I’ve been hitting some lows the past few weeks. I definitely have felt the mid-service slump and I’m not sure if I’ve gotten out of it.
While I’ve learned and grown so much here the past year, I think of another year as another big mountain to climb. Yes, there are moments where I feel confident with the relationships I’ve formed and the work I’m doing. But, there are also a lot of days where I feel uncomfortable in the culture and very misunderstood.
The past month, I’ve been working in the infoplaza and teaching coding workshops on code.org. It’s a great website that teaches all ages the logic behind coding. My dinamizadora found out about the website from one of her webinars and we’ve been involving the local kids into the program. They seem to like it because it gamifies coding. There are Minecraft characters and angry birds you need to code to kill the evil pigs.
The teacher strike officially stopped. Classes have resumed to normal which has been really good to see all the students back in classes.
The biggest challenge I see for myself is learning to manage my expectations for my second year here. I want to work on more projects with the youth and my local counterparts. Realizing there is no end goal here has been really hard for me to digest. There is no ultimate physical project; the ultimate project is forming my relationships which is hard for me to truly believe. Currently, I am organizing a university fair for the high schoolers to learn about opportunities after they graduate.
I leave soon to go to Panama City with my cohort. I’m very excited to have a break from my town and re-energize myself with my friends.