Monday, August 01, 2011
July was a pretty good month all things consider. Being that is my birthday month didn’t hurt its standing at all. To start off the month I met up with a group other Peace Corps friends and celebrated Independence Day in Ocotal the department capital of Nueva Segovia. It was as my friend said the closest big city to the US, what better place to celebrate? We went to bar that an American ex-patriot owns and had wonderful time, it was just like being back home the only thing missing was the fireworks. We had a competition to see who could find the most patriotic t-shirt or outfit. I found a t-shirt at a used clothes store here in La Dalia with a big flag on the front with Land of the Free Home of the Brave underneath. I didn’t win the contest but it lots of fun! I also got see a lot of my friends and celebrate a little of my birthday with them as well.I came back La Dalia after a fun filled weekend. Since the actually 4th of July was Monday I had my evening community English I told my students the importance of the day they were interested in learning the Star Spangled Banner. So I brought in the lyrics in Spanish and English and the music and we practiced singing it Monday and Tuesday but they all agree that it was too long and that the Nicaraguan anthem is much shorter and easier.
My birthday fell on a Wednesday this year so I went to class in the morning and had my students sing happy birthday to both in Spanish and English. It was a new experience to be at school during my birthday. Although I must say that I like being on summer vacation during my birthday. After class I went home and got ready for a birthday dinner that I was organizing. I bought all the supplies and my neighbor and her friend cooked up a grand fest of meat and veggies with rice and plantain chips, plus lots of rum and coke!! My friends surprised me with a birthday cake it was very delicious!! The next week was a week of vacation for the ending of the semester. I spent most of the week in Esteli for an in service training with my counterpart Luis and fellow TEFL volunteers it was pretty fun to see everybody again and catch up. We learned a lot of good skills about how to keep our teaching up beat and interactive. Luis came with me to this IST although it would probably have more useful for Mariling she had just come back from maternity leave, so I thought she would be busy with her new born baby. Oddly enough she was quite upset and offended that I took Luis to another IST and complained about to the school principal. I told both of them that I wasn’t playing favorites; I honestly thought like anybody else that she would have been busy with a new born baby to leave for 3 days, apparently l was wrong. I told not to get her knickers in a twist that I would take her to the next IST that we have in January.
Also during my break from school I was able to spend some with my host family in Niquinohomo. I went down for my host sister Ana Alicia’s 15th birthday party which like the sweet sixteen in the US is a pretty big deal here. We got all dress up although I missed the church ceremony because I was rushing back from Esteli; the reception in the house was lots of fun. As is the norm in the party there is always lots of eating dancing and drinking so we all had a great time. It was fun because the other volunteer that my host hosted the current trainee and I were all there so it was a kind of like a host family volunteer reunion.
I also went out on date with Nica girl from Niquinohomo while I was down there. Her name is Jenny I met her through another Peace Corps volunteer Neha that I trained with in Niquinohomo and now lives close by. She is really nice but we are just friend just now until she graduates from college in October, then we will see if anything more happens.
I realized the other day when I was changing my calendar that I had been here for 11 months I will have been here for one year on September 1st. I can’t believe the time has gone by like it has it has been a year of ups and down but looking back on it, it has gone by fast. The TEFL group before me is getting ready to leave this month and will fly home in November. While the new TEFL group is coming the beginning of September just I did a year ago. It has been an interesting year I feel like now I have a pretty good grasp of the Nicaraguan education system and culture of education which I don’t want to go into right now for fear of sounding overly negative. However I do want say something that just happening to me while I was writing this here in the public library. A student from another school in town came up to me while I was sitting here with my counterpart Luis and a few of my Nica friends who are studying English. This student first asked Luis if he would translate a short paragraph he had written into English that had to do for homework for his English class. Luis said he charged 50 cordobas for his services. Then the student asked me if I would do his homework for him and I said I would help him free of charge but that I want him to make an effort to do it himself first. I explained to him that I could easily do it for him but if I did he wouldn’t learn anything. He didn’t like my idea so he asked my friends who did it for him for only 10 cordobas. I told my friends my teaching philosophy and mission here in Nicaragua is to help improve the level of English here. This student was so lazy that he didn’t even want to try and make an effort. I feel that this is the biggest problem with the students here is that they are too lazy to even make an effort to try and learn. Even though my friends did his homework they improve their translating ability and thus their English level through his laziness. I realize I can’t overhaul the school system here, but I feel like if I can change just one small aspect of the students’ behavior here, I will feel like I have climbed Mt Everest!. We’ll what time brings…
Up deck for August is the Patron Saint Festivals in La Dalia. It will be a new experience so I am excited to see how the town celebrates.
More to come soon.
