is particularly giggly, and the boys told me that one of the girls had grabbed his butt and he just started giggling. One of the girls (the same one, I presume) also took one of his cleats from him. Ten minutes before the game, he came to the coach with only the remaining cleat on and a smile on his face and said that one of the girls had stolen his shoe. As you can imagine, the coach didn't find it as funny as Henry did. I'm happy to say he got it back before the game. Even during the championship game, as the girls' bus was leaving, they all started cheering for the boys team. The timing was pretty poor as it was during a corner kick, but Henry forgot all about the game and looked over at the coach and I and started giggling some more, not even paying attention to the fact that the other team had just kicked the corner. After the boys got second, the coach and I decided that the boys wouldn't be allowed to talk to girls next time; it made them all lose their focus, despite how funny it was to watch.
The most recent sporting even was softball. Going into the softball seasons, I didn't expect much from our boys. This was the first year that they had played, and they had no idea what the rules were. Going into zone, we didn't practice too much, either. I was so focused on track and field that I figured the boys would lose zone and then keep practicing for track. I was, however, incorrect. The boys went onto win zone, so the teachers at the school and I decided that we would really start to practice with the boys and at least make sure that they knew the rules; we didn't want them to embarrass themselves at district. Turned out, though, that knowing the basic rules was all you really needed to win district. The boys won the district tournament getting two triple plays on pop flies in the district championship. They were going to Nationals for a sport for the second time in the year!!
The day before Nationals was fairly uneventful. We had one last practice with the boys after school just to go over any last minute rule reminders. Around 8:30 that night, I was getting ready for bed when the man driving the charter arrived at my house. The plan had been to leave the village at 3:00 AM, but now he was telling me that we needed to leave at 2:30... This may not seem like a huge change, but all week, the coach had been telling the boys to be at the school at 2:45. With the change of plans, though, if they were to listen to that, they would have been left. Because of the change, I had to go around to all 10 houses and inform the boys that we would be leaving earlier. This meant waking up all of their families. Peace Corps teaches us to be flexible, so I took a deep breath and go over it, but having to run this little errand for the driver who decided last minute to change his plans cost me an hour and a half of sleep.. Not that anyone's counting.
I'm happy to say that all of the boys made it the next morning and were on the bus up to Belize. Unfortunately, once we arrived, we realized that just knowing the basic rules may have worked for district, but it would not work for Nationals. There were all sorts of weird softball rules that the coach and I had never heard of. The boys ended up getting last, but they were happy to have gone and at least represented Toledo.
Despite the fact that the boys didn't perform as well as anyone would have liked, there were still a lot of memories made, both by the boys and myself. At one point, I had just gotten back from the bathroom and got some water out of the water fountain. When I reached the place we were sitting, the boys asked for my water. Obviously, I said no; there was free water right down the stairs. Well, at this, all the boys jumped up and went to look for this water. They were gone for about 5 minutes before they started yelling for me.
"There's no free water here!!"
"Of course there is."
I pointed to the water fountain. At this, they all started touching it and pushing down on the spout to no avail. Finally, after giving them a second to explore, I told one of the boys to put his face down toward the spout and I pushed the button to release the water. All the boys laughed as it shot him in the ear. It was crazy to see just how disconnected they are from modern technology. I don't realize it too often in the village. Most people have cell phones and use internet. It seemed only natural they would know what a water fountain was. It was really cool to see their fascination at something that so many people consider everyday.
Aside from the water fountain incident, the boys had also been distracted by something from the moment that they had entered the stadium; however, this time, as opposed to the girls at Bishop's Cup District Championships. The complex where softball was taking place consisted of two fields: the one where the two games were taking place and another that was surrounded by a 400m track. The first thing the boys noticed when we entered the stadium, wasn't the softball field but the track. I was obviously very pleased about this. They had a bye for the first round and wanted to go to the track. The coach and I, though, decided that it would be better if they waited until after they had finished playing. Little did we know that would only be two games.
Since the softball tournament had ended so quickly for our team, they immediately wanted to go check out the track. By this time, it was about 3:30, so high school teams were starting to show up when we got there. The boys did a few laps on the track. They were overwhelmed by how much bigger it was than the little makeshift 200m track that they had been practicing on, but it was better for them to see it now than on the day of track nationals (that is, assuming they make it). I got to teach them about staggered starts and the different pacing strategies for a 400m track compared to a 200m track. It was awesome!
