Mar 16-22: Kicking off my workshops, YD Site Visit, and March Madness

After around a month or so of prep, this week was a big step forward for the rest of the year. On Tuesday, I finally kicked off my workshops for the 2026 academic year at the escuela. Over the course of the week, I hosted 4 different physical education classes for students in 5th and 6th grade. We played kickball, something none of my students had ever played before. Since the concept of kickball was foreign to my students, there was a bit of a learning curve. Overall, I think they enjoyed learning something new and did well working as a team. Meanwhile, at the colegio, I went to all of the 11th grade homeroom classes to pitch my ideas for community service projects, as part of servicio comunal estudiantil. Fortunately, I successfully recruited a group of 6-8 students to continue the community running club that I started last year, also as part of servicio comunal estudiantil.

The most notable development at the schools this week wasn’t anything I did in class. Rather, I hosted my third and final visit to my community from Peace Corps staff on the Youth Development team. These visits require my bosses to visit the elementary school, the high school, and my host family’s house all over a 4 or 5 hour period. Within each stop, they must also meet with each of my counterparts privately and watch me facilitate an activity in the classroom. Needless to say, these visits end up being pretty difficult to coordinate with so many moving parts. However, this site visit went off without any serious hitches. In fact, the day culminated with plans for subsequent meetings between Peace Corps and my counterparts in my community members in the coming months. These discussions will center around bringing another volunteer to my escuela following my departure in September, which is something I’ve been lobbying for in recent weeks.


Outside of class, I enjoyed spending time with my girlfriend, Keily, and also watched a fair share of basketball. On Friday night, Keily and I went into San Jose to an independent movie theater to watch Hamnet, a Shakespeare-inspired film that received a handful of Oscar wins and nominations. And with March Madness kicking off on Thursday, I spent a lot of my free time streaming hoops on my phone throughout the week and cheering on the Razorbacks to a 5th Sweet 16 in 6 years.

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