The last couple of days I have been making my posters for the 10 Things Men and Women can do, respectively. Also, Simón and I saw an awesome dance performance of a group of Costa Rican dance students last night.
10 Things Women can do for Self Protection and/or Risk Reduction
Today was our last workshop at USAC and the students were assigned to create a group project to perform or present this week, so there were several skits, songs, presentations, and art work. The students were also asked to write letters to themselves making a promise to change something in their lives that would help prevent violence. This proved to be moving as several students read their letters out loud. One particularly touching letter was written by “student,” Zully Soberalis, survivor of intimate partner violence and the director of Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta Santa Barbara in Zone 18, the location of MIA’s pilot program.
Zully Soberalis and I outside of the classroom A group presentation
A skit about male misbehavior; pictured here are “mother” and “son”
A group presentation
One of the students demonstrating types of violence
A close up of one of the group’s visual aid
This group made a collage of how the media influences societal values
This very musical group sang a song they wrote
A “husband” and “wife” square off over equal domestic labor
After the students read their letters and did their group presentations, they had to get into pairs and light each other’s candles while sharing personal goals for self-improvement. This was fun for me because I got to participate with a male student and he was really interested in my goal of teaching my newborn nephew as he grows up about gender equality and alternative models of masculinity. His goal had to do with not looking down on people. We then got to know each other a little and he was blown away at my life experience, specifically that I didn’t live with my family and had worked since I was 16.
I explained a lot of misconceptions about the U.S. such as the ideas he had about justice by relaying stories of my experiences as a rape crisis counselor. We also discussed racism and the differences between racism in the U.S. and racism in Guatemala and how immigration ties in.
Candle lighting ceremony and my ceremony partner
Then, sadly, it was time to end our last session of workshops at USAC and we all said out goodbyes. I felt really sad that I wouldn’t see this group again as I had grown fond of all of them.
Tomorrow I am going to make the detailed schedule for Epsum/Volusac so Simón and I can begin with our next group.