Tag Archives: IEM

GVI Quepos New Schedule Takes Off

P1080292After painstaking months of gathering and compiling feedback, working through possible schedules and generating full stakeholder support, we at GVI Quepos have successfully implemented our new schedule! This week was our trial run and it well. Of course, there are always bumps in the road with classes being canceled, surprise visits from supervisors and planning for cultural events, but overall the schedule was well received. Our particular achievement is Adult English in Damas. We have been at Damas Primary School for about a year, but we have never tried having English classes for Adults. This week, 8 adults showed up to the first class and 16 to the second! It was inspiring to see how excited they were to learn and help each other. I can’t wait to see how this program develops.

P1080250The ongoing Adult English program in Cocal was also a success. Being led my new volunteers for the first time, they rose to the occasion and effectively taught their students and took care of children during a torrential rain storm. Great job team!

 

 

P1080272My personal highlight of the week came from a question by a sixth grader. After our workshop for the upper grades on Tuesday Orlando asked me, “Lily, what can we do during Adult English? Do you think we could have more workshops?” We started talking and I learned that Orlando and his friends are aspiring artists and want to learn more techniques. We agreed that if he brought me a list of students who wanted to participate in arts workshops and told me the type of techniques they wanted to learn, I would find them a volunteer to teach the class. By Friday, Orlando had his list of students, at least two themes for the class and was very proud to be the Arts Workshop Captain. On my end, I discussed the opportunity with one of our Arts volunteers who jumped at the chance to teach this motivated group. The first lesson will be Thursday and they will be working on painting masquerade masks.

P1080304We ended the week by playing blacktop games from around the world and creating chalk drawings. The kids write their names, drew pictures of us, and wrote how much the love GVI. It was very sweet and a perfect way to end the week.

Staff Retreat Tales

P1080124Last Weekend the GVI Quepos staff came together for a three-day staff retreat in Uvita. First, we worked through definitions that we use every day such as social change, community development, volunteerism and participation. Then, we presented our own visions for the program, worked through empathy maps for each of the groups we work closely with, made a plan for where we want the program to go in the future, played around with potential schedule ideas, and wrote short, intermediate and long term objectives.

P1080137Overall, we became closer as a team and were able to see a unified vision for where we want to go and how we will get there. I look forward to the changes and new phase of our program as we move forward.

Outlaws, Butterflies and Pirates

P1070983Workshops at Damas and Cocal have really taken off! The kids created sheriff badges and took pictures like outlaws, painted beautiful butterflies for the Special Education room, had an awesome pirate themes scavenger hunt, and much more! These workshops really let the kids express themselves and discover new talents.

 

P1070984Some kids are great painters, others builders, some love to practice English, some are excited to try out science experiments. Through this afterschool programming we are trying to provide a space for kids to express themselves and encourage personal growth. So far, so good. I can’t wait to see what our talented volunteers will come up with for next week!

Reflecting on our Journies

Rivers of LifeFor the last three groups who have completed their GVI experience and are now back in their homes or are continuing their travels, I asked them to draw a River of Life of their time working with GVI Quepos. This activity is challenging because it forces us to think of a journey in terms of movement along a river. I asked the volunteers to draw their highlights, low-points, challenges, adventures, changes of opinion, memorable moments and where they are going from here. I have been very impressed with the level of artistry and reflection that have gone into these Rivers of Life. Each time, the volunteers hurry to get their emotions out onto the paper, and then find a rhythm as they add details to their rivers. In the end, everyone is happy and excited to share their experience with the group.

Facilitating these activities has also helped me reflect on my journey with GVI so far. I came as an eager, somewhat knowledgeable staff member, learned a lot very quickly through multiple training days, and had my ups and downs as I discovered (and am still discovering) my leadership style and my place in Manuel Antonio. Now, I am taking on a new challenge as the new Base Manager for GVI Quepos/Manuel Antonio. Everyday I am greeted with a new challenge and a new opportunity to learn and grow. Luckily, my river so far is mostly calm with a few currents here and there, but no huge waterfalls, and I am traveling in a steady boat with a very supportive team. I look forward to every new challenge and developing in my new role.

That’s how my culture thinks?

For our fourth Intercultural Communication workshop, we explored how different cultures reason, regulate, and relate on a scale ranging from very rigid, facts based and individualistic to very loose, emotion based and collective. The material for this workshop came largely from my class Environmental Sustainability Across Cultures with Professor Peter Fordos. In the workshop we had representatives from Australia, the US, Columbia, Spain, and the UK. After learning about the different scales and seeing some examples of how the majority of people in a culture tend to reason, regulate, and relate based on the cultural values they are brought up with, we challenged ourselves to place the members of our group’s countries on the scales and then respond to where our countries had been placed. By the end of the workshop, we all gained new awareness about ourselves, our home culture, and the cultures of our friends in GVI. Thank you everyone for another great workshop!!!

Language and Iceberg Workshops

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In these last two weeks I’ve facilitated two more intercultural communication workshops.

Language Learning in Practice:

Worshop 3-icebergIn this workshop the native English speakers practiced what a non-native English speaker experiences while trying to communicate. First, the volunteers worked in pairs with one person speaking and one person listening. The trick was, the person speaking had to say two additional verbs each time they said one verb. Then, the pairs switched roles. This activity led to a rich discussion about the difficulty of thinking in a non-native language as well as the patience required to listen and search for the intended meaning. To finish the activity, we wrote a list of communication strategies to help volunteers speak with teachers and students while on project and while living in Manuel Antonio.

Iceberg Model of Culture:P1070434

Last week I presented volunteers with the iceberg model of culture where the observable aspects of a culture are their customs and ways of living, but the rest is hidden. Then, the volunteers worked in teams to discover more about Costa Rica’s culture based on their experience and research I presented to them. At the end of the activity, our full group iceberg was filled with interesting customs, assumptions, attitudes and values of Costa Rican culture. Thank you to all the volunteers for two awesome workshops!

Intercultural Communication Workshop: Take 1

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Workshop 1.1Last Wednesday I led my very first Intercultural Communication Workshop with the volunteers at GVI Quepos. To start things off, we imagined looking out at Manuel Antonio National Park, a scene we are all familiar with. Then, we practiced looking at that scene through geological, biological, cultural, familial, and personal lenses. Once we had an understanding of what we could and could not see with each lens, we practiced using the lenses in relation to our education work in the local communities.

Workshop 1.3Everyone was interested in exploring their own lens preferences and how that affected what they saw and how they acted on project. Some volunteers even commented on practicing changing lenses throughout the rest of the week.

I’m very glad that this first workshop was a success! Each week, we will explore a new topic of culture, self-awareness, and practical communication skills. Thank you to all the volunteers for being willing and engaged participants!

Meet the New Field Staff!

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I’m joined in my new adventure as Field Staff for GVI Manuel Antonio/Quepos by Maria and Elena. Maria is a GVI alumna from Mexico City. Today, she was so excited for each of Mexico’s goals in the World Cup that she stood on a bench in the house screaming in celebration. ¡Viva México! Elena is a communications audiovisual expert from Spain, but she has been living in Costa Rica for 3 years, so now she is media Tica. As for me, I’m the excited California native who is eager to share my sorority communal living experience as an example of cleanliness.  🙂 Together we make an awesome team! We can’t wait to finish our training this week and join the volunteers in the communities we will be working in this year. ¡Pura Vida!

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Leemos JuntosStephanie Loiselle and I presented our after-school bilingual education program initiative during the poster session of the 2014 Foreign Language Symposium hosted by the Monterey Institute of International Studies.