Here is a little glimpse of what our daily schedule is like:
Monday-Friday we have breakfast at 8 am, Saturday is at 9, and Sunday we have brunch at 11.
At 8:30 During the week we have morning program- each of the team leaders and teachers take turns with this and they cover various topics. On Fridays instead of having a presentation, we have a community meeting. This is where we figure out who is doing what for school Friday and address any questions, debates, issues, or suggestions that pertain to the whole community.
At 9:30 we do MOBS- I am not sure what this stands for but basically it is 30 min of cleaning. Everyone gets assigned a task for the week from cleaning the bathrooms, or the classrooms, to tending to the garden or emptying the compost pile.
At 10 on Monday-Friday is work time and this lasts until 1. On Saturday is GAIA day, where we work on things for the environment or to make our buildings more efficient and sustainable.
At 1 we have lunch everyday and afterwards we go back to work until 5. On Friday's we have school days where we work on projects to fix up the school. this takes place in the after lunch instead of the usual work time.
At 5 work time is over and we have Sports time, basically it is free time but sometimes Anthony, one of the teachers holds aerobic classes and if its nice people go outside and play soccer or basketball.
A 7 we have dinner and then we have an evening program which can be a movie or documentary, language classes, a debate, or just free time.
Sundays are our free days!! Woo-hoo! Groups can suggest different activities and go out to a movie, or out to eat, or whatever people want to do!
So, are you confused and/ or overwhelmed?? ME TOO! I'm sure by next week I will be a little more used to it but there are CONSTANTLY changes to this schedule. For instance, this week, we had community meeting today instead of tomorrow and Saturday we are going to a local church to cook and serve food to the homeless community rather than doing the GAIA day. I am looking forward to this activity- I am going to be writing an article about it for the November newsletter! Brian will be writing an article in the newsletter as well so we will be sure to post it on here once it comes out!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
HPP/IICD Programs (Part 2)
Schools for Children
Throughout Africa, Humana People to People has set up primary schools. In many African countries children have no access to an education. In HPP style they round up the community to build schools for their children.
The children are taught at national educational standards as well as being taught vocational skills. The students are taught discipline and self-empowerment within democratic organs such as Student Councils which usually meet weekly. The students learn to become self sustainable by building gardens and having to take care and keep clean the facilities they use.
The students are taught sex education with emphasis on HIV/AIDs education and prevention. The children put on cultural events such as plays to educate and entertain their respective communities. Many of the children attending the schools are orphans because their parents have died from the disease, they are provided room and board.
Along with cultural events the children do physical activities such as various sport teams.
Throughout Africa, Humana People to People has set up primary schools. In many African countries children have no access to an education. In HPP style they round up the community to build schools for their children.
The children are taught at national educational standards as well as being taught vocational skills. The students are taught discipline and self-empowerment within democratic organs such as Student Councils which usually meet weekly. The students learn to become self sustainable by building gardens and having to take care and keep clean the facilities they use.
The students are taught sex education with emphasis on HIV/AIDs education and prevention. The children put on cultural events such as plays to educate and entertain their respective communities. Many of the children attending the schools are orphans because their parents have died from the disease, they are provided room and board.
Along with cultural events the children do physical activities such as various sport teams.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
A Little Overview of HPP/IICD and its Programs (Part 1)
Today Andra and I have basically been studying the program and history of Humana People to People. I personally have been studying the HPP annual report for 2006. Below I will describe some of the various programs implemented in various African countries. (In 2006 IICD and HPP was non existent in Central and South America but the same programs are being implemented in the America's now).
Child Aid
Child Aid as it sounds is a program that helps underprivileged children. The program creates community committees to tackle basic needs and debate issues such as education, orphans, economic needs, the environment and overall development of the community.
The community rallies to orphans and gives them education, vocational skills and basically a chance to keep the children busy.
Agricultural committees and Water, Sanitation, Health and Education committees are also formed to fight poverty on a wider basis in the community.
Tomorrow I will continue with part 2 for now it is bedtime.
The Pedagogic Principles of IICD- very interesting!
