Somos El Mundo
Hope everyone’s doing well! Things are still going great here in Cochabamba and I’ve really started to connect more with the children I’ve been working with which has been wonderful.
Last week I had the combination of my most stressful morning and most productive afternoon all in one day. Maybe I’ll go into the stressful part in another post, but in this one I would like to focus on the productive part. On Tuesday, I got to teach my first lesson! It was suggested to me by my supervisor that I teach the older kids the song “Somos el Mundo/We are the World” for an event on June 6th. I thought this was a great idea since it is such a beautiful song and the idea of getting my fellow volunteers to join in made the song seem especially fitting as we are a literal bringing together of people from all over the world. And so, on Tuesday, I set out to teach them the chorus in Spanish and in English (as well as just a few singing tips to warm up). Luckily for me, a couple of them actually knew it in Spanish already! As it turns out, one of them had found the CD and already had much of it memorized. This was both helpful and hurtful. On the one hand, to some of them it made the goal seem attainable. On the other hand, when the ones who already knew just decided to show off instead of helping others learn it too, some of them only saw their knowledge of it intimidating and used it as a crutch to not sing out as loudly or confidently.
In fact, that right there was the biggest challenge for them to overcome: confidence. And I completely understand where they’re coming from. I am often exactly that same way. After a little encouragement, they started to get it. With the beginning of the chorus, they were all completely confident and sang out loud and proud, but after that their confidence diminished significantly and they were basically mumbling. In order to help them overcome this, I tried to ease the tension by making a light-hearted joke. Basically, I just showed them in an exaggerated way what they were doing. And they actually laughed! After they were done giggling at my caricatured mumble-singing, I reassured them that they all have wonderful voices but that we just need to be able to hear them. After I repeated with them a couple times the part they were struggling with, I let them sing it on their own and they sang with so much more confidence. Beyond that, they actually really enjoyed singing it! Seeing them light up like that just made me so happy.
Teaching them the English chorus presented its own challenges. All the confidence that they had built up with the Spanish version disappeared once they were faced with new words and sounds that they were unfamiliar with. Even trying to write the lyrics with Spanish phonetics proved to be quite difficult. It made me realize exactly how many sounds we have in English that simply don’t exist in Spanish (the “ih” sound in “children” for instance). Teaching them this obviously took up significantly more time, but in the end they all got it and they were switching from Spanish chorus to English chorus with ease.
Now, why was this my most productive day? Well, firstly it was the first day that I actually planned a lesson, that I really did a significant amount of teaching, so I felt super productive in that respect. Secondly, it was the first day that I really saw a change in the children. It was a day that I could really see the children improving, not just in improving their skill with whatever instrument they play, but also in increasing their confidence. By the end of the day, the girls were smiling and singing all the way back to their casitas. That, the fact that they carried away with them a song to sing and laugh and clap to, that is what made this day productive.
Now I’ve just got to work on the other volunteers…
Chau!
Laurel Bingman