Sabados Gigantes

So since most of my posts are dedicated to Nicaraguan culture, my adventures here, and tidbits from day to day life, I decided it's time to finally dedicate a post to a project of mine. I'm going to take a few moments here to brag about a really successful Saturday camp I designed and ran in my town.

Since my idea for a summer camp fell through due to a series of scheduling conflicts and lack of matriculation, I decided that instead of scrapping it completely, I'd find a way to do it just on Saturdays. I wanted to include English classes, arts and crafts, sports, and environmental projects. I figured I'd need 3 teachers plus myself, and then a few counselors. I looked immediately to the kids and friends I give English class to, for support in the “teen helper” or “counselor” roles. I was initially worried when Cristina and Alvaro, two of my older more responsible friends said they couldn't help since they have class on Saturdays, but I was happy to see that some of my 7^th and 8^th graders were immediately excited and enthusiastic to participate. =) Since Carlos has been helping me give my community English classes during the week, he volunteered to teach them on Saturdays as well! I decided to leave two of my 9^th grade boys in charge of the sports department, which left only an arts and crafts teacher position. Since no one seemed to jump at the chance, I immediately said yes when one of my co-teachers from the elementary school, Profesora Josefa, volunteered to teach dance! Things were really coming together.

With permission from my official Peace Corps counterpart, the director of one of my schools, we decided to hold the camp in the school on my block. There, we had access to a boom box for the dance class, plenty of room for the sports and environmental projects, and a pavilion for shade.

Finally, since I've been dedicating most of my Sundays to teaching English to the local English teachers through a non-profit organization here called, Fundacion Uno, the director of the program decided to provide all the funding I would need for the camp!

Teachers? Check!

Helpers? Check!

Permission? Check!

Funding? Check!

All that was left was deciding how to limit the amount of students invited. I decided to invite only 3^rd through 6^th graders, party because they have similar abilities, likes, and dislikes, and partly because I honestly don't have the patience to work with preschoolers or the like. Since we didn't have a million volunteers helping out, I decided to limit the number of kids to 60. I went classroom to classroom in each of my schools with 5 invitations to “Sabados Gigantes” per class. The teachers distributed them to the kids that “deserved them” either for their good behavior or good grades. With 15 kids from each grade, I had my 60 invitees with written permission from parents, and we were good to go!

Each Saturday in May, the kids rotated through the four classes in their grade groups. My “teen leaders” were amazing! It's so great to see how a little bit of responsibility can completely transform a student. I placed two of them in charge of each grade group and they brought them through each of the rotations, and helped with the games and projects. In the environmental section, each kid planted his/her own tree to take home; they planted tomatoes and peppers, also to take home; we had a school cleanup competition; and made some flowers from the bottles we collected.

The last day, we changed the organization a little to have an hour and half for Olympics!!! We broke the kids into mixed groups and let them chose their country names. Then Espana, Paraguay, Brazil, and Los Estados Unidos (US) competed in various relay races, kickball and soccer tournaments, agility competitions, etc. They absolutely loved it!

After the last day, I took all the teen leaders and teachers out to get ice cream to thank them for all they had done. I really wouldn't have been able to do it without them. I threw out the idea of doing it all over with new kids in August and they all said they'd help again. =) Gotta love volunteerism!

                     Profesor Carlos!! The kids loved him! They were all so excited to learn English!

                                            Learning Traditional Nicaraguan Folklore Dances

                                                             SPUD! Yay camp games!

                                                                             Sports

Some of the best (pre)teen helpers I could ever ask for!

Overall I'd say it was a huge success! It was really fun getting to invent and plan something completely from scratch and when one of the 6^th grade girls told me those 4 Saturdays were the best ones of her life, I knew that although she was surely exaggerating, we had done something good. =) Extra-curricular activities don't really exist here outside of sports leagues. That means that after their 5 hours of school each day, kids here are completely on their own as far as entertainment goes. For the girls especially, that usually means plenty of chores in and around the house, and very little time with friends. I'm really looking forward to doing it all again, and I hope to include some more teachers this time to see if I can get some of them to continue it when I leave in November.