Pedagogic Principles
You must go exploring in order to create new conceptions, and then again make new explorations in order to make better conceptions.
For altogether too many years, people wanting to learn more than what they know have been obliged to take a seat. People in general start to learn about anything, by sitting down and that is usually how they remain. Perfectly boring most of the time and quite divorced from the experience of ordinary mortals, who know that it is where things are happening in real life that we are able to learn.
At our schools we start out in the world at large. We use the school building(s) as a place in which to accumulate and exchange experiences, to read and argue, and a place for where the teachers tell and the participants report.
We use what we have learned on further explorations. We apprehend that we must practice learning what we do not know. We go exploring to acquire new ideas then we explore further to form better ideas.
You must get close to the things you want to learn about. The closer you get, the more you’ll learn.
Imagine yourself high up in an aircraft flying over Africa, Central America, or Asia. 30,000 feet below you are the countries and the people. You are sitting above it all, reading about Africa, Central America, Asia, the countries and the people. It is all wrong.
Things aren’t quite that bad in school. We believe, however, that teaching should go on outside the classroom, in the natural setting of the subject to be learned. Bringing in the people who are there. They know where the shoe pinches. The students must be there, too and they must have plenty of opportunities to ask questions based on personal, on-the-spot observations.
Then the school building(s) turns into an asset as the place where school, being a segment of society, connects students with society.
Together with your comrades you must be the driving force in the training process. It is not the little tricks of the teacher that can get you moving, life is far too important for that.
In most countries there are courses in motivation for teachers, for foremen, and for any kind of employers, for the purpose of teaching them how to make other people do something they don’t quite feel like doing. The idea being that they should be motivated to perform against their own wishes. Big and little tricks invented by sales psychologists.
The issues taken up by a school need to be of vital concern to their participants, and that is precisely why learning about world conditions and trying to understand the destiny of our globe is to people today. It is their destiny as well.
It is absolutely decisive that modern man learns to stand shoulder to shoulder with people, committed to goals that are relevant to our common futures.
What is vitally important are the solutions to these problems. More and more people are beginning to realize that this is so today and that is why they look for education. They along with their fellow students can be the driving force in the effort to learn about these matters and come up with solutions. Students don’t want to be put on their toes by the teachers’ little tricks, their lives are too important for that.
You just need to know that the more you get going, the more you will be doing. The more in-depth you get the more you will want to know. There is a lot of work involved - but you avoid being superficial and half asleep.
“Young people don’t want to work. Hands stuck in pockets, ears jammed with stereo-music and an impudent lip when addressed.” How many times have we heard comments like this? When the strength and the capacities of a generation are plainly needed, hands emerge from pockets ready to go to work.
Once this starts one thing leads to another. and from learning to doing there isn’t far to go. Mastering a trade and practicing it in a productive context, travelling with others, and writing and talking about experiences and thoughts.
Exploring one’s own society and taking a stand. Participating in the discussions of decision-making assemblies on vital questions.
Being able to make music and sing and dance and sketch and paint. There is no end to these delights. But you’ll have to make the effort.
Given proper structures and decent conditions, this generation is more than ready to do so, it is ready to follow through.
You are not going to learn everything at school. Like the tip of the iceberg, maybe just one tenth of what you actually wanted to learn. All the rest will come afterwards.
School is sometimes out of touch with its surroundings. Not just because teachers and students go there in the morning and stay inside until they disperse in the afternoon, but also because what you are made to learn can have no relevance for many students. and likewise for some teachers.
In some situations you can forget what it is like to learn something of value. The stagnant state is the state you get used to. In this situation your expectations mushroom, probably more than warranted.
It may be difficult to remember that school attendance comprises a short span of time compared to what will have to be continued for the rest of your life, especially if your previous learning derives from the various competitive or repressive situations inherent in our society. In other words: If your house needs heating, don’t expect that you can heat it from one hour to the next, but once the house is warm, very little fuel is needed to maintain the warmth.
Only Adam was alone in the world. All the rest of us are here together.
