Com(b/v)is and "Danger"

It has been brought to my attention that although I mentioned comvis in my last blog, I have yet to explain what a comvi is. Here we go.....

This is what a comvi looks like. It´s a VW van that has been converted into the cheapest form of public transportation available. Think of it like a mix between a taxi and bus, with a lot more people packed in.

The combis each have specific routes, and all of the places they intend to go are painted on the side with really bright neon colors. Sometimes they also paint soccer teams, or alluring messages like "THIS DRIVER LOVE JESUS". Inside, it´s like they made a circle with benches along the windows, with an open space in the middle. Generally that space is used as a passage for you know, getting off the thing, but if there is an excess of bodies, some people will do a sort of stand-squat in the middle. It´s not especially pleasant when we really get packed in there, but a combi driver will never turn down another six pesos.

They don´t have planned stops, so to get on one of these things, you scour the windows to see if they´re going where you are and then both wave and yell intensely until they pull over. To get off you scream "BAJA" over the noise and hope he hears you. Like I said before, a comvi driver will NEVER say "no" to another passenger because they are too full. However, he only stops for about 5 seconds, you have to jump on (or off) really fast. I learned this the hard way on my first trip when the driver started moving again and I only had one foot on the ground. 

They´re also not super comfortable. Yesterday a large man who was forced into the "squat-stand" actually (and hopefully accidentally) sat on me when we hit a big "tope" (speed-bump). I was zoning out a little, but after that incident I am pretty attentive.

Despite the discomforts (and social implications), comvi is my preferred means of transportation. For one thing, it´s cheap. I like to use things that are cheap. I mean, if I can use a 6 peso combi instead of a 30 peso taxi for the same trip, I´ll take the risk of being sat on. It´s also a great opportunity for people watching. Yesterday on my way home from school I found myself sharing a bench with an elderly grandmother and her pre-school-aged grandson, a construction worker, two kids my age from a public school, a couple chatty middle-aged women, and one crabby looking old guy. And me of course, the unexpected gringa. What´s not to love? I also enjoy the hectic speed comvis travel at. It gets you there really fast-ducking in and out of traffic lanes with plenty of horn usuage- and (from my experience) in one peice.

Among the wealthy community-read: Rotarians- comvis have this reputation of being dangerous and unsanitary. I always listen to what the Rotarians tell me, but lately I´ve realized that "dangerous" is a synonmyn for "it personally makes me uncomfortable" or "I´m wealthy and don´t have to use it any more" or "It involves being around the ´low class´and´poorly educated´ people". Many of my favorite things have been labeled dangerous, from running outside to eating street food to shopping at the open air market. And any person wearing a pair of dirty flip-flops is instantly considered untrustworthy. This is an attitude I am just not capable of adopting. I realize that there´s a difference between being adventurous and being just plain stupid, but there is also a difference between being careful and discrimation.

I don´t feel like comvis are "so dangerous". Sure, they´re a little dirty. They can be uncomfortable. And (still WORSE) they put me in contact with the people in this community who don´t have name brand footwear, but I´m not about to let that stop me from using them. No one has ever tried to kidnap me or sell me drugs or touch me innapropriately. And as long as there are Mexican abuelas who think it´s a safe enough place to read their grandkids board books, I´ll be paying my six pesos to go from Sabina to La Deportiva to El Mercado de la Sierra.

Coming to you from the Cyber-Web.....

Time has been going very quickly as of late. I honestly could not believe that a month has passed. But, apparently it´s been a month since I last wrote. Here are some of the things that have happened:

-I started school again. As in, me being a student. I had kind of forgotten what it was like to do this. I´m back in my itchy uniform, sitting in the same class with all the same kids. It´s easy to feel like it´s still August. I guess the big difference is that I understand everything now. It doesn´t really make school that much more productive, but it is satisfying to see that I´ve obviously learned some things over break. So….Yay?

