I realize that once again I have had a vast lag time between my posts, and once again I truly apologize. I have come to the fruition that I have neglected to talk about the strides we have made in my current programs. Here is an update on two of my current programs, micro finance and children’s art.
MICRO FINANCE
We have had several goals for the past two quarters. The first was to legitimize the micro finance program. I say legitimize because it wasn’t a program that necessarily met every week due to the fact that it is autonomous by nature and the program didn’t have the weekly obligation of planning for classes. The second was to build a relationship with our partner organization Esperanza y Progreso del Valle, better known by the PD’s as EPV (a small micro lending organization). And third, to build off of last year’s PD’s work in hopes of developing a small business class.
Brock, Jack, and I have worked diligently in order to realize the goals we had set before us. We now meet every Tuesday mooring at 9am to plan our business class, yes we have gotten this off of the ground as well, and to look for ways to improve our partner organization, EPV. With the help of last year’s PD’s we have developed a 6 week micro emprezas class (small business class) in cooperation with EPV. The guiding principal behind this class is to expose current and aspiring business owners to basic business practices. EPV’s responsibility for the class is to talk about their lending processes in order to educate individuals on the benefits and protocol of taking out loans. By default, this class has strengthened our relationship with EPV. Brock, Jack, and I have each shadowed their organization in hopes of better understanding day to day operations. Jack, the only Spanish speaker out of the micro finance group, sits in on board meetings in order to add outside input. Although this program got off to a slow start, we have now been progressively moving towards establishing this as one of our strongest programs.
CHILDREN'S ART
You may ask yourself what am I even doing teaching this class? My artistic abilities are subpar, or to be more accurate, nonexistent. Well, because I wanted to. I’m happy that I did, it is my only program in which I interact with the children of the communities we serve (except for our public lending library in which I work 2 days a week, but it is not technically my program).
Sam, Zoe, and I work on this program together. I’m the constant “profe” attending class every Friday at 4pm, while Sam and Zoe alternate weeks. In all honesty, it has given me a great appreciation for art and has been an extremely enjoyable experience thus far. Creative thinking seems to be lacking in the Ecuadorian school system. Because of this I find it very important to provide an art class for the communities that we serve. When giving the opportunity and encouragement their creative imaginations are unleashed.
We decided to structure the class to incorporate art from around the world. We started off with the United States, where we built Native American tipis and made corn out of toilet paper rolls and gum balls. We are currently focusing on Asian art. Thus far we have made Chinese lanterns and constructed a Japanese garden using construction paper and egg cartons. Accompanied by each art project is a brief lesson describing their culture importance and relevance. This makes the class fun, creative, and educational. It's a triple threat :)
Happy Holidays everyone!