Fellowship, or collectivism if you wish, isn’t a modern smart way of life, or a status promoting gimmick in the wake of the student movement. Nor is it bound up closely with trendiness, hippie culture, or any other phenomenon possessing a common characteristic in that they will not survive the era that gave rise to them.
At our schools we do not make fellowship the pivot of teaching and living because “we might as well”. We make it so because we cannot have a school without it. Profound knowledge of fellowship can be learned only in fellowship, solidarity only by standing shoulder to shoulder. Only many together can solve problems that can be solved only by the joint efforts of many together.
Development is brought about only through the influence of great numbers of people. Generations have learned that the world changes only when many people take a hand in changing it.
This is a pedagogic prerequisite that doesn’t exclude the individual; quite to the contrary it makes him the decisive link in the chain connecting the present with the past and the future.
What you are learning must be usable. Preferably right away - so others can learn from you. Possibly later, when the opportunity arises. What you have learnt you will learn double by teaching it to others.
The entire question of what is, after all, the use of the things you learn in school is a sensitive one. Replies such as, “you are going to need it when you grow up”, “just you wait and see, you may need it some day, I am sure”, and “you’ll need it for your exams” are quite common.
Other replies may be closer to the truth. Such as “The things you learn are to make you suited to go to work some place and do as you are told. Make you deserve your pay”. Or “What you learn is meant to enable you to participate in the parliamentary democracy”. Another reply is given infrequently: “The things you learn you must use to advance reasonable demands for change in the world, to make it more like what you think it should be.
In our schools the answer is this “You must teach others. The things you have learned should benefit others as well. You must learn in order to be able to take a stand and to make things happen. You and the others jointly must decide what would be useful to learn and how to go about it.”
You must be mobile in order to encounter many things. If not, the whole thing will come to a halt - even though you have your eyes popping out of your head.
If you stay inside the school at all times you don’t see far. A school needs vehicles, students must be able to move around in the city, the country, and the world.
At our schools we have busses for classrooms – and ships. Stables and workshops for common rooms. And the world is where we serve our apprenticeship. This takes money – and in our budgets we have allocations for these things. In the budget of a school you can read of the activities preferred by the teachers. You can discern their pedagogy.
If you can see that the amounts set aside for transport are but small – then you may be quite sure this hasn’t been a matter of much interest to the people drawing up the budget.
To us it is important. We want to be mobile – and encounter many things. Otherwise everything comes to a stop.
All this concerns the teachers as well.
Dear teacher, dear colleague, dear parents. You must go exploring to be able to acquire new ideas – and you must explore further to form better ideas. You have much to learn still. That is why you must try to get close to the things you want to learn about. The closer you get the more you get out of it.
Your ingrown habits won’t put you on the track of the new things you must learn. You – in the company of your associates and your children must be the driving force in the work to learn much. It isn’t the old tricks that should put you on your toes. Life is too important for that.
Once you get into your stride one thing leads to another. There is no way of stopping. Your experiences are wonderful basic qualifications. You work in jobs all over the country. You know the roots of the children.
You, more that anyone else, are familiar with the fact that Man is not alone in the world. You have seen loneliness, and perhaps you know fellow human beings in distress. Support your children in their work to build fellowships and to stand shoulder to shoulder.
“Learn from your children – that’s going to make them receptive to learning from you.”
You must go exploring in order to create new conceptions, and then again make new explorations in order to make better conceptions.
For altogether too many years, people wanting to learn more than what they know have been obliged to take a seat. People in general start to learn about anything, by sitting down and that is usually how they remain. Perfectly boring most of the time and quite divorced from the experience of ordinary mortals, who know that it is where things are happening in real life that we are able to learn.
At our schools we start out in the world at large. We use the school building(s) as a place in which to accumulate and exchange experiences, to read and argue, and a place for where the teachers tell and the participants report.
We use what we have learned on further explorations. We apprehend that we must practice learning what we do not know. We go exploring to acquire new ideas then we explore further to form better ideas.
You must get close to the things you want to learn about. The closer you get, the more you’ll learn.
Imagine yourself high up in an aircraft flying over Africa, Central America, or Asia. 30,000 feet below you are the countries and the people. You are sitting above it all, reading about Africa, Central America, Asia, the countries and the people. It is all wrong.