-Valentine´s Day! I now am only teaching English classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (since Rotary makes me go to school. I would love to teach every day.) And thankfully this Tuesday I got to experience the excitement that is “Día de Amor y Amistad” for those primary school kids. The first thing I noticed was that they were allowed to come in whatever clothing they wanted to (in place of the usual grey uniforms). The fifth and sixth grade girls looked like princesses and the boys looked like their mothers made them wear dress shirts and forcibly combed their hair. Some things are they same everywhere….:)

The next difference was the “gift exchange”.  Where I come from “Valentines” are shiny paper notes you buy at Walgreens (scotch-taped chocolate optional). We gave them to everyone in the class and collected them in the brown paper bags we had decorated the day before. We always enjoyed it a lot. This, however, pales in comparison to the way the families prepare for Valentine´s Day here. Rather than something little for everyone, it´s normal to give some pretty nice to a couple of good friends.  The kids actually bought flowers and balloons and chocolates for each other, some gave stuffed animals. Thankfully there wasn´t anyone who didn´t get anything and it really was sweet.

They also give presents to the teachers. I got balloons, a little pillow that makes kissing noises, a lot of spicy paletas, and this really good homemade chocolate thing.

The mothers made food, from Flan (a caramel flavored pudding with the consistency of jello) to empanadas to hot dogs and had the kids carry in big plates. They put on loud music with speakers someone brought, passed out all the food and then just spent the rest of the morning dancing and eating and having fun. I had to leave to go to school about halfway through the morning, but it was a slow process as I kept getting handed more food. By the time I finally “escaped” and started walking home, I´m sure I was pretty comical looking: Toting a guitar, a bowl of flan, various types of meat, a disorganized pile of English papers, and a pillow that kept shouting “I Lobe You” as I hobbled my way down the street. I certainly felt loved.

-I´ve started French class. Parlez-vous francais? Not really, but I´ll get there.

-It´s not super common to have internet in your house here, so there are a lot of places to go use the internet and pay hourly. These places have a hilarious tendency to use English “techy-sounding” words in ways that don´t really make sense. Like “Cyber-Net-Home” “The Inter-Web here!” and my personal favorite: “Net Web”. Something I get a kick out of on my bus ride.

-I have become a public transportation connoisseur. I know all of the bus routes, can successful  get on a comvi without being scared and think that taxi´s are for the weak. I guess this is one of the blessings of my host family´s insane work schedule. The down side is that they are practically never home, and often can´t drive me places. The upside is that I´ve learned how to get where I need to go for cheap! Independence is fun.

-I have a ticketed return date: July 1^st, 2012.

-Today is my little sister Elyssa´s twelfth birthday! Happy Birthday Elyssa! I miss Elyssa, And Emma and Erica, SO much. This is actually the second birthday in two years that I´ve been absent. They are very good sports with my gallivanting.

So, this post wasn´t exactly cohesive, but I´m trying to fill you in on the times I´ve missed blogging (frequently). I will see you all in a little more than four months!

School, Esquite, and Unexpected Wisdom

Here are some of the latest highlights/Updates from the ESL front:

-On Tuesday, There was a Christmas pageant. I asked why it was in January and they said (quietly) That the fourth graders needed a little more time to get themselves prepared. Apparently every grade makes their own program. After seeing what the 4^th graders came up with, I wish I could have seen them all. I have never seen a Nativity quite like this.

-Baby Jesus was an actual FOURTH grader who entered the stage hidden under Mary´s cloak (Think “Very Potter Musical” Quirrel style). And then jumped out very dramatically to applause.

-The Shepherds started playing soccer in the middle. I think the game was planned as part of the show, but it was definitely a real game. Two in one entertainment experience!

-There was this part where a bunch of the kids who didn´t have “big” roles all came out dressed as demons and danced to a couple Shakira songs.

-The costumes were ELABORATE. None of this bathrobe/towel nonsense. Each mother made her child´s costume and it was definitely a “show off your sewing skills” kind of affair. Very pretty colors and fabric. I wish I could have seen them each of the kids´costumes closer.

-I was right about there always being one black Wiseman. The kid playing Balthazar covered himself in face paint appropriately. Awkwardness abounds. At least the wise men threw out chocolate coins to the audience.

-As far as the class goes, the kids still really want learn and we have a lot of fun. We´ve been using describer-words to form basic sentences. We sing a lot and play variations on charades that the kids never get sick of. The teachers pretty much just leave me there now, but I don´t have problems. It´s great!

