Photos are available here:
Some vides clips are available here:
This first workshop was dedicated to the welcoming the girls to the project and making them excited to participate these four months to come. Together with the girls, we listed all activities we will be doing (read, write, listen, draw, travel, play, enjoy, etc.), and the girls got to brainstorm "normas de convivencia", norms for the group atmosphere (respect each other, not fight, laugh, pay attention, etc.). We also did some group dynamics in order to create a playful atmosphere and get to know each other in new ways. Another exercise was "Guess what I am", in which the girls got three statements and were to guess what object these characteristics where describing (a book). I explained why books are my best friends.
Then, the four books that we are going to use in this group were presented (Cuentos de la selvaby Horacio Quiroga, Colin y los monos by Monica Zak, Ronja, la hija del bandolero by Astrid Lindgren and Alex Dogboy by Monica Zak. The main character of each book was presented in order to make them and their environment vivid and real to the girls. "Arpías", "gnomos culones" and "enanos grises" (vildvittror, rumpnissar, grådvärgar) from Ronja generated a lot of laughing in particular! The characters were all eager to tell their stories to the girls, and the girls were all eager to get to know more!
One story in Cuentos de la selva ("Las medias de los flamencos") was read in the end of the workshop, and then discussed. All participants were listening carefully, and they all seemed to really enjoy the story. The discussion afterwards focused on animals and the environment. "Why should we respect animals?" one of the girls asked. "Because animals have the same feelings as humans" another girl responded.
Lastly, the girls got paper and pencil and answered some evaluation questions. What did you like most today? What did you like less? Do you like reading books? Why/why not? What do you want to do next time? Most paticipants answered that they liked everything, disliked nothing, that they do like reading books because it is fun/they learn from it/books are like friends, and that they want to draw next time!
The written evaluations are, of course, extremely important to us, and will be a permanent element of each workshop. They reflect not only the thoughts and development in reflection of each participant, but also the level of writing and spelling skills etc.
Next Friday, we will start working with the book Colin y los monos, and we will also interview each girl individually in order to get to know them and the group profile better. Hopefully, we will also start working with the other group (13-15 years old, mixed boys and girls) next week. That other school is situated in a more remote urban area, with higher degrees of violence and the presence of criminal gangs, so it will be very interesting for the project but also a bit trickier for practical reasons.
*The Palacio tecleño de la cultura y las artes is sort of a town hall, governed by the mayor and the local government of Santa Tecla, where cutural events and workshops such as movie shows, concerts and guitar lessons are arranged. It is open to everyone from early morning to late at night, and the café offers really good capuccino which you can enjoy at a table outside at the pavement or inside just beside the open patio. This is a kind of place you rarely find in El Salvador. Culture, for most Salvadorans, means US American films and music, and those in power have done very little in order to promote a more varied cultural arena. However, there are positive examples, like that of Santa Tecla, and one can see that the general political discourse is prioritizing culture more now than ever before.
