Back to the Spanish Scool/Community Center to plan for tomorrow's return trip to HOH. My group will be teaching the resident women how to teach their children to do chores. It is not so much the specific instructions of a particular chore, but the process. As teachers, we model first, then guide through practice, and finally release our students to do on their own. The "I do, we do, you do" method of teaching. The women living at HOH were never taught how to keep a home. They survived on the street, often moving from one temporary place to another. They did not have role models to follow. Our job is to break down the teaching into simple steps through role playing. Those steps include knowing how to give feedback, both positive and constructive. In addition, we will let them know that the process takes time and practice. If a child doesn't do the chore right, it simply means more modeling and practice may be required. All of this will be taught in Spanish, of course! Thank goodness we are working in groups!
Others will be teaching the importance teaching chores in the first place. Another group will talk about age appropriateness of specific chores. The last group will show the women simple chore charts they can use to help motivate their children and stay organized. Why go through all this? Well, the director of the program asked us to do this because the women just do not have the backgrounds to take care of homes or to teach their children. She told a story about one woman who left her 4 year old to watch over her house while she was away. When she returned, she realized the house had been robbed. She beat her child for failing to do what she'd asked. Once again, we take so much for granted in our life experiences. Seems so basic, but all of this is far from basic.
The afternoon Spanish class is long and intense, four hours every day. I struggled to stay focused a bit today as the heat and humidity drained my energy. I will say that I am really enjoying being able to hold significant conversations with our teacher. We have been sharing a lot about our lives and processing our experiences here. I told her a lot about HOH. She shared a story about one of her teaching colleagues at the high school. This young woman (25 yrs old) was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant. Her mother and stepfather kicked her out of the house. When she had the baby, she also turned to prostitution to support herself and the baby. It is so hard to wrap my head around all of this! Here, she has a professional degree as a teacher, yet she cannot survive. She could be one of my children. What a horrific choice so many women are forced to make! My teacher explained that this situation is very common. The society is based on men. They have so much power over women. She also said that since the war, there are seven women to every one man. The men commonly have many women and father many children. They do not necessarily take responsibility for their children. My teacher's own father had 12 children by 5 different women! Fortunately, he supported his children although his wife had no knowledge of the other women or children.
Anyway, I am sure tomorrow will bring a whole new set of eye-opening experiences.
#FFTFellow
On a lighter note, here is a photo of the view from my exercise machine at the gym:
No comments:
Post a Comment