-They don´t pay me money, but the change in how I feel accepted in this community is incredible. I used to have people stare/glare at me when they saw me sitting at the bus stop but yesterday cars passed with kids in them waving at me and they honked the horn and smiled. I can´t describe what that is like. I´ve been living in this part of town for over five months, but have never really felt like a part of it (“There goes the gringa”), now, after a week of classes, people will actually talk to me! I´ve made new friends on the bus almost every day and have talked to some of the parents. It´s just, I finally feel like I´m doing something productive. It´s wonderful

IN OTHER NEWS.....

Esquite is a delicious street food. It´s a cup of corn kernels with mayo, limejuice, cheese, and chili pepper.  Every time I describe it I realize how not appetizing that sounds, but it´s actually my favorite thing to buy from a cart. 

Yesterday I bought some from a really old man. He made the esquite veeerrrrryyyyy slowly, we started talking. I told him I was an exchange student, I was learning Spanish, how long I´d been there etc. He was friendly, just normal small-talky things, weather and whatnot, and then he changed subject and said:

“You know, I think that with God´s help we can do anything. You can learn anything. You should never just be happy with what you learn one day because you can learn more the next. Just keep learning. That´s how a young lady carries herself with elegance.”

Then I paid him 10 pesos, took my cup of spicy corn and left.

I couldn´t make that up. It struck me as so unexpected, I repeated what he said a few times to make sure I didn´t forget it. This is a man who sells cups of corn for a living. Maybe he says that to every teenager he meets, maybe he´d spent the day thinking about it, I don´t know, but it seems like something I should remember.

It´s not every day you start a conversation hoping for corn and end up receiving exactly the advice you need. 

Miss Elena´s first days on the job.....

I have now taught two days worth of classes. I´m still alive. The kids are still alive. And I think they know some more English now, so you know, that´s good too....

I start out the morning with 5th grade. It turns out the classrooms ARE separated after all (you know those crinkly dividers?) so I just have the 30 kids to myself without any distraction. These fifth graders are angels. I have never been around such a well-behaved group of children before. Not exaggerating. They sit in their desks and are quiet when I ask them too, they are excited to play games, they sing with me, they volunteer to answer questions, it´s ridiculous. I was expecting chaos, but it´s a REALLY fun group to teach. None of them have had English classes before, but they´re picking up what I teach them quickly. This morning the teacher was late (by about 40 minutes) so even though I was scheduled to do 6th grade first, they put me in 5th grade to watch the class. I think this is a very happy way to start the morning. 

Something happens between 5th and 6th grade. Maybe it´s the whole "Big fish, little pond" thing. Maybe it´s the fact that there are 12 more students in a smaller space. Maybe it´s that the teacher runs out of the classroom when I arrive, but 6th grade is hard. I don´t feel like the students are trying to be hard, they just don´t stop talking/shouting. I think that´s what happens when you put more than 40 high little 11-year-old voices in a small space, a few regular volume conversation makes a LOT of noise. When we were singing- they were engaged and paying attention, and when I ask specific children to please stop talking, it works for a little bit. But I´m not quite sure what I´m going to do, because no one can hear anything when there´s talking, and I don´t want to spend an hour asking kids to be quiet. I tried the clapping-call-and-response thing and that seemed to work. So....maybe that will save me....

They are still really fun though. Sixth grade has a lot more questions than 5th grade, so I have designated 10 minutes at the end of class for "Random Word Time". They just ask me how to say a lot of different things and I write them on the board and we practice saying them. This is of course, when the real teacher walks in. She probably thinks I have no lesson plans whatsoever. Today she walked in as I was writing "Conejo= Rabbit" right next to "Amante celosa= Jealous Lover" "Animal=Animal" and "San Pedro= Saint Peter". I´ve realized that if I don´t do this, the kids will never be able to practice asking each other what their names are without "HOW DO YOU SAY SQUIRREL????" coming from somewhere in the classroom. It´s better to bunch the randomness.

