Sarah goes to the Clan Gathering

For those who don't know, that’s a Clan of the Cave Bear reference. Ayla, the main character, is an Other, adopted by the Clan, which is a different type of people. Her small clan of 26 or so eventually adopted her as one of their own - she was a clan woman, accepted, a part of the group, despite her differences. Though her differences constantly are an issue, especially when they go to the Clan Gathering, a family reunion/Olympics of sorts, that comes every 7 years, where all the clans in the area come together for competitions, brotherhood and a spiritual ceremony. As she walks in with her own clan, all stare at her, and many are reluctant to call her clan, despite her attempts to be a good clan woman and medicine woman. See, she was given a position of leadership, Medicine Woman, as well as responsibility, not just to her clan, but to the entire Clan. So, she's supposed to the same, yet different at the same time. And she's already different, in a different way, anyways.

Anyway, this is sort of how I felt when I went to a literacy workshop held in TBC* last week. It was a training for teachers of grades 1-3 and new teachers. The org that heads up literacy and numeracy programs for Guyana, is relatively new, I believe, and it emphasizes phonemic awareness and things. We PCV's were introduced to to the org during training. There are computer programs as well as materials geared to help with lit and numeracy. The workshop in TBC was three days long, and had different sessions, much like any conference I'd go to in the states. I came with a group of teachers from around my village area. Luckily, through the Upgrading Programme in the village, I had already met them a couple times and got to work with them and work past the initial strangeness of having me around. As PCVs, we are supposed to become a villager, live how they live, to an extent. We aren't supposed to work AT our fellow teachers, but work WITH them. Obviously, we have different strategies to introduce them to, and different ways to help them, but to be able to effectively do that, we're supposed to become one of them. I won't say I've become one yet, that may take quite awhile. So anyway, there's a perceived equality in addition to a responsibility on my part.

So it was an internal conflict of sorts, during the sessions, one of simply wanting to (and needing to) observe and learn and be a good Village Woman - the other, to be a leader, help out where needed, set a good example and be a good PCV Woman. The conflict was moot, though (or is it like a cow's opinion - "moo"? hee hee) because I was too overwhelmed to do more than sit, listen and follow my HM and SM around.

I did take good notes, I did learn more about the Ed system and their efforts, and then my time in TBC was spent meeting and getting to know two other PCVs, Michael and Diane, and getting to know the town. And I got to stock up on supplies. During group activities, I was included by others, which was a good feeling. I didn’t have much to offer, regrettably. I think partial shame of this fact made me keep quiet most of the time. Which is a shame in itself because if anything, I could be getting to know my colleagues.

The sessions were very informative and seemed to cover everything we covered during PST. Again, I temporarily wondered, “What am I doing here? They have everything they need to teach literacy, more than I have to give them!” Though I began to notice that there was a dissonance between the session presenters and the audience. I’ll save the details of that for another post, but for now, I’ll just say that I began to understand my purpose for being here a little clearer. I appreciate the clarity, but the task ahead of me is still daunting. I can’t wait until it all falls into place; I have a strong feeling that it will, that me coming here was meant to deliver the peg to the hole, or something like that. La necesidad es el tiempo, el tiempo.

*The Big City - relatively speaking. Where I go to shop, where things happen. Again, for security's sake, "TBC" will be written instead.