Educaser was the first job that I got when I arrived here…though it didn’t happen very quickly, nor very smoothly, but I have been there a while now and am enjoying my experience.
The NGO itself is relatively young, it began only about 4 years ago, and because of this (and because of general Argentine working culture) it kind of poorly run, and disorganized. It is really just one woman, with a dream who managed to get some money from the government, but doesn’t really have that good communication skills (or interpersonal skills!), and with too little time,…attempting to do something amazing. That being said, I have learned a lot…especially about taking personal initiative. I really have to grab my boss by the horns sometimes and get her to listen to me, and keep her promises (“can we meet tomorrow?” “sure sure sure” and then she never shows up to work…)
What have I been doing? The million dollar question. I have translated their web site, and 2 most recent news letters. Right now, they are redesigning the web site, but when that is done and it is launched in the next few weeks, it will go up there with an English version, and that is my hand dandy work. It was great telling the web design studio to put that on the site!
I have spent a bunch of afternoons in the barrios at the tallers that Educaser sponsors. I go there to see what the teacher is doing, to chat with the peoples at the comedors where they are held, to help round up the kids in the neighborhood and to go to the local schools and try to encourage more children to come and take advantage of what is offered to them. Not see easy to give away free learning sometimes I have learned! Especially to 13 year olds!
The workshops they have put together are amazing. I explained my favorite in a past entry, about the neighborhood science, so I won’t bore you all with the details again, but the goals of teaching kids important values and important life schools and disguising them as fun is really fascinating. This year the over arching theme (weirdly…as you are going to understand later) is the new law in Buenos Aires province, Protection of Children’s Rights. We are busy designing games to teach children their own rights. Right now I am helping them design the games, but soon, at my educational assistance assignment I will be helping to impliment them as well.
Which takes me to the other part of this job. The educational assistance program, which I go to once a week in a part of the La Plata just outside the city, called City Bell. I help children with problems they are having in school with English and when there are no problems, or homework to work on, we play English language games that I have designed. It is really quite amazing working with the kids (who knew I would like it so much!). It is also in this educational assistance center, with the teacher there, Maria Elena (who is by the way one of the most amazing people I have met in my entire life) that I am thinking abou designing a project and doing a workshop of my own surrounding the American holiday of Thanksgiving (Dia de Accion de Gracias) and the important values of family and giving thanks for things you have. I will keep you updated on how and when that takes shape (well I think that you all know WHEN it will take shape…)
Working with Educaser has been a really amazing, if not trying, experience. It is amazing working directly with rights and government subsidized programs that on the ground that I am also working with at the University, academic, theory level in my other job (to be explained shortly). I also am being put directly in charge of alot of things. I now have a key the office and one day a week I am the only person there, answering the phones and running the office. I have also been put in charge of getting press coverage, write their press releases, and creating interinstitutional connections. Soon, if I am lucky, I will have a title of my own! Ha ha ha ha. The job has also provided some amazing social connections, and I have made great friends with one of my coworkers, Luisina…which I will go more into later.
One down…can you guys sit through the other TWO!