Things aren’t quite that bad in school. We believe, however, that teaching should go on outside the classroom, in the natural setting of the subject to be learned. Bringing in the people who are there. They know where the shoe pinches. The students must be there, too and they must have plenty of opportunities to ask questions based on personal, on-the-spot observations.
Then the school building(s) turns into an asset as the place where school, being a segment of society, connects students with society.
Together with your comrades you must be the driving force in the training process. It is not the little tricks of the teacher that can get you moving, life is far too important for that.
In most countries there are courses in motivation for teachers, for foremen, and for any kind of employers, for the purpose of teaching them how to make other people do something they don’t quite feel like doing. The idea being that they should be motivated to perform against their own wishes. Big and little tricks invented by sales psychologists.
The issues taken up by a school need to be of vital concern to their participants, and that is precisely why learning about world conditions and trying to understand the destiny of our globe is to people today. It is their destiny as well.
It is absolutely decisive that modern man learns to stand shoulder to shoulder with people, committed to goals that are relevant to our common futures.
What is vitally important are the solutions to these problems. More and more people are beginning to realize that this is so today and that is why they look for education. They along with their fellow students can be the driving force in the effort to learn about these matters and come up with solutions. Students don’t want to be put on their toes by the teachers’ little tricks, their lives are too important for that.
You just need to know that the more you get going, the more you will be doing. The more in-depth you get the more you will want to know. There is a lot of work involved - but you avoid being superficial and half asleep.
“Young people don’t want to work. Hands stuck in pockets, ears jammed with stereo-music and an impudent lip when addressed.” How many times have we heard comments like this? When the strength and the capacities of a generation are plainly needed, hands emerge from pockets ready to go to work.
Once this starts one thing leads to another. and from learning to doing there isn’t far to go. Mastering a trade and practicing it in a productive context, travelling with others, and writing and talking about experiences and thoughts.
Exploring one’s own society and taking a stand. Participating in the discussions of decision-making assemblies on vital questions.
Being able to make music and sing and dance and sketch and paint. There is no end to these delights. But you’ll have to make the effort.
Given proper structures and decent conditions, this generation is more than ready to do so, it is ready to follow through.
You are not going to learn everything at school. Like the tip of the iceberg, maybe just one tenth of what you actually wanted to learn. All the rest will come afterwards.
School is sometimes out of touch with its surroundings. Not just because teachers and students go there in the morning and stay inside until they disperse in the afternoon, but also because what you are made to learn can have no relevance for many students. and likewise for some teachers.
In some situations you can forget what it is like to learn something of value. The stagnant state is the state you get used to. In this situation your expectations mushroom, probably more than warranted.
It may be difficult to remember that school attendance comprises a short span of time compared to what will have to be continued for the rest of your life, especially if your previous learning derives from the various competitive or repressive situations inherent in our society. In other words: If your house needs heating, don’t expect that you can heat it from one hour to the next, but once the house is warm, very little fuel is needed to maintain the warmth.
Only Adam was alone in the world. All the rest of us are here together.
Fellowship, or collectivism if you wish, isn’t a modern smart way of life, or a status promoting gimmick in the wake of the student movement. Nor is it bound up closely with trendiness, hippie culture, or any other phenomenon possessing a common characteristic in that they will not survive the era that gave rise to them.
At our schools we do not make fellowship the pivot of teaching and living because “we might as well”. We make it so because we cannot have a school without it. Profound knowledge of fellowship can be learned only in fellowship, solidarity only by standing shoulder to shoulder. Only many together can solve problems that can be solved only by the joint efforts of many together.
Development is brought about only through the influence of great numbers of people. Generations have learned that the world changes only when many people take a hand in changing it.
This is a pedagogic prerequisite that doesn’t exclude the individual; quite to the contrary it makes him the decisive link in the chain connecting the present with the past and the future.
What you are learning must be usable. Preferably right away - so others can learn from you. Possibly later, when the opportunity arises. What you have learnt you will learn double by teaching it to others.
