Darling children dressed up for Mardi Gras parade at Colegio Boston. Precioso, no?
I saw heaven on one of my strolls, I thought you all might like to see it, too.
Mountain cruise on the way to Tec Pan for Valentine lunch!
Sarah and I buckled in for safety while Freddy took mountain corners at 100 km/hour...or so
Poppie, this is for you! I tried playing "guess that crop" on the way to Tec Pan, but no one wanted to play.
La Vida
Another week has passed and I feel as though I have been here for ages. Things are feeling more comfortable, I know my way around the town and my Spanish continues to serve me well when avoiding street vendors and making new friends. I was even able to help a fellow English speaker in a little tienda, when she was trying to figure out what was inside of the delicious looking pastries- the shopkeeper was trying to explain in Spanish and the woman continued asking in English. I eavesdropped for only a few moments, said the word pineapple, and the woman was very grateful!
I have found my happiness in my strolls around Antigua, the gorgeous landscape and my darling students. Each day I take a stroll down a different street and usually wander into a few shops or market areas. I’ve begun my list of souvenirs to purchase and I already know I’ll be hard pressed to fit everything into the huge backpack my brother generously lent me! The sights never cease here, and I am trying to take pictures as much as I can without looking too much like a tourist. I’ll post some soon, I promise! The students are also getting more used to me, as I am to them, and I have fallen love with the way they say “Goo Morgnig Mees Jee.”
On Mondays and Wednesdays I work with Emiliano on his English, and we are becoming good pals. Yesterday we read a Ninja Turtles story that he had on his shelf and decided we would write a continuation about Mutant Ninja Cats! He already has great ideas, and I’m planning to make some book pages tonight. I’ll let you all know when its published.
My other typical activities include lesson planning, walking around for snacks with Sarah and Cristian, and running into the high school girls that live across the hall- we always seem to find each other in the street! It makes me feel like I know people, which is kind of nice!
On Sunday Cristian and Sarah’s group of friends brought me with them for lunch in Tec Pan, a city about 45 minutes from Antigua. We drove over mountains, past farmland and through “la linea roja” aka the area of Chimaltenango lined with brothels and ladies standing in doorways. Oh the places I’ve been! (No, we did not stop anywhere along La Linea Roja, and no, I did not take pictures of the drag queen.) I did, however take some great pictures of the random cows along the highway and the deer heads that decorated ChiCuoy, the famous restaurant that serves huge meat platters. It was almost a Guatemalan version of Fogo de Chao!
In other news, we have a new neighbor named Bernardo Valentín. He weighs about 5 pounds and is still in his crying phase, but is very loving! In case I haven’t mentioned yet, Cristian’s sister Flor lives next door with her four children and now their brand new beagle puppy! Bernardo is 1.5 months old and is my new favorite puppy.
Other than that, I have been doing some teaching stuff…feel free to read on.
En El Colegio
My main school responsibilities this week were teaching reading (Island of the Blue Dolphins) and science (a mold growing experiment aka delish), along with further acclimation to the school, students y todo lo de Guate.
Each day felt a bit more hectic than the one before, but I could also feel that I am becoming more accustomed to the school and students, which was encouraging. This led up to Friday, which I will now call “El Dia de Chaos.” The day began with an interesting announcement to teachers that students would need to clean out their lockers and bring all of their materials into the classroom because the engineers would be fumigando (yes, that is a cognate and it means fumigating) over the weekend. Thus our classroom turned into one huge locker and students were literally jumping over piles of books to get around.
If that wasn’t enough, students had also brought to school various sandwiches, pizzas, chips and 3-litre bottles of soda for the afternoon potluck and soccer festivities, along with their Secret Friend exchange gifts, which ranged in complexity from a piece of chocolate and a heart to an elaborate stuffed bear with red balloon and calculator/pen gift set. I received a lovely box of pink donas (Guate for doughnuts) and a beautiful valentine that now hangs on my bedroom wall. The day was a sugar-rush and I couldn’t decide whether I loved every minute or wanted the day to end!
In addition to making regular plans and Valentine plans and locker cleaning plans, I have been constantly brainstorming methods on how to turn our classroom into a well-oiled machine. Yesterday I started the magic “Home work Chair” on which students place their daily assignments at the beginning of class, as well as “That Thing You’re Supposed to do When You Arrive,” which could be called Morning Work in a Minnesota classroom. I’m working on creating systems so that the students know what to do at any given moment. The homework chair and morning work have gone well this week so far and I hope to continue coming up with efficiency techniques that work!
This morning was a celebration of Carnaval (Fat Tuesday) before the beginning of Cuaresma (Lent). All students were invited to dress up and parade around the school grounds! The majority of students were in kindergarten, preparatoria (between K and 1st) and first grade,with the addition of one belly dancer from fourth grade and Kevyn, our 6th grade cowboy! On the bus ride home today I sat by Jose Andres, the 1st grader, and we discussed how cool he looked in the parade with his elaborate Pinocchio mask.
Thanks for your patience as I navigate the Guatemalan internet, things are unreliable at best, but I love hearing from you all be it on Skype, gmail or anything! More later and Happy Lent!
Love to all, jill
No comments:
Post a Comment