They then asked me to run a lap and see how fast I could do it. I declined a few times, but in my head I knew it was only a matter of time. Then one of the high school students asked me to race him. He said that he usually ran about a 60 second 400, so I figured what the heck. I took off in the lead but that didn't last long. By the 200m mark, I was dead. In the end, the kid I was running against ran a 61 and I was at 63. The boys were giving me shit for not winning, but, to be honest, I was pleased with the run. In high school, I only ever hit 55. I hadn't run much in the months leading up to what became known as "the race" (okay, maybe not really, sometimes I like to exaggerate the magnitude of situations), and I was running in khaki shorts and no shoes. To run a 63 second 400 was better than I had expected.
Following the race, the boys continued to watch the high school students warm up some before starting their workout. We boarded the bus as the sun was setting over Belize City. The seven hour trip back to the village, as opposed to the trip out, was quite as the boys slept. I closed my eyes to sleep with thoughts, not of the disappointment of getting last, running through my mind, but of the prided that I have in the boys who worked so hard to get their in the first place. I only hope that they show this same passion and motivation to make it back out again for football, track and field, and even in life.
The latrine project has been going well. We bought more materials around the end of April/beginning of May, so people have been coming to me constantly in order to get the materials from the Community Center. There are some days where a person will show up to my house at 5:30 in the morning asking for materials, and I'll be up doing work from that point until 7:00 at night. On days like these I'll probably have given out materials to build two or three toilets.
The project will be coming to an end on May 31. I went around the village and informed the people that had come to the informational sessions that if they wanted to get their materials, they must dig their hole by that day. Some time during the first week of June, I will be going into town with Ac Yuam to pick up materials for those toilets. My goal is that by the end of June, we will have helped build 50 toilets in the village.
The pig project is also going very well. We have given out the pigs to the seven students who are participating in the project. The students have been doing a really good job taking care of the pigs and seemed really invested. They have been attending the after school life-skills sessions as well as a session on financial management and pig rearing. There are still a few more lessons that we need to have with them, but I anticipate that they will go smoothly.
 |
| Learning to give pigs injections |
The Student Leader program at the school is also going well. The students are planning and trip to Xunantunich, but in order to go, we had to do another fundraiser separate from the BRO Club football marathon. Having two fundraisers in the same week turned out to be a little confusing for some of the parents, especially the ones that were helping with both fundraisers, but we managed. The Students Leader fundraiser was one Mother's Day. The school hosted a Mother's Day event and the Student Leaders sold rice and beans, panades, tamales, bananas, and watermelon. Our goal was to raise $300 so that we could charter the bus up to Xunantunich. I'm happy to say that thanks to the hard work of the students and their parents, we were able to reach the goal!
Aside from these two fundraisers that were used as a way to raise money for the different clubs that I had helped start in the village, I was a part of another fundraiser, this one just for the school. It was a barbecue that required I wake up at 1:00 AM to help. I decided that it would be good if I went out and helped support the school by helping cook, but I still don't think I've recovered from the lack of sleep...
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| Barbecue fundraiser |
Sports have also been going really well at the school, and San Vicente R.C. School is proving to be one of the premier boys sports programs in the district of Toledo. In December, the boys made it to Nationals for volleyball and got second. The boys also got second at district for football in the Bishop's Cup and will be going back to district for football to participate in the Sports Council's tournament. If they are able to win district for Sports Council, they will get to make another trip to nationals.
The boys seemed to really enjoy Bishop's Cup District, not necessarily because of the football (they weren't too happy to have gotten second), but because of the girls. As I've said the boys have gone out of the village a few times, but I have never seem them interact with girls from different villages before. It was hilarious to watch 13 and 14 year old boys just giggling in the middle of a conversation with these girls. Henry's laugh is particularly giggly, and the boys told me that one of the girls had grabbed his butt and he just started giggling. One of the girls (the same one, I presume) also took one of his cleats from him. Ten minutes before the game, he came to the coach with only the remaining cleat on and a smile on his face and said that one of the girls had stolen his shoe. As you can imagine, the coach didn't find it as funny as Henry did. I'm happy to say he got it back before the game. Even during the championship game, as the girls' bus was leaving, they all started cheering for the boys team. The timing was pretty poor as it was during a corner kick, but Henry forgot all about the game and looked over at the coach and I and started giggling some more, not even paying attention to the fact that the other team had just kicked the corner. After the boys got second, the coach and I decided that the boys wouldn't be allowed to talk to girls next time; it made them all lose their focus, despite how funny it was to watch.
