School Anecdotes Week 16: The Right to Sleep, the Right to Walk

Words of the week:
dar de alta- to be in outpatient care (hospital term, not describing myself at all, but a counterpart's family member)
la tarima-stage

What a bizarre and surreal week. I think that any week which starts with you and a friend coining the fake hashtag #kidneyinfection and ends with a teacher training and a trip back to the United States is bound to be full of new and interesting surprises. Asi es la vida...

Given the circumstances, I didn't do much teaching this week. I'm going to America for my sister Addie's graduation and missing 2 weeks of class, so I'm not going to see the kids for a while which is unfortunate. It should be noted, however, that the second week of school that I'm missing includes "Teacher's Day." Chances are that there will be more celebrations than school and I will realistically only miss like a week of classes. So I feel much less guilty.

 On Monday, I woke up feeling like I had been punched in the kidneys, which was sort of true. I walked a couple hundred yards to get some medicine and food, which tired me out so much that I was essentially useless for the rest of the day. I watched Love Actually for the second time this month, which is extremely pathetic and seasonally inappropriate, but I needed some cheer and eye candy to keep my spirits up and my food down. By evening, with my spirits no doubt buoyed by Colin Firth's doe eyes, I finally felt not horrible.

Tuesday was more of the same. I slept a bunch and planned some things for a teacher workshop and watched a Mexican movie called Amores Perros (Love's a Bitch) for the second time this month. You know I'm in a bad way when I prefer to watch a movie I've already seen rather than read.

On Wednesday, I felt ok, so I decided to go to school in the afternoon. Since my counterpart and I couldn't plan, I observed some of his classes (which was perfect for me since I wasn't really up to planning and then co-teaching). He's improved his teaching so much since I've been here- it's been amazing to watch it unfolding. It's fabulous when motivated people are able to connect with opportunities; thanks to a grant from the American embassy, he was able to get a TEFL certificate at a program in Costa Rica, which has helped him enormously. The 8th grade class did a listening class and then created a shopkeeper/ buyer dialogue. 11th grade reviewed human rights, and invented some interesting ones that we did not teach, such as the right to sleep and the right to walk. I wish the right to sleep was a real right because it is pretty frequently violated here by chickens, boom boxes and firecrackers. After watching 2 hours of classes in the heat, I was pretty much exhausted. I left early and went home to finish some things for the workshop and sleep.

On Thursday, I planned with my Saturday counterpart Xiomara in the morning. Since the students were doing an environmental project in Las Palomas, I didn't go to class, but used the opportunity to write a report in Spanish on what we've been doing this semester for the delegado (the superintendent type figure) and the principals of the schools where I work, and finished some materials for the workshop. We also had teacher class, in which we played MadLibs as a warm up to practice parts of speech, and then talked about the topic of "collocation," words that commonly appear together in a language, practicing words that commonly appear with the verbs "do," "make," and "take." These phrases, such as "take a test," "take a trip" and "do the homework" can be difficult for Spanish speaking English Language Learners because in Spanish, they commonly appear with different verbs.

On Friday morning, we had the workshop for teachers, on the topic of communicative activities that the teachers can use to teach each of the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. We only had 7 participants, including 4 of my counterparts, which was a little disappointing, because many of the teachers who live in the small, rural communities and need more support were not in attendance. I think it's going to take better planning, communication, and perhaps some transportation funds to work with them effectively. At the same time, everyone who attended participated enthusiastically  and I hope they learned a lot of ideas for class. I'm so blessed with really great counterparts, who are excited about English, and eager to learn strategies for helping students too. Overall, it was a good experience for me to put on a workshop here and get an idea of how to do it effectively (assume things will start late, don't try to do too much, give powerpoint outlines and make sure there is water and soda). It's cool to track my own growth as a teacher and learner through the course of service; everything I learn becomes something I get to share and discuss with at least four other amazing teachers. It's a beautiful thing.

Island Adventures

Word of the Day
los comejenes-termites
la garza- heron

Went out to the amazing Solentiname archipelago this weekend. Really starting how to appreciate how stunning Rio San Juan is, and at the same time, as I spend more time here, it's even easier to take all the beauty for granted. I don't think I've ever been to a place as peaceful or welcoming.

Solentiname is made up of over 30 islands in Lake Nicaragua, only some of which are inhabited, and some of which only have one or two families living on them. Despite being small and remote, the place has got a fascinating place in history: in the story of the Nicaraguan revolution, in the history of liberation theology, etc. Communities of artists live on the bigger islands: painters and sculptors of balsa wood whose work reflects the beauty of their surroundings.

I'm too tired to write well today, so I leave you with pictures. 

This One Time in Peace Corps...

Words of the Day:
un suero- an IV
los riñones- kidneys
renal- adjective, of or relating to the kidneys

...I got a kidney infection! I should preface this by clarifying that I am totally fine now. Thanks Alexander Fleming!  Antibiotics were a top-notch invention!

Absolutely, this was an all around horrible and terrible experience. Worst pain of my life. (Say this in the Gap Yah voice for full pretentious Peace Corps Volunteer effect) But like most things in Peace Corps, it provided some humor, mostly at my own expense. It was almost fun once they gave me painkillers in an IV for a really long time and I just sat around texting everyone I know because I was extremely bored and deranged. Some of the best scenes:

Phone call #1
Peace Corps Doctor: So how bad, on a scale from 1-10, is the pain you're experiencing?
Me: Oh, I don't know probably a 4 or 5. (Imagining other painful things like childbirth or dangling appendages) But I can't really concentrate on anything else. (He definitely missed this statement)
Peace Corps Doctor: So you are able to go about your daily activities?
Me: Oh, not at all. I'm currently curled in the fetal position, close to tears.

In which pain diminishes all of my Spanish comprehension ability
Doctor: something diagnostic something something needle something IV. Go in there.
Me (Unnecessary hysterics): Please talk to my doctor from Peace Corps!!
Doctors on the Phone: Bla de Bla de Bla, no, she only has a regular infection.
Me to PC Doctor: I don't what is going on but I think they want to inject me with something!!! Do I have appendicitis?
PC Doctor: They're going to take a blood sample. And no, you don't have appendicitis.

Phone call #5
Me: So they say I have a kidney infection "bien fuerte (really strong)." I don't really know how precise the bien fuerte diagnosis is, but...
Peace Corps Doctor: That means really bad.
Me: Well yes, obviously I know that, but...
Peace Corps Doctor: Is this your first kidney infection in country?
Me: Err yes, and ever...
Peace Corps Doctor (completely deadpan): Well, there's a first time for everything.

Nurse putting in an IV
Me: What drugs are you giving me? (Trying to make conversation, but also wanting to make sure they weren't giving me something I didn't want. As if I know anything about medicine.)
Nurse: We're giving you an antibiotic. It's a medicine, not a drug.
Me (What I thought): Are you kidding me? Do you think my Spanish is good enough to make distinctions like that at a time like this?
Me (What I said): Ah, yes, sorry, my Spanish isn't very good when it comes to talking about medicine.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
Don't try to be tough. Go to the doctor. Especially when health care is free. Or, if you are a PCV, call the doctor. Don't be lazy. Don't assume that you can self medicate all things with lots of water. Don't ignore symptoms and take them seriously. Little things= easy to treat. Big things= not easy to treat. Don't be too busy doing your job to ensure that you will keep living it healthfully.

School Anecdotes, Week 15: Never! You are a Woman!

Word of the Week:
tomar la ruta once-hoof it, walk: "take the 11 bus", so named because you have 2 legs

Rough week. It was hot. Despite this, I got a bad cold. It rained a ton, so I have no clean clothing. And the power/water situation was dicey for a couple days. But hey, full week of school, so no real complaints.

Grossest: I nearly ruined a chart about human rights by accidentally dousing it with sweat droplets.

