Hi Family and Friends!

This is Sunnie and Christina, the second pair of students to lead the delegation. Today was a more laid-back day compared to the day before, LLAL. Our goal for the day was to learn why sustainability is important to integrate into development projects. To do so, we met up with two Peace Corps volunteers, Daniel and Alice, who taught us about what Peace Corps volunteers do and how they ensure the projects that they participate in are sustainable.

We started the day at Rosaura’s with a simple breakfast of eggs and toast. Following that, we learned some background information on Peace Corps. Then we returned back to the hotel for the guest presentation held by Daniel and Alice. After a few insightful activities involving reading scenarios and learning what can be done about them, they taught us about their experiences. We were super grateful to them for teaching us about sustainability and giving us the chance to implement it into our CAP project design.

Afterwards, we went to Rosaura’s and had a traditional meal. Then we returned to the hotel to have free time to either prepare for our first English tutoring class or just relax.

We left the hotel at 3:30 to go to El Liceo, the school where we taught for the day and where we will be continuing to teach at for the rest of the week. Each of us got paired up into groups of 2 or 3 depending on our Spanish knowledge and were assigned different levels of English Language Learners (ELL). We also got paired up with ambassadors who assisted us throughout the day for our classes. However, we each had different experiences.

Christina: I was paired up with Tess and we were in charge of teaching a beginner level class of 10-16 year old students. When Tess and I were preparing the lesson, we were stressed because we did not know how much English our students knew and we both could speak Spanish fluently. However, once Tess and I met with our ambassador, Carolina, she helped us figure out a lesson plan and helped us effectively lead our classroom. The students were super energetic and excited to learn English; however, there were two boys in the classroom who were not taking the class seriously and made it hard to teach at times. In the end, the experience was incredible and I am excited to go back and teach the children.

Sunnie: It was not my first time teaching others but it was my first time teaching people learning English in Spanish/English. I was paired up with a friend of mine of six years who had the same experience in Spanish learning with me, Kweko. We both had a lot of fun teaching the class because they were very engaging and willing to learn despite some of them being late. Also, shout out to our ambassador, Yelissa, for translating when we needed it and assisting with teaching based on her own experiences. All in all, it was fun and I can’t wait to go back to teach them the rest of what they need to learn and see them graduate.

Despite the fact that our experiences were different, it was still an amazing experience for the both of us.

After finishing our class, we walked to Rosaura’s for dinner and shared our teaching experiences with each other. We then returned to the hotel and finished our day with self reflection on significant objects and a nightly meeting. At the nightly meeting, we summarized our day, got each other’s opinions, and then passed the sash to the next leaders of the day, Kweko and Alex.

We miss you all so much!!

Love,

Christina and Sunnie

I just wanted to say happy 15th birthday Caitlynn !! I miss you and I hope you had a great birthday :-))

-Christina