Well, excluding the sad events of today, this past week has definitely been one of the most fun and exciting weeks for me since coming to Panama. This week was "English Week" at UNACHI, a great tradition that has been going on at the school since 1984. Each day of the week was dedicated to different events that promote the use of the language and showcase the skills and hard work of teachers and students alike in the Humanities Department. The theme for this years English Week was "Go Green" so basically every event/sketch had to somehow promote the idea of reduce, reuse, recycle. Great to see how much this concept is being advocated as of late. Since I came here in March, recycling bins for different materials have been installed on campus as well as numerous signs/posters around the community.
Monday was seminar day. I was selected as one of three speakers to make an hour long presentation to the students of the English Department and whatever faculty were interested in attending. A couple of classes from the Math Department also showed up and I was actually really impressed with the level of English those students displayed. But keep in mind that this seminar took place in Panama. When I say that all of these people attended, I do not mean that they showed up on time per say; the saying here should be "Why start on time when you could start an hour later?" Here is a picture of the auditorium at 9:00, the scheduled start time of the seminar:
Once the lectures did start, however, I thought they were well delivered and provided for an entertaining morning. The first speaker discussed taking care of our environment and the implications that go along with that, while the other one talked about making plans and setting goals for our personal lives. My presentation dealt with culture, more specifically, "The Significance of Culture in Our World." This was a fun and relatively easy topic for me to talk about having experienced a number of diverse cultures around the world. While I lectured about what makes up a culture, cultural universals, differences between cultures and why there are such differences, I didn't think my words alone could do this topic justice. How can you explain something like culture shock or what it feels like? Uhh, it's difficult and uncomfortable because people do things differently than you? If I were in the audience, those words just wouldn't mean much of anything to me. Therefore, I created an activity that would get the students involved and potentially better able to understand what it would be like to be a foreigner in a culture with very different customs and traditions. I searched for a wide variety of customs unique to different cultures around the world (including a couple they are familiar with in Panama) and wrote one of these customs on slips of paper. Then, in groups I asked the audience to discuss their assigned custom, how it would make them feel if they had to move there tomorrow, and why they think they would feel that way. This sparked some interesting conversation and thoughts from which I extracted common words such as, "crazy," "ridiculous," "normal," etc. We all have perceptions of the world and how it's supposed to be, and these views are shaped and nurtured by the culture in which we grow up (whether we realize it all the time or not).
On Tuesday, several high schools from all over the provence came to UNACHI in order to participate in competitions throughout the day. The contests included jeopardy trivia (on recycling facts), poetry (reciting memorized poems about keeping the earth green), oratory (memorized speeches about the importance of being green), singing, and dramas. I had a great time judging all of the contests except for oratory and came away extremely impressed with these high schoolers' courage and English skills.
Here are some clips from the singing contest that I uploaded!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ629reMpMM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx5aJjPuUYQ
Wednesday was a free day for UNACHI students to polish up their sketches and dances for the much anticipated “Get Together” on Thursday.
The big day was Thursday. Students have been working for months preparing and practicing sketches that they have created. So, at 10 a.m. (the Get Together starts at 1 pm) I get an e-mail from the head of the department that there is a lunch at 11. A quick change of plans there. It also stated that we will be in the fashion show and to bring a description of my outfit. ...Come again? Fashion show? I need an outfit? This was news to me and of course was so glad to get it an hour before I now had to leave. (Threw together a ridiculous outfit of some seersucker pants, a white silk button down, some sperrys and a backwards yankees cap.) That wasn’t all in this e-mail though. OK, so there was some talk brewing a few weeks earlier that we might, as a staff, put together a dance for the event for fun, but since no teachers ever showed up to the scheduled practices and there was no further word about it, I gratefully stopped worrying late at night about this happening....until these words showed up in my e-mail, “I didn't call for rehearsal yesterday, but we will improvise and you will lead the steps because I guess you are the one who has seen more often. Be ready.” Uh-uh, aint happening. Life lesson: there are times when a man should accept the challenges and surprises that come along and deal with them. Then, there are times when that man needs to put his foot down. This was, without a doubt, a time to bring that foot down.
Anyways, I was one of 3 judges for this event in a packed auditorium. Some of the criteria included creativity, using recycled goods for costumes and scenery, language fluency and pronunciation, choreography, etc. Every group put together a sketch (i.e. Freshman morning, Freshman afternoon, Sophomore morning, etc.) I can’t tell you how impressed I was with the final products put together by all of the English students. So much excitement, so much creativity, it really was a special night that I won’t forget. I’ll share some pictures with you all (I have a video of one of the sketches, but unfortunately, it would take a couple hours to upload onto here).
Also I had some fun with that fashion show in the middle of the event, but still thanking the big guy above I didn’t have to do any planned choreography.
Finally, on Friday, several faculty members and about 30-35 students who were able to go went on a field trip to Penonomé. This is a city about 5 hours away from David and a couple hours outside of Panama City. Because it is so far, the bus was scheduled to leave at 4 a.m. (although, of course, keeping in mind we’re in Panama, it left at 5:15). I found the city to be a really nice, quaint place with a strong Spanish influence evidenced in the numerous parks with big Cathedrals adjacnt to these plazas (typical in Spain). We also stopped at and were welcomed by another University in the area as they toured us around not only their university, but also the surrounding area. At the end of the day, they put on a few performances for us including a “typical” dance (Panama’s traditional dance), some singing and a couple short drama pieces. I had so much fun on the trip and got to know the students who went on it a whole lot better. It was a perfect way to cap off a fantastic and memorable week here in David, Panama.
Ciao amigos
