Day 10... ✓

It is Sunday night, which means our second weekend in Peru is already over!

In just two days, we seemed to accomplish and experience quite a lot. On Saturday, we went back to El Agustino to celebrate The Right to Play Day where we played ping-pong, musical chairs, marbles, trumpo, and more with kids from the community. It was nice to see the kids we met last week again and also talk to more community members. Afterwards, we went out for lunch at Embarcadero, an outstanding seafood and ceviche restaurant in Miraflores, and then had churros and coffee at a small café called Manolo’s. Before returning home, we did some souvenir shopping and walked along the ocean.

Today, we slept in until about 9 and enjoyed a quiet Sunday morning. At about 11, we returned to Miraflores for lunch at a small, quiet café where we sat outside and enjoyed smoothies, coffee, sandwiches, and pesto macaroni. After doing more shopping and exploring, we went home around 5 for dinner and now here we are!

Back-tracking a little bit, I am going to talk about our discussion in Seminar on Friday when we referenced Freire and his Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Pedagogy of Freedom. First, I think we should define what “pedagogy” means because while I have heard the word many times, I wasn’t too sure how to define it. The technical definition of pedagogy is simply the method and practice of teaching, but when discussing Freire’s work and how his ideas of pedagogy coincide with freedom and with oppression, we can consider critical pedagogy (critical thinking) and how, according to Freire, a teacher should go about teaching. Freire aims to challenge social oppression and proposes that teachers should do the same as they push their students to do the same. As I discussed in my last post, oppression can be official or unofficial and can take many forms. As a teacher, we must teach our students to think critically and to challenge oppression in school, outside of school, and in their future. Using fealty rather than force (which I also discussed in my previous posts) we can show our students to do the same now and in the future.

On Friday, we also talked about “The Voluntourist Dilemma” in which Kushner explains that volunteer and service groups often aren’t as beneficial as one may think and can sometimes have a negative impact instead of a positive one. He discusses the problems service projects create and how most times the job can be completed much better and quicker by a professional (who relies on that job). One of the most important terms the article used was “temporary.” If there is a long-term, well-researched plan, it might be beneficial to the community. However, many groups only aim to temporarily solve issues. For those of us on this trip, it is important to remember that we are here to learn, to see the world from another perspective, and to imagine what more we can do to make the world a better place, not to change or “fix” anything.

Check back Tuesday for my next post!