Now a certified puppeteer!

I can envision it now, after two years in the Peace Corps I will have quite the list to put on my resume of certificates received and conferences attended. It will go something like this…
Conferences and Professional Certifications:
Bananito Amigo (¨A Little Banana Friend¨)- certified in over 50 ways to cook a banana
Titerero (¨Puppeteer¨)- Professionally certified in how to construct and maneuver puppets made of recycled goods and trained as a promoter to teach others to be a puppeteer
Grito de Juventud- Certified in using the radio equipment at the local radio station
Professional Hair Cutter- Although I haven’t officially gotten my certificate yet, I´ll have it one day. I now have three haircuts worth of experience cutting really curly fros, using a broken hand held mirror and scissors from a medical kit.
This past week I attended a very intense two hour a day, five days of the week Puppeteer course. Yes, a puppeteer course, not just to be certified in the construction and maneurving of a puppet, but all to be certified as a promoter to teach others the same. I too thought this course sounded ridicouls when I decided to go. But my logic was this is going to be a rough week with my other projects and I need something to make me laugh, so what better way than to be a kid again for two hours a day every afternoon.
Day one- Ian and I show up to our puppets course, and it is just us, the teacher, and one of our AREvista youth. Hmm, not looking so good. Then, more kids showed up. 30 minutes after the original time the class was started doing some activities of how to properly talk using a puppet. As we stood in the circle towering over the children, using our hands to say tongue twisters, I think we both felt like this was going to be a little too much for us. We were the oldest participants over… 10 years old probably. But then our comfort level was greatly improved when a group of teachers showed up for the course and we weren’t the only adults.
Technique learned for the day: When using your hands to make the puppet talk, you should have your hand in the form of the mouth of an alligator, when you are saying a vowel you have to open the mouth wide and when you are saying an consonant shut the mouth, that way the puppet looks like it is saying what you are saying. I didn’t quite past the final test, but let’s blame that on the tongue twister being in Spanish not on my lack of coordination.
Day Two: Today’s class was focused on constructing the puppets. The whole idea of the puppet course was to teach people how to use garbage for the arts. So every puppet had to be made from recycled goods, things in your house that no longer are useful, and any type of garbage you can find. Since Ian and I are the only ones that brought in recycled goods, the day’s activity was to go out in our groups walk up and down the streets and find garbage… not a hard task here in Ecuador considering the garbage is everywhere on the streets. Needless to say we found a great amount of useable garbage.
Day Three: Trained in creating the perfect masterpiece of a puppet out of anything possible- cans, bottles, bags, broken plastic bowl, buttons, soda tops, etc.
Day Four: How to make your puppet come alive. As our teacher said ´once that puppet is in your hand you are no longer you, you are the puppet!´ Yes, I laughed to myself when I heard that, but tried to get into it for the sake of the course. So next task, give my puppet a spirit, a name, and a life story. My group was going to act out the story of the turtle and the hare and I was playing the part of a butterfly that oversees the race between the turtle and the hare (this is the story where the phrase ‘slow and steady wins the race´ comes from).
Floppy la Mariposa (Floppy the butterfly) was my masterpiece of a puppet made from a bottle, old straws, some paper, and a throwing out birthday present bag. Floppy had wings that didn’t flop and two different color eyes, making it a little more special. After a day of practicing using floppy, not only did I feel a little crazy for having just walked around a room for thirty minutes talking to myself as if I were a puppet, and my arm was tired from making it fly, my puppet was complete and ready for its big show.
Day five: Show day! Was time to show off all those puppeteer skills I´d just acquired. The show went.. well, as expected and in the end of it all I know have floppy la mariposa sitting on my bookshelf at home and another certificate to put on the wall soon, certified in being and teaching others to be a puppeteer!