Entertainment in the Campo

December 20, 2011

As Scott and I are in the planning stages of the health classes that we want to start in February, I have often found myself wondering if anyone will actually show up to our courses. The style of teaching for our courses is a combination of discussion and fun activities that engage the audience. These activities might remind of you of those you would see in a kid’s camp (Boom-Chicka-Boom, anyone?). I can understand why kids would like these kinds of activities, but I still have trouble believing that adults would be interested in this sort of thing. And besides, don’t they have better things to do than attend a health class with two Americans who can’t even speak their language properly?

Well, the truth is that they don’t. There just aren’t that many things to do around here. When they aren’t working, the people here spend a lot of time sitting around on their porches gossiping with neighbors. There is also the occasional dominoes game or cock fight. Here are some other forms of entertainment that we have observed:

1. Painting things with makeup: One day Scott and I saw one of our host sisters painting a piece of old cardboard with eye shadow. The next day we discovered that she had painted the side of the kitchen table with red lipstick. Sadly, we only discovered this after getting thick red lipstick lines on our pants.

2. Throwing rocks at chickens

3. Sitting on motorcycles: Whether your an adult or a kid, this seems to be pretty fun around here. Our host brother Manual loves to sit on his uncle's motorcycle making vroom-vroom noises.

4. I don't even know how to label this: There is one kid in the neighborhood who enjoys running around naked in the street making farting noises. We have observed this behavoir on numerous occasions and for various durations of times (once for forty minutes). He's working hard on being nick-named “fart-face”.

5. Standing around in the colmado watching other people dance. Even better, watching the Americans try to dance. Sometimes dancing yourself.

Needless to say, Scott and I are having a lot of fun thinking of creative ways to engage people around here. We are hoping to have a sports day for the younger kids in January and maybe even a talent show for the adolescents. We also picked up some coloring books and crayons when we were visiting the capital last week, which I think will be a big hit among the younger kids.