Escojo Graduation

Thirteen weeks ago, I began a course to teach the youth here in Baoba how to make healthy decisions with the hope that one day they could stand in front of their peers and teach them the same themes. And after thirteen weeks of coaxing the kids to come to the course on time and to pay attention, the kids have finally graduated. Kids here don’t often get the chance to graduate from something, so I wanted this to be really special. We made invitations and gave them to all of the family members and friends that lived in our neighborhood, and up until the graduation began, I was constantly harassing all of the parents to make their way to the church to support their kids in the graduation (I seriously mean harassing- it was extremely difficult to get these parents to show up). And to my delight, we had a great turnout, with about 30 family members and friends in the audience.

The kids all arrived at the church at 3:30 to prep for the graduation, which was set to begin at 4 (and in reality, began at 4:30). I didn’t want the graduation to just be me talking in front of everyone for two reasons: 1) I don’t speak Spanish that well and didn’t want to have to write a long speech, and 2) this course was for them to learn how to give lectures to the community so it would be good practice for the kids to speak in front of their parents at their own graduation. So that’s what we did.

The program for the graduation:

• Meri and Marlene gave the welcome and opening remarks, along with a guest appearance by Sandy for a little dinámica. (A dinamica is a short little song that gets the audience up on their feet singing and dancing. Dominicans love these, and I will teach them all to you when I get back home.)
• Brian and Franklin spoke on what we learned during the course- values and self-esteem; sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS and how to prevent them; teen pregnancy and how to prevent it; abstinence; drugs and alcohol; and how to use condoms.
• Henri and John Carlos spoke on what we did during the 13 weeks- went to La Capilla to participate in a march for International Women’s Day; hosted the group from La Capilla for a presentation on discrimination; went to Jarabacoa for a 3-day regional conference; and went to Matancitas for an all-day conference with 4 other Escojo groups.
• Andy and Leidi spoke on the groups plan for the future- to give presentations and lectures to the community; to have a talent show; to have a community march; and to present dramas to the schools and churches in Baoba and surrounding communities.
• The two regional coordinators, Joamver and Felix, then spoke more about Escojo and the benefits to being in the group. I invited these guys, who live about 2 hours away, to come and say some encouraging words to my kids for the graduation.
• Nanci and Yamel then presented the drama that the kids did in Matancitas, and the kids then repeated the drama so that all of the parents could see it as well.
• Then I said a short little speech telling the kids how much I enjoyed teaching them and presented all of the certificates.
• Javier and Elizabeth then gave closing remarks and invited everyone back to my house for cake and juice.

The After Party:

The after party was a huge hit. I had spent all morning making 5 gallons of juice with melon, apples, bananas, coconut and pineapples. And the day before I went into the closest large city to buy and decorate (yes I actually decorated the cake. They called me into the back kitchen of the bakery to draw my Escojo design with the icing because the bakers didn’t know how to do it) a 3 pound cake.

After serving the cake and juice, we all spent the next 3 hours dancing bachata and merengue. And towards the end of the evening, my kids were even able to drag me onto the dance floor to booty-dance with them to Dominican rap music.

I was extremely proud of how well the graduation and after party went. During the graduation, all of the kids spoke loudly and articulately, and at the after party, everyone behaved. I had told them beforehand that this would be the one party where alcohol would not be allowed, and surprisingly they stuck to this rule. I was also proud of all of the parents who showed up to support their kids. I feel like we take it for granted that our parents would show up at our graduation or a sporting event, but here the kids are pretty much on their own for that sort of thing. I could tell it really meant a lot to the kids for them to stand up in front of their friends and family and present what they have been doing for the past 3 months.