Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Teaching English to Children and Other Fun Pastimes

So these past two weeks I have spent starting up various classes with the kids in my school. Since my school only goes up to 6th grade, I kind of like to think that I have to be a little more creative than most Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) when it comes to making classes and doing things with my kids. I am the only PCV who is in my Youth Development group with a school that doesn’t go up to 9th grade or high school. Luckily, my community made such a good impression that PC decided to make an exception and give them a PCV. I love my school. It is really small, only about 150 kids, and they are all at an age that I LOVE working with. They are old enough to do things like English and computer classes but not too old that they think I am too uncool to work with. I find that I am more comfortable with 6th graders than I may ever be with El Salvadorean teens (or any teens for that matter). I am not hip or cool. I don’t wear makeup and tight clothes and accessories. The farthest I have ever gone in the ¨getting ready¨ department has been to put on some tasteful earrings. Women here tell me all the time that I look frumpy and need to either cut my hair or start wearing makeup or I´ll never find a husband. Little do they know that that is exactly what I want! Well, at least that’s what I want while I am in PC El Salvador. We PC women often joke that even if we wore burkas we would get cat called (or piropos) and it’s probably true as long as they could see some white skin or light colored hair. Sometimes in the morning to get milk for my tea from my neighbors cow I will be crossing the street in my pajamas, hair in total disarray, glasses on and still get someone to whistle at me in a passing truck. Sometimes it makes me feel kind of good, most of the time it just makes my blood boil.

ANYway, back on topic: So I have started English, computer, art and environment classes at my school the past two weeks. Most of the classes went fairly well although I have learned never to leave a stapler alone with a group of first graders. I have gone over colors, What is Your Name? My Name is…., Hello, Goodbye, Thank you, How Are You? I am Fine. And we have played twister which was interesting and way too complicated. I am really excited to do the Hokey pokey when we get around to body parts. My art classes have been isolated to making stuffed paper fish that the kids got to color and hang in the classroom window. It was a big hit although many kids here are still learning to ¨free color¨ so it was good to see them branch out from the typical all blue fish to ones with lots of colors. What do I mean by ¨free color¨ you may ask? It means that when you go to a group of kids in El Salvador (or a lot of countries outside Europe, the US, etc, and tell them to draw whatever they want, they look at you with a dazed, overwhelmed expression. Even with the fish, kids were asking me how many colors they could use and whether they had to draw the fish with vertical or horizontal lines. I just gave them my favorite Spanish phrase lo que sea (whatever). Computer classes have been a losing battle, not because of the students ironically but because of the computers. We technically have 4 but only two work. Only after today, we are now down to one. I don’t know what this country does to computers but it is not kind to them. Must be all the heat and dust. Environmental ed is going fairly well but it’s hard to start from zero and work your way up. We did have a great game of blob tag as a metaphor for how water washes away all trash and other contaminants on the street or near river banks. Other than that, I still visit houses (there has recently been a new addition to my neighbor´s house and I love visiting and holding the tiny baby), walk every morning and have even started running. I am contemplating trying to ride my host dad´s horses but I really don’t want to end up with a cast in El Salvador again. Overall, life is good although the hottest month of all is approaching in March so I may just spend a lot of time up North visiting my friend Nacho in Apaneca where it is nice and cold.