The most recent sporting even was softball. Going into the softball seasons, I didn't expect much from our boys. This was the first year that they had played, and they had no idea what the rules were. Going into zone, we didn't practice too much, either. I was so focused on track and field that I figured the boys would lose zone and then keep practicing for track. I was, however, incorrect. The boys went onto win zone, so the teachers at the school and I decided that we would really start to practice with the boys and at least make sure that they knew the rules; we didn't want them to embarrass themselves at district. Turned out, though, that knowing the basic rules was all you really needed to win district. The boys won the district tournament getting two triple plays on pop flies in the district championship. They were going to Nationals for a sport for the second time in the year!!
 |
| Boys before the game |
The day before Nationals was fairly uneventful. We had one last practice with the boys after school just to go over any last minute rule reminders. Around 8:30 that night, I was getting ready for bed when the man driving the charter arrived at my house. The plan had been to leave the village at 3:00 AM, but now he was telling me that we needed to leave at 2:30... This may not seem like a huge change, but all week, the coach had been telling the boys to be at the school at 2:45. With the change of plans, though, if they were to listen to that, they would have been left. Because of the change, I had to go around to all 10 houses and inform the boys that we would be leaving earlier. This meant waking up all of their families. Peace Corps teaches us to be flexible, so I took a deep breath and go over it, but having to run this little errand for the driver who decided last minute to change his plans cost me an hour and a half of sleep.. Not that anyone's counting.
I'm happy to say that all of the boys made it the next morning and were on the bus up to Belize. Unfortunately, once we arrived, we realized that just knowing the basic rules may have worked for district, but it would not work for Nationals. There were all sorts of weird softball rules that the coach and I had never heard of. The boys ended up getting last, but they were happy to have gone and at least represented Toledo.
Despite the fact that the boys didn't perform as well as anyone would have liked, there were still a lot of memories made, both by the boys and myself. At one point, I had just gotten back from the bathroom and got some water out of the water fountain. When I reached the place we were sitting, the boys asked for my water. Obviously, I said no; there was free water right down the stairs. Well, at this, all the boys jumped up and went to look for this water. They were gone for about 5 minutes before they started yelling for me.
"There's no free water here!!"
"Of course there is."
I pointed to the water fountain. At this, they all started touching it and pushing down on the spout to no avail. Finally, after giving them a second to explore, I told one of the boys to put his face down toward the spout and I pushed the button to release the water. All the boys laughed as it shot him in the ear. It was crazy to see just how disconnected they are from modern technology. I don't realize it too often in the village. Most people have cell phones and use internet. It seemed only natural they would know what a water fountain was. It was really cool to see their fascination at something that so many people consider everyday.
 |
| Trying to turn this thing on |
Aside from the water fountain incident, the boys had also been distracted by something from the moment that they had entered the stadium; however, this time, as opposed to the girls at Bishop's Cup District Championships. The complex where softball was taking place consisted of two fields: the one where the two games were taking place and another that was surrounded by a 400m track. The first thing the boys noticed when we entered the stadium, wasn't the softball field but the track. I was obviously very pleased about this. They had a bye for the first round and wanted to go to the track. The coach and I, though, decided that it would be better if they waited until after they had finished playing. Little did we know that would only be two games.
Since the softball tournament had ended so quickly for our team, they immediately wanted to go check out the track. By this time, it was about 3:30, so high school teams were starting to show up when we got there. The boys did a few laps on the track. They were overwhelmed by how much bigger it was than the little makeshift 200m track that they had been practicing on, but it was better for them to see it now than on the day of track nationals (that is, assuming they make it). I got to teach them about staggered starts and the different pacing strategies for a 400m track compared to a 200m track. It was awesome!
They then asked me to run a lap and see how fast I could do it. I declined a few times, but in my head I knew it was only a matter of time. Then one of the high school students asked me to race him. He said that he usually ran about a 60 second 400, so I figured what the heck. I took off in the lead but that didn't last long. By the 200m mark, I was dead. In the end, the kid I was running against ran a 61 and I was at 63. The boys were giving me shit for not winning, but, to be honest, I was pleased with the run. In high school, I only ever hit 55. I hadn't run much in the months leading up to what became known as "the race" (okay, maybe not really, sometimes I like to exaggerate the magnitude of situations), and I was running in khaki shorts and no shoes. To run a 63 second 400 was better than I had expected.
Following the race, the boys continued to watch the high school students warm up some before starting their workout. We boarded the bus as the sun was setting over Belize City. The seven hour trip back to the village, as opposed to the trip out, was quite as the boys slept. I closed my eyes to sleep with thoughts, not of the disappointment of getting last, running through my mind, but of the prided that I have in the boys who worked so hard to get their in the first place. I only hope that they show this same passion and motivation to make it back out again for football, track and field, and even in life.
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