Dumbest: I got completely soaked in an intense rainy season downpour. I was trying to get back to San Miguel to plan classes and I thought I heard a bus coming. Since transport is notoriously scarce on Mondays at this time, I hurried out into the street to find it, thinking the rain wouldn't be that bad. It was. Pretty much instantly, I was soaked to the skin. Also, there was not actually a bus passing. I ducked into a random construction site, and 15 cold minutes later, I saw a real life bus coming up the road. I ran out, waving my arms like a crazy person. Did the bus stop? Of course it did not. Damp and dejected, I stood around for a while, finally managing to find transport. When I finally rolled up, 15 minutes late, my counterpart, upon seeing me, joked "Did you go swimming?" I think I have gone swimming and gotten less wet. I have since learned my lesson and bought the largest, most expensive, and heavy duty umbrella I could find, with a mystifying print combining Dalmatian spots and roses. Gonna be a cool cat now. Watch me shine.
 
Best Original Student Produced Language of the Week: While the 11th grade was learning about human rights in El Tule, we had the students create and perform mini skits. To demonstrate the "right to work", some of the students presented the following:

Female Student: Give me a job please.
Interviewer: Never, you are a woman!
Male Student: Give me a job please.
Interviewer: Ok, please sit down.

Clearly we need to work on teaching politeness strategies, but I thought it was pretty effective at showing discrimination in 30 seconds or less. Not to mention that "Never! You are a woman!" is a highly amusing phrase when delievered by beginning English speakers.

Don't scare the children: While I was teaching about personalities and emotions to 10th grade in El Tule, I did some very over the top acting to demonstrate the word excited, jumping up and down and yelling enthusiastically. In response, the kids made terrified faces at me. One of the students asked if the word  I was trying to act out was "crazy." I find it amusing that my teacher personality is pretty much the opposite of my real life introverted personality: I am confident, goofy, cracking jokes, working the crowd, bringing energy...all this acting probably explains why I am so drained at the end of the day.

This will probably be my legacy: My counterpart told me a story about how he sings the "Very Good Friend" song to his puppy. (You are, you are, a wonderful friend!) Apparently his nephew, who is my student, overheard him and asked him why he was singing it, since it's "Emily's song." If that isn't a nerdtastical thing to be known for, I don't know what is.

7th and 8th Grade Class- Straggling attendance as per usual. Luckily, we're ending in a few weeks anyway, so I'm not beating myself up over it. Learning curve: don't disregard the advice of people who've gone before you....This week, we did a class on wild animals. I made the kids organize the new vocab by mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds. They made a ton of mistakes. Then, I realized that I couldn't remember what the technical scientific distinctions are between reptiles, amphibians and birds...feathers? types of skin? live birth and eggs? cold-blooded/warm-blooded? (but what do those really mean and how do I explain them in Spanish?) I took a cop out: I just re-sorted everything correctly and left it at that. This was the sort of moment where a smart phone would have been useful, because clearly I'm too dumb to remember basic science. Categorizations are all social constructions anyway, right?

Teachers and Other People Who Know Lots of English Class- This week we mixed things up quite a bit, to bid farewell to our German member of the group, a volunteer named Verena who's been living in San Miguelito teaching English at the private primary school here. We planned to meet for a goodbye party at a bar overlooking the lake at 6 pm. The Gergringa pack rolled in a bit late, around 6:15. Apparently, the Nicaraguans were all punctual and left, because they thought it wasn't happening. We ended up waiting around for a while, watching the sunset, the volcanoes and then a wonderful lightning storm rolling in across the lake.

Luckily, everybody else decided to check back again, rolling in around 7:30. Apparently, no one wanted to bother me, so they didn't call me. I explained that this is a perfect instance in which calling me would not be a nuisance, but this is an excellent example of the culture of indirectness that exists here. Eventually, we had a quite a nice evening. Verena will be sorely missed; she is a really sweet, thoughtful person who brought a really interesting perspective to the conversation group and late afternoon muelle chats.

School Anecdotes Week 14: Ayy Mi Madre

Mother's Day in Nicaragua: it's a big deal. With good reason: I'm pretty sure that the society would instantaneously collapse if Nicaraguan mothers stopped their daily devotions. Nicaraguan mothers are worshiped by their children, even if the men in their lives don't always treat them as well...Given this context, it's pretty unsurprising that many of the schools where I work only had one day of school this week.

Monday: School! Learning!!
Tuesday: School-wide Mother's Day celebrations, with mothers invited to watch. And no celebration would be complete without folklore dancing, hoochy dancing, and poetry reading
Wednesday: Town-wide Mother's Day celebration
Thursday: Holiday- no school, etc.
Friday: TEPCE= teacher meetings

Most frustrating: On Monday, I got trapped in El Tule, one of the rural schools, for an hour and half because the bus passed on the highway instead of going through town like it usually does. Due to this, I missed my class for the 7/8th graders, after I had planned an awesome lesson about animals. (Who doesn't love animal jeopardy!?) But did the kids show up? No, they did not. So I was doubly grumpy.  

Most fun: My sitemate Christina wanted to do an activity with some of the little kids in town we've become friends with, so we decided to do a Mother's Day craft: recycled bead bracelets/necklaces! We were trying to figure out how to get kids to come to the event, when we stopped by the primary school to go talk to the delegado, the equivalent of a regional superintendent, more or less. While we were there, the kids mobbed us to say hi, and so we asked them if they wanted to do crafts with us the following day. Surprisingly, with a little prodding from a few of their friends, we had 13 kids show up, including a lot of young boys, which is great, because I'm sure we kept them out of trouble for the afternoon. It was noisy and a little crazy, but a lot of fun. Chris and I are hoping to do more crafts with them in the future. You can see the instructions on how to make the beads here!

Awkwardest: Several people have told me that I can celebrate Mother's Day too, because I will be a mother in the future. There is no way in hell I would be honest and express that I'm not particularly interested in having children. It's great that women are celebrated for the tremendous work that they do as mothers, but it's also incredibly limiting that the very definition of what it means to be a woman is reduced to motherhood. 

Song of the Week: This is the way I ______________
 My counterpart Jonathan taught this one to me. It's great to review basic verbs (you can use any phrase that fits the rhythm of the song) and days of the week/times of the day.

(Do the actions as you say them)
This is the way I brush my teeth, brush my teeth, brush my teeth, brush my teeth
This is the way I brush my teeth, on Monday in the morning

This is the way I brush my hair, brush my hair, brush my hair
This is the way I brush my hair, on Tuesday in the morning

This is the way I wash my hands, wash my hands, wash my hands
This is the way I wash my hands, on Wednesday in the morning.

Etc.  

School Anecdotes Week 13: Beware of Venn Diagrams, You Silly Horse

I'll be honest. This week sucked. Personally, I had lost my momentum and motivation from so much time out of San Miguel, mentally and physically. Also, I got weirdly sick for a little while, missing a day of work with some of my favorite classes. I noticed that minor annoyances were bothering me more than usual: milk thirsty ants (SERIOUSLY WHY DO THEY LIKE MY MILK, THAT'S NOT A THING), the fact that finding vegetables on a non-market day is tantamount to a treasure hunt, the faces that everyone makes when I don't have exact change, etc.

To top things off, rainy season started in earnest. This means that almost everyday, it will rain at least once. I have mixed feelings about rainy season. There are beautiful romantic moments, like when the sky is filled with gigantic, majestic thunderheads, or like when you are lying in bed and there's a light rain falling, making a calming plinking sound and afterward it is cool and everything smells richly of wet earth. Then, there are other moments of rain season which are much less agradable, like when a downpour pounds against the zinc roof of your classroom as you are trying to teach, or when you get ten consecutive mosquito bites on your elbow and fear dengue, or when everything is muddy and the roads are washed to bits, or when the refrigerator spontaneously starts molding everywhere, and as a result of all this, you have a much stronger urge than you should to beat a leering drunkard with your umbrella. Can you tell which part of the culture shock cycle I'm in? It's like playing level of satisfaction limbo, how low can it go?

I'm being very dramatic, it's not actually that bad at all. And it was not certainly not without highlights:

Awkwardest: Apparently Venn Diagrams are not really a thing here. So I accidentally drew an admittedly very phallic looking three-way venn diagram on the board during my youth group. Another strike against me on the list of inappropriate things I have done and or said to them. Clearly, I didn't catch on quickly enough, because when I tried to draw one in my 9th grade class, I got a similarly smirk filled reaction. Should have overlapping circles going VERTICALLY. Next time...

