Kids' Group

One thing that most people probably don't know about the Peace Corps is that it is about much more than "world peace and friendship".  While this remains the vision of Peace Corps, the way this goal is accomplished is through cutting-edge development work.  Like the rest of the development field, Peace Corps is setting its sites on SUSTAINABLE development.  For the volunteer, this means lots of reporting, monitoring, and pausing at every step to make sure that their work is sustainable in their community.  While the whole "sustainability" thing is the very point of Peace Corps and the reason I was attracted to this organization, it can make slow-moving work in a slow-moving country, go even slower.

So, every once in a while, you have to cut yourself some slack and do something because it is FUN.  That's where Kids' Group comes in.  I was lucky enough to inherit this awesome group of kids from previous volunteers who had worked with them in my site.  They are a happy, intelligent, kind group of kids and I love working with them. 

We meet one or two times a month.  I simply put a sign up on my door a few days before and they come to my house for games, cooking, and a little bit of learning thrown in.  Recently, I've been inspired to focus our activities around environmental education.  This is something that I think can be really fun, but right now there really isn't space for it in my primary project.  

This week, we composted!!  We began by identifying organic and inorganic trash and talking about what we could do with each type of trash.  Then, we moved on to learning about composting and making our very own compost with California red worms!!  We cleaned up and enjoyed a well deserved snack afterwards!

It might not be the most "sustainable" or "important" aspect of my work, but spending an afternoon with these bright kids always feels like time well spent!