The entire question of what is, after all, the use of the things you learn in school is a sensitive one. Replies such as, “you are going to need it when you grow up”, “just you wait and see, you may need it some day, I am sure”, and “you’ll need it for your exams” are quite common.
Other replies may be closer to the truth. Such as “The things you learn are to make you suited to go to work some place and do as you are told. Make you deserve your pay”. Or “What you learn is meant to enable you to participate in the parliamentary democracy”. Another reply is given infrequently: “The things you learn you must use to advance reasonable demands for change in the world, to make it more like what you think it should be.
In our schools the answer is this “You must teach others. The things you have learned should benefit others as well. You must learn in order to be able to take a stand and to make things happen. You and the others jointly must decide what would be useful to learn and how to go about it.”
You must be mobile in order to encounter many things. If not, the whole thing will come to a halt - even though you have your eyes popping out of your head.
If you stay inside the school at all times you don’t see far. A school needs vehicles, students must be able to move around in the city, the country, and the world.
At our schools we have busses for classrooms – and ships. Stables and workshops for common rooms. And the world is where we serve our apprenticeship. This takes money – and in our budgets we have allocations for these things. In the budget of a school you can read of the activities preferred by the teachers. You can discern their pedagogy.
If you can see that the amounts set aside for transport are but small – then you may be quite sure this hasn’t been a matter of much interest to the people drawing up the budget.
To us it is important. We want to be mobile – and encounter many things. Otherwise everything comes to a stop.
All this concerns the teachers as well.
Dear teacher, dear colleague, dear parents. You must go exploring to be able to acquire new ideas – and you must explore further to form better ideas. You have much to learn still. That is why you must try to get close to the things you want to learn about. The closer you get the more you get out of it.
Your ingrown habits won’t put you on the track of the new things you must learn. You – in the company of your associates and your children must be the driving force in the work to learn much. It isn’t the old tricks that should put you on your toes. Life is too important for that.
Once you get into your stride one thing leads to another. There is no way of stopping. Your experiences are wonderful basic qualifications. You work in jobs all over the country. You know the roots of the children.
You, more that anyone else, are familiar with the fact that Man is not alone in the world. You have seen loneliness, and perhaps you know fellow human beings in distress. Support your children in their work to build fellowships and to stand shoulder to shoulder.
“Learn from your children – that’s going to make them receptive to learning from you.”
Finally Here!
We arrived! After a LONG day of travelling (just to get to Michigan) we finally arrived at our new home on the IICD campus in Dowagiac Michigan! We were picked up at the airport in South Bend Indiana by one of the other volunteers and after meeting some new people and getting a tour of the school, we finally got to unpack and settle into our room. It is a dorm room, with two twin beds that we put together, one desk that we share and some random storage units that make the room a little more interesting. We have sink in our room and share a bathroom with our roommates Lilly and Ana Paula. Our first dinner was AMAZING! They try to grow as much of their own food as possible and the food that they buy is mostly organic, and very healthy. Last night one of the other South Korean women named Jane (theses are all their "American" names) cooked traditional Korean chicken. SO GOOD! Then we hung out and everyone kind of did their own thing. We ended up watching Machete, a very intense movie :). Today we woke up and had breakfast at 8. Anthony, one of the teachers/promotional people made whole wheat pancakes. He is awesome. He is all into healthy eating and exercise and is in charge of making IICD more sustainable. After breakfast everyday, everyone helps clean the whole building for 30 min before breaking out in their own activities. Today our activity was orientation. We got the low-down about what we will doing for these next two months while we work off our scholarship. Basically our goal is just to contribute to the school through various tasks such as promotion, teaching English, working on projects like building a water tank to collect the rain water for the garden, etc. Today we have been working just on learning the ins and outs of the school and of Humana People to People, the organization we do our projects with once we are in our countries. We will be posting some of that later. It has been fun having a day of working now, I love seeing how focused everyone is. There are times where the room was completely silent for large chunks of time while people just work. That and the Pedagogic Principles (which I am posting after this) really remind me of Montessori education. I really invite all of you to get on the IICD website (iicdmichigan.org) and check everything out! There will be more to come soon!