Runner Up: It's been so hot that I can't stop sweating, even when I am not moving. Like sweat dripping off my chin and nose. I ran out of sweat rags and so I just upgraded to using a tee shirt, which drew some looks, but I was totally sweating enough to warrant it. All in- class movement is pretty much on hold: no Total Physical Response (TPR) until further notice.

Best original student thought in English of the week: One of my students in my 7th and 8th grade enrichment class likes to insult other students despite my admonishments and the class rule expressly forbidding being disrespectful to other students.
Two excellent insults this week resulted from some direct Spanish translation.
You are horse. (Vos sos caballo!)- What he meant to say? You are stupid.
You are strawberry. (Vos sos fresa!)- What he meant to say? You are lazy.

"Teachers and Other People Who Speak Lots of English Class": We did a section on time idioms this week. We made up for lost time since we didn't have class the week before. Time flew as we had fun.

Inspiring person of the week: This guy who lives way out in the campo came to the "Teachers and Other People Who Speak Lots of English Class" because he was visiting San Miguelito. His English was really good, which was awesome. Imagine living in the middle of the countryside, three hours from the nearest small town and making the tremendous effort it takes to try and learn a foreign language, with very few opportunities for practice. That's drive.

Song of the Week: The Jellyfish Song
On Friday morning, I went to nearby (2 hours is close enough for me!) Nueva Guinea (New Guinea, no idea where that name came from) today to watch fellow TEFL PCV Isabel's presentation in a workshop put on by the American Embassy as part of their English Language Fellows program. It was a really cool teacher training, focusing on pronunciation, the ECRIF teaching format, and Reader's Theater. Before her presentation on Reader's Theater (a reading, speaking and listening activity where you take books and adapt them into a script format for informal theatrical performances), Isabel had the brilliant idea to do the jellyfish song as an energizer. We got about 40 or 50 English teachers and students doing this. Then, that afternoon, I introduced the Jellyfish song to my 7/8th grade enrichment class. The two students who attended class (grumble grumble where IS everyone?) greatly enjoyed it.

The Jellyfish Song (Call and response, with actions)

Arms up...wrists (or hands, if adapting for easier vocab) together...And do the jellyfish, the jellyfish, the jellyfish fish (make a jellyfish motion)

Arms up...wrists together...elbows together...And do the jellyfish, the jellyfish, the jellyfish fish

Arms up...wrists together...elbows together...knees together...and do the jellyfish, the jellyfish, the jellyfish fish

Arms up...wrists together...elbows together...knees together...ankles together (or feet if adapting for easier vocab)....And do the jellyfish, the jellyfish, the jellyfish fish

Arms up...wrists together...elbows together...knees together...ankles together...butt out.... And do the jellyfish, the jellyfish, the jellyfish fish

Arms up...wrists together...elbows together...knees together...ankles together...butt out.... face squished (make a squishy face)....And do the jellyfish, the jellyfish, the jellyfish fish

Arms up...wrists together...elbows together...knees together...ankles together...butt out.... face squished...tongue out (THE BEST PART)...And do the jellyfish, the jellyfish, the jellyfish fish

A fun site visit: My friend Isabel visited on Saturday, and graciously sat through a Mother's Day celebration at my Saturday school in the community Never Oporta. Then we hung out on the dock, and ate fritanga (grilled meat with fried plantains and salad), which are pretty much the best things to do in San Miguel on Saturday nights. On Sunday, we hung out with Verena, a German volunteer who lives in San Miguel. She made us German style pancakes, with condensed milk and bananas on top, which are sort of like crepes. Then we walked around San Miguel a bit, taking in the gorgeous view from the top of the hill and visiting an artist's house. 4 extranjeros definitely caused a stir. It was super fun to have her visit. It's always great to have other PCVs understand what your site is like, and it's really cool that there are so many of us in Nicaragua, because in every department, you're guaranteed to have someone to stay with.

Reading Reviews, Volume 4

Aww yeah, up to 35 now. Except that's not good because I'm running out of books again and I just visited the Peace Corps office twice. #nerdsgonewild

35. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide- Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wu Dunn
Horrible stories of female suffering, inspirational stories of perseverance despite all odds.
However, I am really not a fan of Wu Dunn/ Kristof's writing. Not totally sure I buy their opinions or their prescriptions to right the injustices described, although they present the positives and negatives of most things. Also, they're way too into the white man's/rich people's burden thing, which as a volunteer working in a foreign country I can't really get uppity about, but still. I also personally took offense at the way they kept describing the women they were profiling. For example, describing the founder of Women for Women International, Zainab Salbi: "Zainab Salbi is thin with olive skin and close-cropped black hair framing large, luminous eyes. She looks like central casting's idea of a free-spirited Middle Eastern princess..."  GAH. Would Salbi's life and work be less awesome if she weren't conventionally beautiful? If the founder of the organization was a man, would you describe him that way? Also, that next line is so rife with Orientalism I don't even want to deal with it. You're writing a book about women's rights and you don't bother to proofread it to make sure you're not being obnoxious? Yes, it's hardly up there with Female Genital Mutiliation, throwing acid on people, or depriving women of economic opportunity, BUT COME ON, SERIOUSLY? Clearly, Peace Corps service is accentuating my cynical, grumpy person qualities.

34. The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS- Elizabeth Pisani
Written by an epidemiologist who's worked on AIDS internationally for many years, this was an interesting read with some very strong ideas about how money can best be spent on AIDS, and a good explanation of why it often is not: politics, religion trumping science, squeamishness about dealing with drug dealers and prostitutes, duplication of effort, or attempts to not duplicate effort that create counterproductive competition, etc.

33. Eat, Pray, Love- Elizabeth Gilbert
I got this book from the Peace Corps library because I figured I should try and read something fun and light for a change. Shouldn't have bothered because it just made me grumpy. I would just like to point out how for all her talk of being spontaneous and living life, Gilbert was being PAID to go write about mucking about, eating delicious things and having a lot of sex, which is pretty much the least spontaneous thing I can think of. But maybe I' m just jealous because of my own lack of gelatto (hell, I can't even get a proper ice cream cone most of the time), spiritual fulfillment and romantic love. One thing I will give her credit for was acknowledging that Bali's history is far from the rosy, lackadaisical paradise that has been marketed to tourists. Grump Grump Grump.

32. Reservation Blues- Sherman Alexie
Magical realism meets rock and rock and Native Americans. Good stuff, enit?

31. The Year of Magical Thinking- Joan Didion
A beautiful, raw portrait of the irrationality of grief.

30. The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey- Salman Rushdie
This was one of the best books I've read about Nicaragua, because it manages to capture in rich, poetic language so many things about the culture of this country, both funny and profound, in a little over a 100 pages. Also, the revolutionary period in Nicaragua in the 1980s is pretty fascinating and I think he does justice to its bright and dark spots.  I also thought the author's perspective as someone who understands both the Global North and the Global South provided a really fascinating lens through which to view a country like Nicaragua.

29. Rayuela (Hopscotch)- Julio Cortazar
Re-read. This book is amazing as a literary creation; you can read the first two books sequentially (as I did this time), or you can read the entire thing in a hopscotching fashion.
I personally find it too esoteric and complicated to actually enjoy in my second language, but I suppose I get some bragging rights for having read it, and understanding most of it this go round.

28. Residencia en la Tierra- Pablo Neruda
Re-read. I've read this poetry collection a bunch of times, and it's always something I can come back to, to take shelter and solace in. If only we can free ourselves from the chains of linear time, we can find freedom in the eternity of nature.

27. Angela's Ashes- Frank McCourt
Frank McCourt is a great writer and did a great job creating a portrait of a really dire situation, but I just couldn't really get into this. I don't know if it was because I wanted a break from thinking about poverty (although I don't exactly think about poverty that much here, which could be a subject for another post entirely), but just can't rave about this the way a lot of people have.

