Reading life: education in practice

Over the last couple of weeks, the Quito festivities have taken over the city somewhat getting in the way of our weekly activities! Canelasos, chivas, blaring musical bands on the city´s various corners, cuarenta competitions were all lively distractions that occupied many of Quito´s squares, including la Plaza San Francisco! … So apologies for our ¨silence radio¨ as it appears we are also a little delayed this week in posting this blog… as proper Quiteñans we too had to take part in these!! ;0

So the bad weather was back to strike us again this week- the rainy season pattern in this part of the hemisphere is straightforward: scorching sun in the morning and pouring rains in the afternoon- so we decided to take shelter in the Convent as soon as drops began to appear. One of us remained under the tent on the Plaza to ensure that parents & newcomers would know where to find us. The rest of the crew went straight to the Convent’s patio.

This week, we covered the right to education. The idea was to demonstrate that learning is primarily about being attentive to what is around you, about reading life from where your life experiences make you stand. Fe y Alegria´s (FyA) believes in popular education and its Pedagogy team was present to unravel this approach to the kids. The idea behind FyA going ahead with us on this project was primarily because it provides them with an opportunity to take popular education out of the schoolroom to the streets, test their methodologies and eventually, on a longer term, to reapply these learning back into their schools.

On Wednesday, FyA’s voluntary students (CEFA) also expanded Cuentamelo Todo´s team. Thanks to Henri & Santi, two wonderful students who have been involved with us since we started, a troop of CEFA girls are now mobilized to support the project over the next 6 months. Their mission: ensure the kids make the most of our sessions from a recreational perspective, supporting the values and rights we are working on.

So going back to the right to education, the CEFA team allowed us to make concrete to the kids the fact that education is also about learning from everything that surround us... Indeed, Henri, our first little “cefista” represented the self, explaining to the kids how and what he could learn about and from himself. Fernanda embodied people and revealed how diversity can enrich our lives. Santi, impersonifying the environment, talked about what nature, monuments, and/or contexts bring to us. Finally Carla, concluded on how life, beliefs, dreams and aspirations can make us grow as a person.

A relaxed discussion and sharing of experiences then took place between the kids and Christian and Lorena, FyA’s pedagogues. As you will no doubt notice from the pictures, the session was pretty reflective...maybe this had something to do with the context we were in! ;0

We then moved on to lighter topics and took to the plaza to see what had happened to our Coca Cola experiment from the previous two weeks (Some food for thought). All the kids were very keen to see what had occurred to the chocho (corn) we had said goodbye to along with the coins and a small rock. The experiment did not quite turn out as expected as the chocho looked the same as when it had left us (ok, a little diminished but nothing drastic enough to put the kids off sweet drinks!), the coins were much cleaner (which to our despair, the kids thought was rather cool..) and the stone, well, it remained of stone! Despite the slight flop which we all laughed about, the CEFA team then gathered the troops to carry out some last games, whilst the younger and more ¨quiet¨ ones stayed on with some of us to do a little reading and drawing.

Next week, as rights are not all about serious matters, we´ll be looking thanks to the Defensoria del Pueblo at the right to relax. Indeed, as human beings we have a right to eat well, sleep, learn but also to stay healthy, play, dream, and relax!