Viva Patojos!

While in Leon, Nicaragua, Mel managed to find this after-school program in Antigua, Guatemala called Los Patojos. About a week later we managed to get there, planning to spend 2 weeks volunteering, which turned into 3, because Patojos is a beautiful thing. Juan Pablo, creator/motivator/revoluccionario de paz y amor/etc, is a beautiful human being, constantly spouting delightful aphorisms about his program like, "What we're doing, this is our way of revolution, and you're not going to read about it in books," and "It's about making things better, not bigger," and "What I want people to take away from volunteering here is that they should just go home and do it themselves," and so on. Really, this guy's remarkable, considering he's only 24 and started up this program 2 years ago that now manages to pay a staff of 13, bring in a constant flow of volunteers from all over the world, provide free lunch for at least 50 kids every weekday...not to mention empower so many kids and prove to them that education can be so much more than what school normally makes it.



Everyone working there was equally amazing, and everyone volunteering there, and all the kids.

Especially the kids.

(Here peace is constructed and liberty is defended)

Esau, this li'l baby already pictured twice, is the most adorable creature I've ever seen. He's basically the school mascot, and everyone plays with him, and everyone loves it. His momma Jessy cooks there, so he's always waddling around somewhere, and giggling at something or other.

(In children humanity is born and hope is kept alive)

About 80 kids attend this school, some quite consistently others not so much. For many kids coming here is a fun after school program, free lunch, something good to do from 2ish 'til 6. But there are a good number for whom this is their only education. After having helped out at Chacocente's school in Nicaragua, it was really refreshing seeing that they had adequate resources here. Kids had so many options of games to play, projects to persue, ways to learn and not be bored. Kids had their own assigned classrooms, but also plenty of free time at the beginning and end of each afternoon. So Melissa and I got to spend time playing with kids as well as running classes on English, Culture, Geography, etc. We also got pulled aside fairly often and asked to sit down with one kid and help them read. One day I got beaten by an 8 year old in a game of chess...Ow my ego.

Mel spent a lot of time helping kids learn how to use the computer, how to search for things on the internet, how to write emails to pen-pals/sponsors from other countries.

...

Rafa and Juan (left to right) talking to the kidsRafa teaches at public school in the morning and at Patojos in the afternoons. We stayed at his house where he and his brother Ramone live, along with their mother Elsa, a truly lovely woman who fed us amazing meals all three weeks.

The view from our room looked like this:

Nery here is responsible for all the incredible artwork animating the school's walls.
I drew his name for him to try and reciprocate
Seven other volunteers, at least, were helping out as well while we were there. One German girl Carolina, taught several of them to play nostalgia's best song ever, "Wonderwall," on the guitar.

A fellow volunteer, Maribel, stayed in Elsa's house in the room next to ours. We hung out a bunch, she rules, even though she's from Barcelona and thus speaks way too fast.
(Te amamos Maribel!)

My last few days I finally decided to add to the wall art. There was a perfect blank wall in the 5th/6th grade classroom where Mel and I spent most of our time, so that's where the, um, magic happened.


1st day (2nd to last day at Patojos)

2nd day (last day at Patojos)

That evening I managed, with another teacher Mauricio's help, to project an image of the earth onto the wall and traced out the Western Hemisphere, more or less. So the kids since then have gotten to fill in the rays, letters, and earth with color. As far as I know it now looks like this:

Do yourself a favor and read Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire. But as Juan Pablo would tell you, if you really want to understand a place, speak with and listen to its people. In other words, don't get too lost in history to take part in it. I only hope I can adequately put into practice such amazing lessons I gained from this place, and its people. Thank you.