26. The Gulag Archiepelago (Books I and II)- Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Man, reading about people being tortured in Soviet prisons sure made for a fun spring break! Super fascinating stuff though, especially the way he introduced the reader to the language of the prison system. I wish I had the books and the stomach to read the entire saga but that might be too soul sucking.

25. Chasing the Flame: One Man's Fight to Save the World- Samantha Power
Mixed thoughts on this book, which profiles the life of humanitarian, long time UN employee, Sergio Viera deMello. I kind of have a problem with Samantha Power's tendency to fangirl about famous men in IR, but again that's probably a longer rant than I have time or space for. The book raised a lot of really fundamental questions about peace-keeping, but because it was so tied to the narrative of Viera deMello's Life, I didn't feel like it really explored them adequately. Then again, it was already a long book, and it wasn't intended to be a technical IR treatise or anything, so I should probably tone down expectations.

24. Norwegian Wood-Haruki Murakami
As normal as Murakami gets, but still unmistakably marked by his style. A really enjoyable read about the frailty of human relationships.

23. The Devil and the White City: Murder, Madness and the Fair that Changed America- Erik Larsen
Great historical fiction, looking at Chicago's World's Fair and a grisly mass murderer from the same era. It's really cool to think about the way America has developed in the last century, and the role that architecture had in shaping urban destinies and imaginations. Very meticulously researched. My one complaint is that there wasn't more of an attempt to weave subaltern histories into the account, but that's probably a fault of the historical record. As interesting as it was to hear the stories of the powerful men who planned the fair, I would have liked to hear more from the workers who toiled to bring it into reality, especially as that era was such a critical moment for labor rights.

Love You a Bunch a Bunch, Pop-Pop

"The skylark was born before all beings and before the earth itself. Its father died of illness when the earth did not yet exist. He remained unburied for five days until the skylark, ingenious of necessity, buried its father in its own head....."
Salman Rushdie, The Jaguar Smile

"We might, in that indeterminate period they call mourning, be in a submarine, silent on the ocean's bed, aware of the depth charges, now near and far, buffeting us with recollections."
Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

Word of the Day:
presentimiento- literally- pre-feeling= premonition, feeling

After a long struggle with cancer, my grandfather passed away on Tuesday. I immediately felt the weirdness of someone so strong, large and permanent- seeming being gone. I had known for months that this was going to happen, but I was taken aback at how fiercely I felt the news. I'm going home for my sister's graduation in a month, and I'd had this idea that I'd be able to see him again. The breaking of my illusion of control shattered me. As did the idea that one side of my childhood had really drawn to a close. You'd think that after over a cumulative year of living in Latin America I would have picked up on the "si Dios quiere" (Godwilling) mindset, but it turns out my East Coast type A personality is pretty ingrained. And hates thinking about death.

Immediately, I wanted to be with my family. I had a crazy urge to just show up and hop on the next plane home. The distance between us, which has been blunted over time, came sharply into relief. Even though everyone told me that I shouldn't, I felt guilty for not being there. My love of running off to experience life elsewhere has the unfortunate side effect of me being less available for my loved ones. I might be able to bequeath them good stories, but I'm not there to give out hugs or cook dinner after a long day spent at the hospital. I felt guilty for not being able to help my parents more with daily life, for not calling Pop-Pop more, for not knowing what to say, for fearing "How are you?".

The one thing I knew was that I couldn't stay in San Miguelito. I've always found that movement is healing and I knew I was going to lash out at people if I stayed. And I didn't want to be a self-pitying wreck here around people I knew, people with far more difficult daily dramas. So I circled back around in the boat to Granada, numbing myself with yet another overnight journey and tried to lose myself in the tangled stalls of the market. Feeling emptied, I went on to Managua, holed up in almost 1st world luxury for a bit (the hot showers helped a lot), and tried not to feel guilty for being self indulgent. Getting to skype with my family was worth it. We reminisced and joked and it was almost as if I were there, if only for a little while. Miracles of wi-fi. A bunch of my friends happened to be  there too, and they helped far more than they realized. It probably seems redundant to note, but most people in Peace Corps are extremely nice.

After Pop-Pop passed, it was as if everything that was tied up with his life came loose and tumbled into my head. There was a specific geography to these recollections. As the saying goes, the past is another country, a sunny landscape not yet marred by Hurricane Sandy. My memories of Pop-Pop are entwined with a child's love of being at the beach. Going around different places in Spring Lake/the northern end of the Jersey shore, the North End pavilion at the board walk, the waves, the salt water pool, learning to body surf, watching the draw bridge with the boats going out to sea, going to Saint Catherine's, going to the park in Spring Lake. Eating fish and waffle fries at Klein's. Eating shrimp cocktail with horseradish sauce, Aunt Debbie's salmon with dill, grapes, cheddar cheese, salami on ritz crackers in the family room, which he built and meticulously wired with speakers over the years. Playing bocce in the backyard. My cousins and I jamming ourselves onto the swing bench. Looking at his drawings, going through his carpentry shop. Playing in my father's old bedroom, still decorated with 1970s plaid blankets. Goofy sing alongs with the aunts and cousins. Remembering the play house he constructed for my sisters and I, which we named "Ginger and Pickles" out of an old electrical box and which was subsequently reincarnated as a home, general store and restaurant.

Pop-Pop and I drew such different conclusions from the world we were presented with, but I think we were both people who are deeply curious about the world in front of us. I remember studying the books he had about the history of the New Jersey shore, and reading his "Discovery" magazines when I went over to his house. I think in many ways he encouraged my nerdy love of reading and armchair adventures, which over time have catapulted me into even more dramatic, real life adventures.

This flock of images has taken up a stubborn residency in my head, and it's going to take time to process everything, without making a hagiography, but to think a bit about what Pop-Pop's life has meant for us, and what his absence means. It will take time to reconcile that these parts of my childhood were in the past but that they didn't need to stop influencing my present semi-autonomous, wandering, stumbling into adulthood.

All this has reminded me though of how many wonderful communities I am a part of, how infinite is the care we can show each other, how connected family can be even across big distances. There are upsides to everything.

An interesting talk

I found this really interesting. I think she gets a little bit off point with the stuff about group think, but as an educator, this is important to think about.

A Few Good Quotes

In the cathedrals of New York and Rome
There is a feeling 
that you should just go home
and spend a lifetime, finding out just where that is.
Jump Little Children, "Cathedrals"

What, I wonder, is the message of Nicaraguan cathedrals?

We returned to our separate lives, two migrants making our way in the West stuffed with money, power and things, this North that taught us to see from its privileged point of view. But maybe we were the lucky ones; we knew that other perspectives existed. We had seen the view from elsewhere.
Salman Rushdie, The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Adventure (1987)

I think this is the best articulation I've seen in a while for why I do what I do.


I am sailing, I am sailing,
Home again cross the sea.
I am sailing, stormy waters,
To be near you, to be free.

I am flying, I am flying,
Like a bird cross the sky.
I am flying, passing high clouds,
To be with you, to be free.

I hate Rod Stewart, but I love teaching this song, and it popped into my head on my second boat ride in less than a week.

Teaching Anecdotes, Week 11: "You Should Go to the Hell"

Word of the Day:
el entierro- burial

I actually taught school this week. Well, the majority of the classes!

Class cancellation of the week: In San Miguelito, a teacher's grandfather died (He was at least 90), and since he was an elder in the community, the first two classes were cancelled so that the students and teachers could go to the funeral mass and then the burial. We didn't actually fit inside the church, so we all hung out nearby. Before they went up to the cemetery, which is a very beautiful place overlooking Lake Nicaragua, the funeral procession circled around the town, which I found very symbolic, as if saying goodbye to everything before moving on.
Runner Up: My teacher had to get a tooth pulled and was super drugged up, so we didn't have class.

Best "original student thought expressed in English": I came into class to find that my 10th graders had written "You should go to the hell" in giant letters on the board. This statement is rather indicative of their attitude towards English class. But the fact that they correctly used the modal "should" was awesome and shows that they are learning. I spent the entire class laughing and grinning proudly.

