As for our teaching, we have learned a lot from this week. We now know that the 5th graders are a pretty conscientious crew, can work well together in groups and get the hang of things pretty well by helping each other out. The 4th grade, on the other hand, has lots of useful energy but needs structure, structure, structure, and has a pretty limited understanding of basic English vocab. The 6th grade is a mixed bag, and a spunky bunch, but has a bit more capacity for understanding, if you can appeal to their preadolescent leanings. We have our schedule a bit more worked out now, freeing up some time to also assist in the younger grades' classrooms. I will also officially be staying in school #63. I'm pretty proud of our first go at teaching this week, and I hope things only get better from here on out.
On Wednesday, we were invited by the mayor (who we met last week) to go on a tour of Paysandu with her and some other municipal dignitaries. Unfortunately, the tour fell on the rainiest day we've had in a while, but we dragged ourselves out, and I'm glad that we did! Turns out it wasn't just any tour, but a tour given by actors, and we collected more and more actors as we went along at each location. It made for a very, very entertaining tour, despite the rain. They knew who the guests were, and modified their scripts accordingly, and threw in some 'English' for our benefit as a nod to our presence in the opening script; these phrases consisted of, "Welcome, the sky is blue, the pencil is red. Thank you." It was all very clever and entertaining, and ended up with us dancing around on the bus with the actors by the end.
On Friday, we had another appointment lined up, this time a visit to the public music school for elementary school kids. The school is relatively new and trying to build itself up, and the director was so welcoming and obviously very passionate about the mission and vision for the school. From what we gathered, because most kids only go to school for one 4-hour 'turn', to bring your kid every day to another 'turn' of school after or before regular primary school is too difficult for many parents and children, so that the school isn't as popular as Elizabeth and I thought it would be. The kids all elect an instrument, between the flute, piano, or guitar, are taught music theory, and are taught dance. We were obliged to join in one of the dance classes, which wasn't a total failure, and we also were asked to teach an impromptu song... luckily I had some printouts with me, so we taught "Oh Mr. Sun," which was pretty cute. The director will be sending me the pics she took throughout the afternoon, which I will post on Flickr as soon as I have them.
Since we actually have tomorrow, Monday, off, we decided to take a trip this weekend. The ETAs in Salto were busy going to a seminar and none of the Fulbrighters in Montevideo were available, so Elizabeth and I took a long day-trip to Colon, Argentina, which is right across the border from Paysandu. Luckily Elizabeth got bus tickets for the earliest bus, because by the time we got through customs and crossed the border, what should have been a quick drive turned into more of a 2.5-hour ordeal. The city was lovely though, with interesting shopping and clearly geared more towards tourism. We gathered plenty of ideas to do the next time we go, hopefully this time with a group, including some eco-tourism safaris (where you can search for geodes and agates!), a tour of the national park, and the local thermal baths. We did so much walking, I was exhausted, but we were able to get the most amazing seafood and do a bit of shopping, since things really are less expensive in Argentina, as everyone keeps telling us.
Another funny anecdote from this week was when we popped over to a traveling book fair in town. When I was buying my books, the man had me guess a number, roll a bunch of dice, guess a number for him, then he rolled the dice, and somehow I won a free book! We had told him we were English teachers, so he exclaims, "Ah, we have English books!", brings us over to a table, pulls out a box tucked away underneath, and lets us look through. We couldn't help but giggle... the box was full of Beverly Cleary and Ann of Green Gables... a pretty wonderful memory jog. I chose 'The Mouse and the Motorcycle' :)
Another amusing anecdote was that we were finally able to pay our apartment complex's 'communal fees', which gave us a legitimate residential receipt to use as proof that we do in fact live here, so we stopped over to the library to join, since they had repeatedly rejected Elizabeth before. After some explaining, they finally gave in this time. We had a few librarians helping us, and while we waited for our slips to be filled out, one librarian, eyeing us wearily, eventually asked what we were interested in reading, and when we started asking for things, she warmed up to us right away and busied herself finding things for us. When I asked for things having to do with women or gender, I watched her as she painstakingly sifted through shelves for a while, eventually coming back with a few amusing choices, including 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.' I chose a book about the idiosyncrasies of the Uruguayan, which I am actually finding that I identify with a great deal.
*Note: the library is quite interesting, and rather old-school, as they say... it consists of a small room with a few rows of bookshelves behind a desk. You walk up to the desk, ask for something specific or something general, and then the librarian will search the shelves for you. I like how it really keeps the profession of the librarian alive. There's also an ancient card-catalogue, if you're really ambitious.*
I'm sure there is so much more to say but I will leave it at that for now... stay tuned, and please keep in touch! Also, feel free to comment, so I know people are actually out there ;)
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