Saying Goodbye: Nivelación

Our first finale as we wrapped up our time in Tacna was the last day of Nivelación on Wednesday the 30th.  We had survived ten weeks of tutoring, with only a few dropouts on the part of both our primary school kids and the older tutors.  We had several very boisterous second graders, some of whom needed to be watched almost constantly, which kept us adults busy (that included me, Nadia the psychologist I work with, and Maureen, a wonderful Jesuit Volunteer at Miguel Pro).  For the last day, Wednesday, we had some closing activities instead of regular tutoring and gathered all the kids and tutors in one room--there are 38 of them total so we usually spread them out in 4 classrooms:

First we started with an activity where the kids had to illustrate the phrase, "In Nivelación I learned..."
The tutors helped them work although the goal was for the kids to be original in their ideas.

Here is Moisés, one of our trouble-making second graders, who is actually a smart kid if you can get him to focus on his work--apparently he is also a ham.

Here is Alex, one of our fourth graders who worked hard and was a good kid all year.

Here are Xintia and Marilyn (both standing) two of our best tutors, both in second year (the equivalent of 8th grade) with Jennifer and Milagros, two of our more difficult fourth graders. These girls all worked really hard.

After the drawing time was over, we collected the illustrations and passed out cookies and soda, then awarded prizes to the kids who we thought had been the best examples of how Nivelación should go.  To finish off, we took a group picture outside by the soccer court:

In the picture above, you can see Maureen on the left, me on the right, and Nadia in the back row waving.  Overall, it was a good group of kids, but they could be a handful sometimes.  I think several of the tutors were glad to have the session over, while many of the kids will miss the time and support they received from the tutors.  Nadia and Maureen had scheduled a meeting with the tutors to evaluate their experience the following week, and then they will take a break before resuming Nivelación in August or September for the second half of the year.

These are the kids I have worked the most closely with over an ongoing period, so saying goodbye to them in my last week was a nice way to have some finality, and I will miss the kids.