Runner Up: We played "2 Truths and a Lie" with 7th graders to practice verb "have."
One of my students wrote this:
I have two babies. (False)
I have three lambs. (True)
I have one love. (True)
I gave him a high five because I thought it was awesome and had a great poetic ring to it. Also, he correctly remembered the y to ies plural spelling rule. Boss.

Best Student Sass: I was talking about the future "will" with my 11th graders and as an example I used "I will get married in 5 years." This is not even remotely a plan of mine, but it popped into my head. One of my students who knows a lot of English and likes to be a wise guy yelled out "You're gonna be really old then, teacher!" By that estimation, I will probably be ancient by the time I actually settle down, if that ever happens.

Props: I brought my groceries for the week to 8th grade to teach them about food. This was a lot of fun. In addition to doing my favorite mini dialogue (below) and singing a song (also below) we did a critical thinking/shopping activity where I gave the kids a list of food pictures and prices and they had to try and buy as much as they could with C$120 (about $5 US).

A: This is a squash.
B: A what?
A: A squash.
B: O, a squash.

Endless amounts of fun...

Youth Group: Kids actually came to youth group this week! On Monday, we learned the phrase "What _____(insert noun) do you like?" and learned vocab about colors, music and sports. We did a lot of Total Physical Response (TPR), a teaching technique where you use physical movement to teach new vocab. The kids liked class a lot and that simple phrase really drastically expands their possibilities for basic conversation, which is super cool.
On Friday, there was no school and a rainstorm, so no one came to class. This was unfortunate, because I had delayed a trip to Managua. Instead of taking the bus, I decided to take the 12 hour ferry ride so that I could give class. Rookie mistake. But the boat ride was lots of fun. I caught up with my sister and my parents on the phone, stargazed, hung out with my neighbor and her friend, and watched "I am Legend." The ferry operator really seems to have a thing for zombie movies. The only thing that sucked was that we got attacked by a giant swarm of horrible little insects called chayules during the night.

Teachers and Other People Who Know a Lot of English Class: This week, I didn't really feel like planning a structured lesson per say, so I adapted a card game to practice conversation skills, talking about the past and vocabulary. To play an odd card, players had to answer questions, such as "Describe your favorite teacher when you were a child" or "Describe your favorite memory of hanging out with a good friend." To play an even card, players had to ask a follow up question about another player's story. To play a face card, the player had to initiate a game of categories. It was a fun time and I learned a bunch of things about everybody.

Nerdy Song of the Week (To the Tune of Frere Jacques): I am Hungry
I am hungry, I am hungry
Please bring me, please bring me
Rice and beans and chicken
Rice and beans and chicken
Thanks a lot, thanks a lot.

Coloring

Coloring Time with Emily: Tools of the Trade

So cute

The aftermath

On Sunday, I was having a great morning, sitting on my porch drinking a cup of coffee and reading Rayuela. I had just come back from church and I had no plans to do much of anything for the rest of the day. Like clockwork, my 5 year old neighbor wandered over. "Emily, can we color today?" I told him to come back later in the afternoon, but he got into the house and ran into my room. It was a mess, and I was trying to keep him from touching everything.

 We looked at some maps and National Geographics that I had lying around and it was awesome to see his reaction to the pictures. Since he's the kind of kid who loves to touch everything, I decided that it would be easier to keep him occupied with coloring supplies. He also got into my glue and scissors and recycling collection. His sister found out he was coloring with me and came over too. They stayed for over 2 hours, cutting and drawing and writing. It was a super tiring hanging out with them, but it was admittedly kind of fun. Especially because I got to return them to the parents later on.  

Today, when I arrived home from school, my neighbor was on the porch, watching my host-brother play a game. He lept up: "Emily!!!!!!!!!" Then he grabbed my water cooler and my heavy bag of school supplies and tried to carry them to my room even though they were bigger than he was. And then he made a beeline for the coloring supplies. 

Play

One of the things I really enjoy here is watching young children in the street playing. In country where only about 10% of people (or something like that) have access to internet, there's still plenty of time for unplugged, face to face, non- screen play. Of course, almost everyone has a television in their home, and I'm willing to bet kids are starting to spend an increasing amount of time in front of the TV. But in a small community like San Miguel, it's impossible to walk through the streets in the late afternoons, when it finally gets cooler, and not see kids scurrying about.

On the one level, it's terrifying to think about the global and national inequalities that are being perpetuated and deepened by uneven access to technology, particularly computers. On the other hand, though, it's so wonderful to watch kids being creative and resourceful and together, making toys and inventing games as they gallivant through the streets, in a way that seems reminiscent of my grandparent's stories of how life used to be. Toys don't come out of boxes, they come from what's around. Old cans become animals dragged along on strings. Sticks become horses or swords. The metal grill of our front porch becomes a jungle gym for the five year- olds who climb on it and attempt flips. Plastic bottles become soccer balls. Electrical poles become "base" for races and tag. Nothing has to have a set purpose, you-will-play-with-this-toy-this way, we must buy more toys for Little Johnny: it's profoundly radical and anti-capitalistic, although I'm positive that no-one intends it that way.

Maybe it sounds cliqued, but I think the lack of toys bought from stores is good in some ways. Sure, it will be cool if everyone's parents had lots of money and could buy them toys and books (more importantly) but it's not as if their absence is noted. The kids improvise their own playthings. And it's precisely this spirit of innovation that could be revolutionary, if we can find a way to create educational programs to keep this flame lit.

"The Internet is Where the People Are": Thoughts on the Internet and PCV* Life

*Peace Corps Volunteer

I chanced across a really interesting article today, "I'm Still Here: Back Online After a Year without the Internet" on my facebook newsfeed no less, that made me reflect on how my own relationship with the internet has changed during Peace Corps. It's the story of a man who gave up the internet for a year, in the hope of making himself whole again, but then found himself feeling isolated from the people he loved. A lot of things in the article resonated with me, particularly the feeling of isolation from loved ones that arises when I don't have access to it.

I have moments where I fantasize about how "pure" the Peace Corps experience might have been like in the 1960s, where people just marched off, saying "Bye, I'll talk to you two years from now." Thanks to the internet, and phone calls, I feel like I'm living three completely irreconcilable lives simultaneously: the life I have with people in San Miguelito, the life I have with other friends who are volunteers, and the family and friendships I left dangling back home. It's disorienting sometimes, and complicated. Over time, though, I've come to appreciate how beautiful my tangled up life is and how much the internet enables me to know what's going on back home.

When I first got to Nicaragua, I was terrified of the internet. I couldn't deal with seeing my friends on facebook, seeing emails about fascinating talks back at college, checking the news and feeling disconnected from everything that was important to me. I wanted to hide from the virtual reminders of home, thinking it would make me feel better, cleanse me, make me more present to my new reality. I wanted to pretend that I could become a Nicaraguan version of me and erase my identity back home.

Over time though, as I've become more settled in here, I've built my peace with the internet, realizing it would be insane to try and live without it. I smile, instead of wanting to cry when I see pictures of people having fun back home (unless there's good food or beer involved) and I cherish the moments when I can get a good enough connection to Skype with my parents or friends. I read articles to keep me mentally sharp. Once in a blue moon, I can even get youtube videos to load. The internet is a beautiful place, inhabited by people I love, and it's easy enough to get to.

At the same time, less frequent access has generally made me feel less stressed out, twitchy, overstimulated. Like the author of the article, I've found that I can really concentrate much better now and that my memory is sharper. I can read, 200, 300 pages in a sitting if it's a good book, just like I used to when I was little, in the age of dial-up. And I write a lot more too, journaling, planning, writing letters sometimes, a homage to the experiences of volunteers of past decades.

As a wise hipster once counseled me when I was trying to decide what kind of tomato sauce to buy: "Life's all about balance."

School Anecdotes Week 10: Have You Ever Seen the Rain?

*I've had this song stuck in my head all week, you definitely hear it sometimes here. Appropriate for the start of rainy season, no?

Words of the Day- Basketball Edition
tirar- shoot
perder un tiro- miss a shot
el tablero- backboard

In the last two weeks, I have taught 50% of the classes I am regularly scheduled to teach. If we exclude my Saturday classes, which aren't cancelled as regularly, I've only taught a third of my weekday classes. Frustrating beyond belief. I'm trying not to let the under-whelmingness of this week get to me, but it's hard.

