Soaking it all in

This week, I've been both soaking in the rest of my Paysandu experience as well as mentally gearing up for the next leg of the journey. We are still teaching the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, since they have not found a substitute English teacher to fill the spot, so we've been progressing with that, as well as fitting in as much time as we can with the little kids. At the teacher's college, we've been presenting on various topics and helping out with lessons as well as hosting a weekly 'Conversation Club.' We've also continued to meet weekly with a college student from the primary-school teaching program at the IFD who wanted to improve his English pronunciation, along with a few more visits to other schools aside from our own (including a private school humorously called 'Mafalda', after the Argentinian comic strip). One of my favorite moments at the primary school this week was when a fifth grade boy, with whom I was working on some assignment or other, looks up at me and says, "Que olor rico que tienes." Directly translated: "what a rich smell you have." Me: "Oh, gracias"... moving right along...

We've been spending some time with the friends we have made here-- and their friends, of course-- and I already feel the twang of missing having this nice community! As excited as I am to move on to the capital city, I know what I will miss the most is the ease of which we were able to integrate into the community, and the friends we have made here. I hope I will be able to express to them when I leave how much their welcoming into this country and their support, help, and friendship has meant to me. Without them this experience would not have been nearly so enjoyable or meaningful for me.

As for soaking in Paysandu, last Saturday night we were invited by a friend to attend a youth group at her church. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a song session rather than the youth group discussion, but we stayed for the songs and then were able to hang out with the young people in the congregation afterwards. It was refreshing just to have some wholesome fun, playing charades and other games that are pretty much the same no matter where you go in the world, it seems.

Then last Sunday we went to see a play put on by a local theater troupe (the same troupe, in fact, that animated the tour we took of Paysandu several weeks ago). It was in a black box theater this time, not in the grand historic Florencio Sanchez theater, and had a much more abstract, experimental flair, with two young female actors. I really enjoyed it... it reminded me so much of all the abstract black box theater I've been involved with over the years, the show both made me miss that theater world as well as made me feel at home in their venue.

Then tonight, we went to see a tango show in the Florencio Sanchez theater being put on in honor of the bicentennial celebration in Argentina this past week (which we learned more about at a talk we went to earlier in the week given by one of our hosts). The show was wonderful, just a pair of dancers doing various different types of tango to various songs, interspersed with images and old footage of famous performers, artists, and writers. It was very well done, and I think it may even have inspired me to take a tango class when I'm in Montevideo. I am painfully ignorant about dance, including tango, so this may be overly ambitious, but I can dream, right?

These next two weeks we will spend preparing a final project with all our kids at the primary school; songs for the younger kids, art projects for the 4th and 5th graders, and perhaps even a pop song and dance with the 6th graders, if that actually comes to fruition! Then we will head to Buenos Aires for our week-long conference with all of the other Fulbright English Teaching Assistants in South America, then we have one last week in Paysandu, then we will be moving to Montevideo. Where did all the time go???