Andra
Andra
Monday, October 18, 2010
Our Last Days
One week from today we will be on a plane, heading to Michigan where we will "officially" begin our adventure.! Although that is how I keep referring to it, this past year was really the beginning. From researching different programs to finally deciding on this one and then having phone interview after phone interview to make sure we knew what we were getting into, to fundraising and planning, it has been almost 2 years. And now we are down to the wire.
We are spending these last few days packing and cleaning and figuring out what we can fit into our suitcases and what we can stuff into boxes to be shipped out. We are gathering our cold weather gear for Michigan and at the same time, laying out our moisture wicking clothes and our bottles of sunscreen for when we go to Belize. We are also trying to get in time with our friends and family and the places and activities we will miss the most. I for one, planned out my families dinner menu for the week, filling it with my favorite comfort foods: home-made mac 'n' cheese, curry, homemade soup, and I'm going to make some home-made Argentinian Empanadas. Mmmm.
I am so excited and so scared, I'm just ready to get there! We are giving up everything we know and are used to in our lives to go to something completely new and different. Even in Michigan we will be in a different state, in different living conditions, eating different foods, and being around people who all speak languages other than English.
Last week Brian kept saying, this is our second to last Wednesday here, this is our second to last Thursday...
Now, we are on our last days! The official countdown has begun! Michigan, adventure, challenge, Here We Come!!
We are spending these last few days packing and cleaning and figuring out what we can fit into our suitcases and what we can stuff into boxes to be shipped out. We are gathering our cold weather gear for Michigan and at the same time, laying out our moisture wicking clothes and our bottles of sunscreen for when we go to Belize. We are also trying to get in time with our friends and family and the places and activities we will miss the most. I for one, planned out my families dinner menu for the week, filling it with my favorite comfort foods: home-made mac 'n' cheese, curry, homemade soup, and I'm going to make some home-made Argentinian Empanadas. Mmmm.
I am so excited and so scared, I'm just ready to get there! We are giving up everything we know and are used to in our lives to go to something completely new and different. Even in Michigan we will be in a different state, in different living conditions, eating different foods, and being around people who all speak languages other than English.
Last week Brian kept saying, this is our second to last Wednesday here, this is our second to last Thursday...
Now, we are on our last days! The official countdown has begun! Michigan, adventure, challenge, Here We Come!!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Nearly There!
Less then 2 weeks until we embark on our new life with IICD!
Our wine taster a few weekends ago was a great success thanks to all the friends and family which did a tremendous amount of assistance and really brought this whole thing together. Andra and myself thank you so much.
Now all we have to do is go get a few more supplies and organize everything we already have for departure to Dowagiac. I hope to lay around for the next 2 weeks and enjoy everyone and everything thats important to me here in my state of Colorado, which I love very very dearly.
Until the next update!
Brian
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Belize power point
Here is some more information about what we are in store for!
Belize power point
View more presentations from andramlowe.
Our Village
The wine tasting fundraiser has come and gone now and after a week of being able to finally relax and breathe again, I can look back on the event and all of the preparations behind it, and feel relieved. It was so successful in so many ways, I couldn't have asked for anything more. The thing that stood out to me the most through the entire experience, from planning the event, getting donations, setting up, to the turn out itself, is this amazing feeling of support and community that came out of it. We had complete strangers donating their time or work, local businesses donating their services, family members and friends dedicating their time and energy (and money) to my family members and Brian supporting my numerous breakdowns, to amazing acupuncture treatments, to therapy sessions with my bootcamp instructor. And then you have the gracious people who came to the fundraiser. It was a beautiful combination of our families and some close friends, to distant friends of the family, people who knew me when was a baby or who I haven't seen in years, to people I didn't know at all. It reminds me of the saying, 'it takes a village to raise a baby'. I'm not exactly sure who or what is the baby in this scenario, but when there was a call for help, a whole village came to support us. So thank you to all of you who are apart of our "village", who supported us in any or in many ways, we really couldn't have pulled off such a successful fundraiser without you, and we couldn't be where we are, 21 days away from starting our adventure without you!
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