On Monday, I taught my only weekday classes in San Miguel, a class on -Wh questions to 8th grade and a continuation of a class about family members to 7th grade. For lunch, I ate lengua con salsa, cow tongue with sauce, because my host mom made it for me after I mentioned I had never eaten it. I wasn't expecting to like it, but it was ok actually, really tender. Then I did my laundry.

In the afternoon, I taught a lively class to the English club, about informal phrases in English. I accidentally used a vulgar phrase to explain the phrase "I'm doing great". My host brother had taught it to me, and I thought it was just very informal street language, but I didn't realize that it would be perceived as vulgar, especially by 8th graders, although I definitely should have. So now the kids think that the phrase "I'm great" is hilarious, and they bust up laughing every time they say it. Then the kids started asking me about curse words in English. When I told them not to say bad words in class, they pointed out that I already had. I did however take the time to explain the difference between "beach" and "bitch" because we had just had a class on pronunciation...the difference between the /i/ and /I/ sounds in English are really hard for English language learners who have Spanish as a first language. Then one of the boys in my class asked me what the phrase "Give me your number" means, because he had heard someone use it to call out to me in the street while I was chatting with him. Dangerous language, who knows what trouble these kids will get into now that they know the phrases "How's it going?" "Take it easy" and "Give me your number."

On Tuesday, school was cancelled for a pre-Labor Day march. I finished Part I of Julio Cortazar's Rayuela (book reviews forthcoming),fell into the giant, beautiful abyss that is the internet and helped my sitemate Christina move. We figured this would be easy, because there are lots of taxis that pass by her house, and we assumed we could flag one down. Nope. After over an hour of waiting and after calling several taxi drivers, Chris (this is what the Nicas call her, pronounced KRees) finally got a former student to stop for her, but we couldn't fit all her stuff. We ended up having to make three trips carrying heavy boxes and bags in the hot sun. Everyone stared at us, as we literally dripped with sweat.  None of the men gawking at us tried to help. I guess machismo doesn't equally chivalry. But whatever, we did it ourselves, so clearly we didn't need help. Welcome to the gun show, San Miguelito.

On Wednesday, I didn't do much because we had off from school for  International Worker's Day (the International version of Labor Day), and town was dead. I shot hoops and swopped English vocabulary with my counterpart Jonathan, cleaned my room super throughly after I found an infestation of weird little paper eating bugs (DON'T YOU DARE GO NEAR MY SCHOOL MATERIALS!!!!), and watched soap operas and 12 Corazones, which was terrible for my brain, but probably not so bad for the Spanish. In the evening, I tried to do real things and made a calendar/syllabus for the 8th grade class. I also made a list of various projects I would like to do, and it ran onto 2 pages. This was just for English related projects. Ay Diosito lindo.

Supposedly, rainy season always starts every year on May 1st. It did not rain.

On Thursday, it became unbearably hot and horrible little bugs called chayules came up on a southern wind, invading personal space- mouths, eyes, ears. EW. I planned with the Saturday teachers in the morning and had my "English Class for Teachers and Other People Who Speak A Lot of English" except only 2 people showed up. It's sort of frustrating when stuff like that happens, but I need to get better at dealing with disappointment.

On Friday, I went to Las Palomas to help my counterpart with materials for a TESOL Certificate workshop he was going to go to in Costa Rica. In the afternoon, I had my English Club class, but only 3 kids showed up, which was disappointing. I drowned my frustrations about all of this by venting to Christina over batidos and eating lots of cheesy bread.

Rainy season began at promptly 8 pm. A beautiful, steady downpour washed the ambient heat out of the sky, punctuated by violet and white streaks of lightning that lit up the sky. Thunder roared rhythmically. Violent, yet oddly peaceful and wonderful.

On Saturday, I finally had school again (why is Saturday school never cancelled?) which was pretty fun with the grades that like English, and pretty awful with the kids who are less into it. One of my eighth grade classes is obsessed with the song I taught them last week (which happens to be from the TV show Barney, blast from the past!!) "I like to eat apples and bananas." So they all go around singing the song all the time, which helps them master "like to  + infinitive". Good times. The other thing that made my day was that one of my students who hasn't been interested in class pretty much all semester came to school well rested and was excited about participating. In a week like this, it really is the little things that keep you going... 

Mountain Pics from Juigalpa

The view from the mirador in Juigalpa

A silhouette of national hero Sandino

Another view

Otra Ocasion

"On another occasion"....

People here sometimes use this phrase to decline politely, ie to decline buying something from a traveling vendor on a bus, or to not give a beggar money. I think it's pretty applicable to everything. There wasn't class today, but en otra ocasion...

Words of the Day:
el mirador-scenic look out
El Dia de la Tierra- Earth Day
la sierra- mountains
el abigeato- cattle rustling

This week was a bit of an absurdity. At some of the institutos, we managed to lose nearly an entire week of classes without school actually being closed. Luckily, I've started some side projects which are a nice way to break up my week, because these are not necessarily contingent on school being open. It's also really nice to plan things on my own. Co-planning is awesome, but it can be really time consuming. Also, the side projects, in addition to school, have helped me become more integrated in the community. I pretty much can't go anywhere in greater San Miguelito without running into a student/one of my student's parents or someone calling "Hi, teacher." It's always reassuring when the kids actually use the correct forms of the greetings, contingent on the time of day, which occasionally happens.

On Monday, it was Earth Day. In San Miguelito, they held a plant and animal fair to celebrate. It was supposed to start after the first two periods of class, but after a cow was brought into the schoolyard, teaching pretty much ground to a halt. My counterpart and I gave a class, but we were literally the only ones who were teaching. I'm not sure that the feria had a very good environmental message, since mostly the students sold drinks out of styrofoam cups, and cows are the least environmentally friendly animals pretty much ever. I didn't have my act together this year, but maybe next year I'll try to promote some more environmentally friendly stuff. Over all, San Miguel is a fairly environmentally conscious municipio, though. There's recycling and an environmental NGO. It could definitely be a lot worse.

El Tule did not have an earth day fair, so my counterpart Jonathan and I had a regular day of class. We had our 10th graders create cartoons about a legend we had just read in class and we taught the 11th grade about the future tense. The students really liked class, compared to their usual reaction, which is to make grumpy faces at us and sigh a lot.  I suspect this was because we used audio visual resources, had them create timelines, and because it was relatable to things they are thinking about as it gets closer to graduation.

On Monday afternoon, we had our 2nd meeting of the 7th and 8th grade English club/class. A few more students showed up. We brainstormed topics for the class, played "I'm going on a picnic" (for more diagnostic of people's level) and learned the song "Green Grass Grows all Around" because it seemed appropriate for Earth Day. One of the students taught me the version in Spanish, which was cool. Totally gonna teach it to the chavalos on the block.

On Tuesday, there was a Musa Dariana competition, which I've previously described, so we only taught one period of class in San Miguelito. In the afternoon, in El Tule, Jonathan and I had a great bunch of classes. We taught 7th grade verb to be, using, you guessed it, "Very Good Friend" and then we taught 9th grade the command form using safety/warning signs and by playing "Pin the tail on the Donkey," which was a huge hit. Especially because I messed with the kids by changing the size of the donkey on the chalkboard after the students were blind-folded, to the amusement of all involved. There are a ton of donkeys in El Tule, so this vocabulary word is pretty essential for describing daily life there.

On Wednesday, my co-teacher wasn't going to school, so I decided to go to Juigalpa, Chontales to go to the grocery store and get my cash money cash money for the month. Juigalpa is two and a half hours from San Miguelito, which is kind of a haul, but could be worse. It's a biggish city (by Nicaraguan standards) of 50,000ish, but it's the antithesis of touristy. Chontales is cowboy country, and it's right at the foot of the Sierra Amerisque, so there's lots of rough looking mountains around, and rougher looking cowboy characters, as well as some noveau riche rancher types. Especially at this dusty time of year, it's hot and dry, almost vaguely deserty. It was a long ride, but going to the grocery store was pretty worth it, for the slightly better selection and especially after I realized how much pulperias mark up the prices.

