A bit about each:
The IFD is a teacher's college where they have careers for teachers to become primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, and teachers of more specialized subjects. One of the newest specializations they have is English teaching, which is the program we are assisting. Up until recently we had mostly been observing all different kinds of classes to get a feel for the school, and presenting ourselves and answering questions about our lives and the U.S. The regular teaching classes are obviously all in spanish, and the english teaching classes are the only ones in english. This week is our first week actually planning lessons to teach in the english teaching classes; for one class, the professor asked us to plan a lesson around a holiday that is important in our community, so I'm doing the Fourth of July and talking about Compo Beach, the fireworks, the Minuteman, etc., with puzzles, pictures, and some things I've written. The school has a morning session and an evening session, so that the mornings are mostly younger people who haven't started working yet, and the evening sessions are often older people who go to school after work. Some classes go as late as 12 at night! We have luckily found this a good place to meet younger people and make friends to go out with, especially those who want to improve their english.
Originally, I was supposed to go to a different elementary school from Elizabeth, but due to some outbreaks of illnesses at that school, I started going to Escuela #63 instead of #15, and it seems that will be where I will stay. Escuela #63 is a primary school, meaning it goes from 1st to 6th grade, after which the students move right on to high school. In all the public schools here, most students only go for a certain number of hours during a certain time of day, and then a different shift of students come at a different time of day... in the high schools, they can have up to 4 shifts! BUT, this particular elementary school is special because it is one of a few 'full time schools' where the students go for a similar school day to the school day in the U.S. They are given breakfast, lunch, and snacks, and have a variety of special subjects like carpentry and art. Usually full-time schools are geared towards more impoverished communities to give the kids a stable, nourishing environment, but Escuela #63 seems to be a bit of an exception to that rule, and is a very desirable school to go to. It has a bit of an avant-garde feel, and aims to be a very family-like, though structured environment. Personally, I really like the school in general, and I feel really comfortable there. They definitely have a family atmosphere... the director has a very jovial, jokester attitude, and wants the best for everyone, and the teachers are all very supportive. So far we have been to a retirement party and a PTA meeting, so we are definitely being included in the family. As soon as we walk into the school, kids start screaming our names or shouting 'Helloooo!', and we have kids running up to us all day long and kissing and hugging us. It's pretty adorable.
One of the biggest changes lately is that instead of coming in and observing some classes and assisting in others at the primary school, we are now going to be taking on a lot more responsibility. Unfortunately, one of our mentor english teachers at the school is having to go on medical leave, so we have offered to more or less take over her classes for a while, since it is very difficult to find english teachers in Uruguay. She teaches the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades in the afternoons, so now we will be going into that school every afternoon, having lunch, then teaching our own lesson plans. We had our first class yesterday with the 5th graders where we did some name-game type stuff and played a competition game that would give us a sense of what kind of vocabulary they have and what they need to work on, and it went really well! The kids seemed to enjoy themselves, so we are feeling more confident now I think. We are also giving them a total immersion experience and ONLY speaking in english while in the class, so that was eye-opening for them, but it is amazing what you can communicate without really sharing the same language.
So that's a bit of a recap of what we will be doing on a regular basis. Yesterday, we also went to a high school with one of our hosts from the teacher's college, since all teachers here seem to work in as many as 4 different schools at once (sometimes ranging from private to public to high school to college), which was also an interesting experience. It was a pleasant surprise how insightful the questions the high schoolers had for us were, including health care, violence, schools, and jobs for young people in the U.S. It makes me think that I might like to try my hand at also assisting/teaching at a high school in Montevideo. Yesterday, we also had a meeting with the mayor, who is the first female mayor of Paysandu. In an odd twist of fate, her son had been in the high school class we went to in the morning! She was very nice... everyone here is so supportive of our presence, and fully behind the Fulbright mission for cultural exchange to promote peace and understanding.... and stuff like that, lol. On Sunday night, we also went to a play about Leonardo de Vinci, which was interesting, and it was nice just to get a taste of theater again.
Other than that, we have spent a lot of time buying groceries, going to our fruit and veggie guy around the corner, experimenting in the kitchen with what we can find in the store to recreate things we like to eat, and feeling like we should be sleeping and exercising more (though we do a lot of walking here).
The last bit of exciting news is that we have INTERNET! After a long and hard struggle, and definitely more effort on Elizabeth's part, we were able to buy modems with an unlimited plan for a pretty good price, after many hours of waiting in line at the government-run cell phone and internet service center, without having to do some of the crazy things we were originally being asked to do, like going to the police and bringing people to prove that we live here, giving over our first born sons, etc etc. BUT, they did ask us to set up a weird pre-pay thing at the national bank connected to our credit cards, since we are foreigners, but they totally just made up that deal with us on the spot, so no one knows what we are talking about when we mention it. Hopefully we will get to the bank today to straighten it out. In the meantime, the modems are working, even though we haven't done the prepay thing... the MODEMS don't know we are foreigners, haha...
Anyway, that is the news for now. Keep in touch!
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