SERIOUS FUN IV
What started off as a simple dinner conversation in 1998 has grown into a very unique and rewarding cultural exchange program between high schools in New Jersey and Pevas, Peru, the village where I lived for seven years. We just completed Serious Fun IV last week. As in 1999, 2002 and 2004 this program was a big success and a hell of a lot of work.
The students from New Jersey are selected by invitation only by a biology teacher, with assistance from other teachers. She and her husband, along with two other selected chaperones, then bring a group of twenty students to Peru where they visit Cuzco and Machu Picchu and other sites before coming to Iquitos. We then board a chartered river boat and sail down the Amazon to Pevas. In Pevas each American student is paired with a Pevas student selected by the teachers in Pevas. During the next 3-4 days we play soccer and volleyball, attend some classes at the Pevas high school (including teaching an English class), go by canoe armada to a nearby Indian village to watch their folklore dances and trade for handicrafts, have a dance party for the students, visit the studio/gallery of the painter Francisco Grippa, have a "talent show" put on by both groups of students, attend a lunch of local foods put on by the parents of the Pevas students and the American students visit the homes of their Pevas partners.
After we leave Pevas we stop for a day on a small tributary up river from Pevas for a day of swimming, jungle hiking, piranha fishing and resting.
There are many other more formalized student programs to foreign countires, but I feel ours has a uniqueness in that 1) we are in a small village (pop. 3,000.) and 2) the pairing up of the students allows for a more intimate "bonding" experience. The American kids, most of whom have never left Gringolandia before, see a life-style, culture and language very unlike their own. The Pevas kids get to see the cheerful, friendly, generous side of Amercians instead of learning about the USA by way of Baywatch and Walker, Texas Ranger.
The thing that concerned me the most the first year we had this program was how were teenagers from two different cultures with two different languages going to mix. These differences melted away in about ten minutes due to the fact the kids were interested in getting to know each other and use of sports and music.
After the talent show there is a gift exchange between partners. An example of a typical exchange was one between an American girl and her partner. The American gave a portable CD player, CD's, batteries, a blouse and some make-up. The Peruvian girl gave a simple painting on tree-bark cloth, a belt and a necklace made from seeds, quills, fish scales and palm twine, a small, hand-carved canoe of balsa wood and a few woven friendship bracelets. As the American girl was walking back to the boat and I heard her say, "I feel so bad. I got so much more than I gave."
The last night aboard the boat I hold a closure meeting. I tell the students that it will be a few months or more before they really understand the experience they have just had. We pack a lot of stuff into a very short time. Then I ask each student to answer, "What surprised you the most?" The answers are always along the lines of:
How open and welcoming the people of Pevas were.
How even though the people of Pevas are poor materially, they have a stong sense of family and community.
How there are both cultural differences and similarities.
How quickly they became comfortable in this strange, new place.
Some of the New Jersey students from past trips chosen college majors and career paths that came out of the experience of this program. Our program now has quite a rep at the high school and it is considered a big deal to be invited.
It is very rewarding to watch these two groups of kids have their worlds expanded in such a positive way. I hope we can continue to do this program for many years to come.
What started off as a simple dinner conversation in 1998 has grown into a very unique and rewarding cultural exchange program between high schools in New Jersey and Pevas, Peru, the village where I lived for seven years. We just completed Serious Fun IV last week. As in 1999, 2002 and 2004 this program was a big success and a hell of a lot of work.
The students from New Jersey are selected by invitation only by a biology teacher, with assistance from other teachers. She and her husband, along with two other selected chaperones, then bring a group of twenty students to Peru where they visit Cuzco and Machu Picchu and other sites before coming to Iquitos. We then board a chartered river boat and sail down the Amazon to Pevas. In Pevas each American student is paired with a Pevas student selected by the teachers in Pevas. During the next 3-4 days we play soccer and volleyball, attend some classes at the Pevas high school (including teaching an English class), go by canoe armada to a nearby Indian village to watch their folklore dances and trade for handicrafts, have a dance party for the students, visit the studio/gallery of the painter Francisco Grippa, have a "talent show" put on by both groups of students, attend a lunch of local foods put on by the parents of the Pevas students and the American students visit the homes of their Pevas partners.
After we leave Pevas we stop for a day on a small tributary up river from Pevas for a day of swimming, jungle hiking, piranha fishing and resting.
There are many other more formalized student programs to foreign countires, but I feel ours has a uniqueness in that 1) we are in a small village (pop. 3,000.) and 2) the pairing up of the students allows for a more intimate "bonding" experience. The American kids, most of whom have never left Gringolandia before, see a life-style, culture and language very unlike their own. The Pevas kids get to see the cheerful, friendly, generous side of Amercians instead of learning about the USA by way of Baywatch and Walker, Texas Ranger.
The thing that concerned me the most the first year we had this program was how were teenagers from two different cultures with two different languages going to mix. These differences melted away in about ten minutes due to the fact the kids were interested in getting to know each other and use of sports and music.
After the talent show there is a gift exchange between partners. An example of a typical exchange was one between an American girl and her partner. The American gave a portable CD player, CD's, batteries, a blouse and some make-up. The Peruvian girl gave a simple painting on tree-bark cloth, a belt and a necklace made from seeds, quills, fish scales and palm twine, a small, hand-carved canoe of balsa wood and a few woven friendship bracelets. As the American girl was walking back to the boat and I heard her say, "I feel so bad. I got so much more than I gave."
The last night aboard the boat I hold a closure meeting. I tell the students that it will be a few months or more before they really understand the experience they have just had. We pack a lot of stuff into a very short time. Then I ask each student to answer, "What surprised you the most?" The answers are always along the lines of:
How open and welcoming the people of Pevas were.
How even though the people of Pevas are poor materially, they have a stong sense of family and community.
How there are both cultural differences and similarities.
How quickly they became comfortable in this strange, new place.
Some of the New Jersey students from past trips chosen college majors and career paths that came out of the experience of this program. Our program now has quite a rep at the high school and it is considered a big deal to be invited.
It is very rewarding to watch these two groups of kids have their worlds expanded in such a positive way. I hope we can continue to do this program for many years to come.
posted by Scott at 11:04 AM
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