After filling up my backpack with an eggplant (OMG!!!!!!!!!!), coffee, milk, pasta, tomato paste and various other provisions, I climbed around the various hills of Juigalpa. I had heard of a restaurant that had a fabulous view of the mountains, and I wanted to check it out. I didn't want to admit to anyone that I didn't know where I was going, so I just kept walking around and going up the hill, because that seemed a logical way to get to the mirador. I eventually got to this dirt road and after asking at a hotel which was not the restaurant I was looking for, I found it, and it was pretty spectacular and well worth the embarrassing amounts of sweating involved. This is how un-touristy Juigalpa is: the road to one of the main touristic attractions isn't even paved. Who knows where that restaurant actually is. After that, I hung out in Juigalpa's central park which was very lovely, a good old Spanish town with a plaza in the center of town kind of deal. I ate ice cream for lunch, because I usually can't find good ice cream at site. I'm totally a real grown up. HA.

Unfortunately, I miscalculated the bus schedule, and ended up waiting over an hour and a half in a bus stop by the dirty, dusty highway for the next bus to come. This, however, gave me insight into a fascinating economic niche that a Juigalpa beggar has found for himself. In a country where no bus schedules are formally posted anyway, he basically serves as a bus schedule. In exchange for a few coins, he tells you when the next bus to your destination will arrive. This seemed to be surprisingly lucrative. I watched him change out coins for bills, and he had made approximately $4 by only 2 in the afternoon. Considering that teachers make about $6 a day here, that's no small feat. This was all fascinating, but of course he began to hit on me (ah the allure of the sweaty, dirty gringa with a backpack full of milk), so it was nice when the bus arrived, even though I had to travel back home on foot on a bus that was packed like a cattle car.

I planned on Thursday morning with the teachers I work with on Saturday, but I didn't teach in the afternoon because of some sort of sports day. On Thursday evening, we had our inaugural meeting of our "English teachers and other people who know lots of English" club. Our topic was: "Tag Questions are fun, aren't they?" Tag questions, those mini questions we use at the ends of sentences to verify information (the meeting was last night, wasn't it?), make dumb comments (sure is hot, isn't it) or be snarky (he's a smart one, isn't he?) are a pain in the ass if you don't have the privilege of being a native English speaker, but everyone seemed to be pretty clear on how to form them and when to employ them by the end of class, which was awesome. We had 2 gringas, 1 German and 5 Nicaraguans show up, including 3 of my counterpart teachers. It was really nice to actually teach an advanced conversation class, which I hadn't really done since high school, when, to be brutally honest, I had literally no idea what I was doing, methodologically speaking or otherwise. Teaching more advanced speakers is fun, because you have to test your own knowledge of grammar and you get the opportunity to reflect on cultural and situational nuances much more than you do with beginners.

We started off by playing 2 Truths and a Lie. Then I introduced the tag question structure, which most people were familiar with, but needed extra practice, especially for some of the trickier rules. We used the 2 Truths and a Lie sentences to practice forming tag questions. Then, we played "Human Bingo," but with the variation that people had to use tag questions to complete their grid. Lastly, we finished using some vaguely silly situation cards, which helped to contextualize some situations in which the grammar might be used, for example:

-Your cousin is visiting from the United States and you want to cook her sopa de pescado. She has many allergies though, and you want to make sure she will not be allergic to the fish. What do you ask her?

-You're in the doctor's office and the doctor is checking some results from a blood test. He's frowning and talking to himself. Because of his behavior  you are worried that you have a serious illness. What do you say to the doctor?

-You are gossiping with your friend about another friend named Nick. He broke up with his girlfriend last month. Ask her if Nick is still single.

-You and your cousin are sitting on your front porch on a hot afternoon. You're sweating a lot. You want to make a comment about the heat. What do you say? 

On Friday, we had TEPCE, which is a teacher's planning meeting. We were supposed to evaluate our work for the last month and plan for the next one. I hung out with two counterparts, Rafael and Jonathan, which was a good time, despite the fact that the reflection questions we had to answer were really tedious. We swapped names for different food containers, different types of local industries, like tanneries and rice processing plants, the difference between "a lot" and "too much" and discussed whether it's appropriate to say "I'm really hot" to express physical discomfort in English. I decided that it's appropriate in certain contexts, if coupled with a time expression, for example, "I'm really hot right now." NOT read in a sexy tone of voice... I love my counterparts, they're good people.

In the afternoon, I had English class for the chavalos. I didn't really want to plan much of a class, so I thought we would have a mini-lesson on learning styles and pronunciation, to help them identify how they learn information best, which is an important thing when you're learning a second language. However, I couldn't find a learning styles test online that was culturally appropriate, age appropriate, (11 year olds in Central America don't go out to cocktail parties to drink wine or go to museums) OR in Spanish, so I ended up having to translate one, which was a lot of work, and defeated the purpose of me not planning a lot for class. O well. I also introduced the students to a color coded phonetics chart, because the kids kept telling me they are really worried about their pronunciation. The beauty of teaching the phonetics of vowel sounds this way is that it is fun and accessible, and you can teach it by making continuous associations with colors over time.

On Saturday, we actually had class. I taught a bunch of eighth graders the "I like to eat apples and bananas" song from Barney as a warm up for class, and accidentally told the class that we were singing the song to make us "horny" for class. NOPE. Not what I meant so much. The kids actually liked our lessons this week though, which was fun. We were talking about likes and dislikes which is a great topic because it triples their ability to have a conversation, and it's relevant to them.

After school got out, I went wandering to visit some other PCVs in nearby parts of Rio San Juan/the RAAS (Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region). First, I went to celebrate the fiestas patronales in El Amendro (The Almond Tree) with a bunch of other PCVs from Rio San Juan. Even though it is probably only like 30 minutes away by private car, it took me over 2 and 1/2 hours (including a bunch of walking because I'm an idiot) to get there due to terribly timed connections. It's always cool to visit other people's sites though and we had a lot of fun eating scrumptious frito (fried chicken and plantain strips) and dancing (by which I mean attempting to dance with any grace whatsoever) to cumbia while surrounded by cowboys on a baseball field in the moonlight. We might be few, and isolated, but everybody in Rio San Juan is super cool and a lot of fun.

Early on Sunday, I went over to Nueva Guinea to visit some TEFLeras from my training group. Nueva Guinea is really big (Nicaraguan standards so we're talking 100,000 people, max), but there's not very much to do. It's as if a bunch of evangelical Christians had built a cowboy agricultural paradise in the middle of the jungle. It does have a super market though, which is pretty exciting. I only got to see my friend Natalie for a little bit because she had to return to her site in central Nicaragua, but Isabel and I hung out for a little while and wandered the town.  I made it back to San Miguelito early in the afternoon to discover that ants had eaten holes in the milk that I bought on Wednesday, and that it had gone bad in the interim. So I cleaned up that giant mess, and went to church. And so it began.

Structural Violence and Orange Trucks

Word of the Day:
las naranjeras- orange orchards

On Saturday evening, 6 orange pickers from Rio San Juan (day laborers) are killed when the truck (a modified cattle car) they are riding to return from work crashes and overturns, the fault of a drunk driver traveling at an excessive velocity. Those killed are students, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers. They are entangled in all the usual webs of human belonging, and their sudden departure leaves these webs in tattered. 6 children without a mother. Parents without a son. A 10th grade student who went to pick oranges for a day to get money for the school's sports day, and doesn't return because that is the cruelty of random chance, someone else's bad decision making colliding with vehicles.

Their deaths seem to be more than a tragedy, somehow a violation of human rights, but what name by which to call this injustice? There is no code that precisely pins down what caused this. Most simply, they are poor and they would not have died in this way had they been rich. It is the handless violence that makes people work as day laborers for low wages in the hot sun, that denies them the right to travel safely, that denies them control over their destination, literally and figuratively.

