And I resume my Nicaragua recap... from Tanzania. I blame spotty Internet connection, untouched annals of Arrested Development, Flannery O'Connor, and mefloquine-induced laziness for this backlog. All picture credits go to Laura!
Solar Panel Project
One of the few tangibly useful things our group did for the communities we visited was purchase and bring down two dozen or so solar panels that were to each power a LED light in households without electricity. After a semester of reviewing indicators like mortality/morbidity, access to improved sanitation, and total fertility rate, I honestly wondered whether these were the most helpful or cost effective solutions we could contribute, but the community wanted them. And while I have reservations about making the goal of international development the fulfillment of needs and wants solely identified by the beneficiaries, I think it is safer, as a general rule of thumb, to heed the voices of the people you are serving rather than the voice of your Westerner's conscience. So solar panels it is.
Nearly half of the households in El Limon already have electricity, and the other half are hopefully getting theirs later this year (my family had no electricity but a LED light in the dining room) so it was decided that the solar panel project would be implemented in a nearby community called Agua Fria. By the time we arrived in Nicaragua, willing and able families had already paid a reduced fee to cover the cost of motorcycle batteries that hook up the lights. Eric, our trip leader and contact on the ground who had conceived the project with community leaders, had also trained himself and other local project leaders on the installation process. So when the panels came, it was time to execute, unlike the Miami Heat.
We split up into three teams, each headed by two engineers, and visited the designated households. At that point, I had already spent a couple days navigating dark rooms at my host family's - even during mornings and cloudy afternoons - and the unmet need of a well-lighted place was no less apparent in the houses of Agua Fria.
Luckily, all installations by the three teams during the two-day blitzkrieg were successful. Among those who will enjoy improved cis-trans retinal transformation hopefully for years to come are: a grateful mother who can now stare at her wall's disturbing mosaic of skin care ads from American magazines deeper into the night, a congenial elder who really needed some rotating colored lights to turn that empty barn into a salsa discoteca, and a congregation of Christians who may consider adding night service just to behold their church's very handsome wall paintings of Jesus under LED light.
INFLE
Instituto Nacional Francisco Luis Espinoza is a public high school in Esteli that our organization has worked with over the past couple years. It is again Eric who has orchestrated this partnership since its conception, getting to know the school director and teachers well during his multiple extended stays in El Limon, communicating with the teachers to identify ways in which Harvard students could facilitate their classroom experience, and even making personal donations to support a computer lab for students. This year, as with last, Eric had reached out to teachers interested in enlisting our help to prepare lesson plans in subjects ranging from biology and English to managing personal finances and recycling. But unlike previous years when we taught these lessons in front of the class while the teachers sat back with the students, we decided to try co-teaching the material with the teachers. After all, the objective of this exercise is to provide these local educators with the resources and skills to get better at what they do; its real value, at least in theory, lies in sustainability, not the one-time entertainment courtesy of foreigners.
As is typical of development projects, many things did not proceed as planned. Videos we thought were copied onto CDs were not really copied onto CDs. Teachers we thought were interested in co-teaching were not really interested in co-teaching. The English lesson plans that had been asked for were no longer asked for, and so on. But despite these frustrations, our week at INFLE did not end without some memorable highlights:
Genetics: A fearless gal by the name of Susan had prepared a comprehensive powerpoint presentation covering major topics in genetics and DNA, and for lack of a better movie critic's platitude, it was a smashing success. I would say only one of the two biology teachers fully tapped into the awesomeness of the presentation because the other had trouble holding the class's attention or reading the slides (which had already been translated into Spanish) but even that reduced effectiveness, the equivalent of using Water Gun on a robust Wartortle, meant something. Why? Because I sat in that classroom when Erica, the biology teacher whom students respected and understood, took that hard copy of the presentation slides in her hands and did work. She walked up and down the aisles, reading the bullet notes and supplementing them with her background knowledge, and when she neared an important vocabulary term, her voice trailed so the students could enunciate the word with her. As I had seen in other classrooms at INFLE, there were of course those students who secretly texted on their phones or waited for the slightest opening to yell something unnecessary. But there were also those students eager to turn the pages and to ask relevant questions, and those precious few warm bodies are the reason we bother with this whole teaching business, especially in settings where resources are low and motivation is low. We can't ever forget that.
The opportune meeting of great teacher, great students, and great lesson plan would have been sufficient to go down as a "What a Wonderful World" moment in my book, but then there was a video that Susan had brought with permission from its producer, Harvard professor Robert Lue. It's his spectacular 3D animation of the signaling activities implicated in white cell immune response, but in all honesty, it could just as well pass for a re-enactment of the virgin birth of baby Jesus or the keynote presentation for a conference convened to disprove global warming. In fact, I may have mistook one of the plump macrophages for an ovum, and in the heat of the video's relentless sensory assault, galvanized my desire to be a father one day. For the purposes of Susan's presentation, the important thing and the hope were that the video's sensational graphics and hypnotic music would get the students excited about learning biology. Seeing how students in every class asked for an encore viewing, I would say it accomplished that goal, although if I had it my way, the class would've received glowsticks for the second viewing.
Art: Serena, who had been told earlier in the week that the English lesson plan she had prepared would not be used, was then asked about her interest in teaching the first session of a nonexistent art class. Some of the biology students had noticed her sketchbook full of beautiful manga drawings and wanted to learn what it takes to draw pretty Asian faces. Given a sheet of large construction paper and some blackboard markers, Serena then improvised a lesson in front of a circle of intrigued faces, first sketching an apple before moving onto an organism of only slightly greater complexity in Min Lee. The students must have had a good time because when the bell rang to signal the end of the period, they patiently waited for the next gorgeous feature to appear on my face while their fellow classmates engaged in another lesson nearby headed for the exits. At least a few of the girls also stuck around after the drawing had been finished to show theirs to Serena and get her feedback. I suspect teachers need moments like these every once in a while to remember why they are teaching. Getting back to the portrait, I was actually quite flattered by Serena's rendition, especially the whimsical crystals in my pupils that are surely suggestive of a profound understanding of the human condition, and had her autograph it before I stowed it away. My fondness for the drawing was trumped, though, by that of a young well-dressed male student who kept standing up during class and approaching it with an erect penis. What a terrible way to end a post.
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