Their deaths strike me as somehow different and more unjust than a regular accident because they are caused by something more sinister and deeper and without readily available remedy, in the same way that the thousands of children who die of gun violence in America differ from school shootings, in its quotidianness, and the daily indignities proceeding. And yet it is so wrong to try and tally up pain,  because everyone suffers and grieves and to pretend otherwise is to perpetuate another injustice to victims, to reduce them to statistics, rhetoric, media frenzy, instead of real lives. As does the word victims. How easily language fails us.

Really, I'm left with no response more sophisticated or articulate than to say "this is not fair." It becomes easier to see why people here pepper their speech with expressions like "Si Dios quiere", if God wills it. Because what else can be done but wait?

A few recent pics

 Christina and I hanging out on the muelle with some kids- lots of fun!

A beautiful sunset... you can't see the volcanoes though :(

The gifted fish all fried up...with a nice little tomato and onion sauce as accompaniment.

Teaching Anecdotes, Week 8

Words of the Day:
el batido- smoothie
el murcielago- bat
el capullo- cocoon
la oruga- caterpillar

This week was a weird week, because I only really taught half the classes I usually do for various reasons.  I did plenty of other things though, so I'm full of stories as per usual...

Meeting with the most entertaining interruptions thus far in Nicaragua: On Tuesday, I went with my counterpart teacher Xiomara to represent the TEFL program in a regional meeting between the Ministry of Education and Peace Corps in San Carlos. Things started off badly after Xiomara lost her cell phone when we went to get batidos. We went back to the batido place to look for her phone, and tracked down the taxi we had been riding in: this is how small of a city San Carlos is. No sign of the phone though.

The meeting might sound really important, and it was to a point, but it actually only involved 10ish people, and was held in a cramped office. Our presentation went really well, even though I was super nervous because I had to make it in Spanish. Some interesting points were made in the meeting. I definitely can't do everything they want me to do, like provide more support to further out communities (I don't own a horse, have an infinite transportation budget, or any free time), but I can absolutely improve my communication with them, which was one of the concerns that was raised. As the meeting went on, things got a little bit nutty: a bat emerged from the ceiling while the Small Business Volunteer from San Carlos, Matt, was presenting, several people kept answering their cell phones at once, and a four year-old child of one of the participants began running around and interrupting her Mom while she was talking.

Site Visit: My boss, Greg, came to visit to see how things are going, trouble shoot some problems, celebrate successes and chat everybody up. He met with all my teachers and 2 of 4 principals, so I think that was a pretty good percentage. It was great to have a chance to talk, vent and reflect on what's going well, which is most things. As an RPCV (returned Peace Corps Volunteer) from El Salvador, Greg totally gets what can be frustrating about service, and generally has good advice. From his visit, I realized how great my counterparts are: how dedicated and how talented. I feel more invigorated in my work from having someone to bounce ideas off of and I'm hoping to get the ball rolling on three more projects this month: English "Office Hours"  to help students who don't have the opportunity to have class with me to ask questions, get homework help or practice, (which really is just going to be an excuse for me to hang out on the dock to watch sunsets), an English night for profes to practice with each other and a community class for 8th graders (more details below).

Shortest class so far: Greg came to observe class in Las Palomas...for like 20 minutes. We arrived a little late to school, at 12:40, to have the principal inform us that the teachers would need to leave to attend a parents' meeting at 1. Our class was a little bit discombobulated for a lot of reasons in addition to that, but the kids got to interview Greg, which was plenty comical, and he got to see our World Map/What is she doing activity?, and had some great suggestions for how to improve the activity. He was shocked by how well the students behaved. Then, as we were waiting to talk to the principal, Christian, one of the 8th grade students, came over to us and asked "May I leave?" I thought he meant school, but he just wanted to get water. Then he came back by, and said "Thank you very much." Greg asked me if I had paid him off, which I had not, although I should probably do that retroactively. No, son bromas(Jk)... But maybe I'll gift him a platano or a mango.

English Club organized in one hour or less: During class, one of the chavalos in 8th grade in San Miguel asked me if I would consider giving an English class for speaking practice. I told him that I would consider it, but that he needed to find at least 10 friends first who were interested, figuring this would take him at least til the end of the week. I was helping a student with her English work while recess was starting, when he came up to me and told me that he had a list of kids ready. Then, on Thursday night, the day before class was going to start, he and his friend ran into me in the street and told me that he couldn't attend the first meeting, but that they already had prepared a list of topics, a letter thanking me for doing the class for them, and a contract of how they will treat me and how they expect to be treated. God, I love the kids here who are excited about learning, they make my job easy and enjoyable.

On Friday we had our first meeting. We had a good number of kids show up: 7. More expected next week, but I'm fine with a small class. We played a game called Chatty Penguin, that I learned during training, in which you have to hold a coin between your knees and walk a certain distance while telling facts about yourself. The kids tried to do it in English, which was a good diagnostic. Then, we set some rules for class and set a time. We spent the last hour and half doing reader's theatre (google it if you're not familiar, my internet is too slow to get a link) with the story "The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar," which was simultaneously a little bit hard for them and a bit juvenile, but I think they liked it, and it reviewed some vocab that as eight graders, they should know, like days of the week and numbers. We're going to keep working on it next class.

Something that could be really cool: Natalie, a health volunteer in San Carlos is working on a class to help health care providers improve health care quality by tapping into their interest in English, so that she can teach a class combining English and a curriculum about quality improvement for health care. I set her up with Peace Corps' Nicaragua's TEFL manual for some ideas, and we considered some topics/activities for the class. I hope it works out, because it would be really cool, especially since, according to Natalie, the need for better quality in health care isn't always recognized by caregivers or patients, since the system is free. It's nice to be in a country where we have such a high density of volunteers, for the social aspect as well as to have other perspectives from different sectors to inform your own work.

Who doesn't love vegetables?: Brought some "realia" to class to a lesson that was mainly about fruits and vegetables. The kids thought it was hilarious and paid attention.

Cross your fingers: I feel like we've finally made some headway with some of the more difficult students in my Saturday classes. Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I really want positive reinforcement strategies to pay off. Honestly, this might be a better legacy for me to leave at the school, because having English once a week for an hour if were lucky is not really going to help anyone learn much language. But I would love to influence the way teachers' approach classroom management. 

All of my eight graders in 8B did their homework. This was shocking to me because usually only a third of the class does it if we're lucky. They might have copied the answers from one or two students, but at least they made the effort to do that, which they usually do not. I made them give themselves a round of applause for actually doing their work.

I feel like maybe we've turned a corner with 7B too. This is the most difficult class I teach, because the students are older (some have kids), have jobs and real responsibilities, and yet are just starting school, so they feel like we are babying them or get frustrated easily with the material. Many of them have probably been told for their entire childhoods and adolescent years that they are necio, problem kids. Others students are from way out in the campo, and are terrifying of speaking in English. To top things off, we teach this class in a preschool classroom, because there is no space in the rest of the primary school where the other sections receive classes. The students crowd up to tiny desks or tables, in tiny chairs and the board is really worn out and difficult to write on. They are currently finishing a new high school building, and we can't wait to get over there. It's gonna be amazing in comparison. Today, though, one of the students who's usually super necio actually participated in a game. I praised the bejezus out of him, holding his behavior today up as an example for the rest of the class. Maybe it will continue to pay off. I savory these little victories, even if they are coincidences.

Taxi driver interaction of the week: I spend a lot of time with the taxi drivers on a weekly basis getting to and from work. On Monday, one of my favorite taxi drivers, who drives a tiny neon yellow car, randomly announced to our jammed car "Did you know that in her country they their kids out of the house when they turn 18?" This undoubtedly is one of the "facts" many people here find most surprising about my life. I tried to clarify by explaining that not everyone does this, and that I WANTED to leave, but I did end up having to admit that I left home at 18. Most of my attempts to avoid making generalizations about American culture are about this successful.

I speall rill good I swer: I've been noticing lately that I've been struggling really hard to spell homonyms (words that sound the same, but have a different spelling). It makes no sense to me why this would be the first thing in my English to deteriorate, but maybe there's an answer in linguistics or brain science. Aaaaaaaaa saber. (Who knows)