What we´ve done so far:
-We start the class with conversation practice in partners (Day One: Good Morning, Afternoon, etc.) (Day Two: What is your name? My name is_____. How are you? I am________)

-They have English names (one girl´s name is Nube: Cloud. I also have a boy named: Rosalindo. Don´t tell her Rosalind is a girl´s name.)

-They know: Happy, Sad, Angry, Surprised, Worried, and Sick (And can sing them too!)

-Words like Please, Thank you, You´re Welcome, Excuse Me, and No Worries (I couldn´t resist. At least I didn´t ad "Man" like I wanted to.)

-The sixth graders have a bunch of completely random vocab that they may or may not remember. Both groups want to learn Animals next.

-I want to tackle things like Numbers, Colors, and days/months before I start doing other vocab, but I have had both groups vote what´s interesting to learn, and animals win by a landslide.

I have been using a game where you pass around an object saying please, thank you, and you´re welcome. For the "conversations" I say they are at a party and have to talk with four people before they can sit down. They learned the "feelings" words by having groups of kids come up to the front and make faces and having the group guess. One of my more dramatic Fifth graders demontrated "sick" with an elaborate coughing scene, eventually ending with him passed out on the floor and moving untill the game was over. We are having a good time!

Singing is a little trippy :) The song "If you´re happy and you know it" is pretty do-able, except for that line: "Then your face will surely show it". It comes out more like: "Dane shwa washshwahshwa  OH EET". We switch out "Happy" for other words and clapping for other actions. After one verse of surprised gasping, sad crying, or angry stomping we go back to being happy.

I am really glad to have these classes! On Monday I will be up to four hours (4th Grade and 3rd Grade) So I´ll let you know how those go. For now- thanks for the prayers. Also- any of you that actually are elementary school teachers or are going to be elementary school teachers have my respect. LOTS of respect. Even fun and easy groups are really tiring! I´ll try to post again (a less detailed blog) on Monday.

Where´s Dora when you need her?

Yesterday I wrote a post. It registered pretty high on the angst-ometer so I thought I´d let it sit over night and see if I still felt like posting it. I didn´t. I´ll summarize for you now:

School is boring. But now I don´t even have boring school. Two months of vacation. I don´t have anything to read. My brain is dying (whiny nasally voice).

Obviously it was a little more detailed than that, talking about the many hours I spend every day home alone and various things that are not fun. Not anything that needs to be shared with the world. THANKFULLY……I have an update (and an exciting one at that)

Remember in one of my first blog posts how I talked about living in my fancy rich house in a “low resources” (as the Mexicans would say) neighborhood? It turns out that while my fancy rich brothers and I go to some of the most expensive private schools in Villahermosa, all of the “low resource” children are sent to a little public school around the block.

The school schedule is 6 am (not a typo) until 1 pm Monday- Friday. It has two classrooms and one concrete outdoor play space. It teaches K-6. There are seven teachers. The school uniforms are grey.  I didn´t know these things until today, because usually I go running in the late afternoon when the school is deserted. But, the other day I saw a loud, crazy, recess in session. I decided I was going to walk over there and ask if I could help with the English classes. Really- I´m sitting in the house all morning, I miss volunteering with kids and I´m bored. If I have time to do unnecessary research on liver disease I have time to do something productive, right?

Before I actually went to the school, I ran it past my parents who told me I would need permission from the club. When I went to the Rotary meeting they stressed it upon me that it is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL I am accompanied by a Rotarian when I go introduce myself. Ok. So I found a willing Rotarian and we made a date for this morning. This is how it went down:

Rotarian: Good Morning

Principal: Good Morning

Rotarian: I am a Rotarian.

Principal: That´s nice.

Rotarian: My wife is the president of our club too!

Princiapl: Wow- how nice

Rotarian: Our club is Real de Grijalva.

Principal: Ok

Rotarian: This is Elaine. She´s an exchange student.

(silence that hopefully felt longer than it actually was)

(Elaine realizes she needs to talk)

(Elaine babbles and tries to explain why she is there and makes a joke about being a gringa which makes the principal like her and explains that she´ll teach free English classes and has a completely open schedule which makes the Principal like her more)

Rotarian: Yes- that´s it! Ok then Elaine, stay here, talk to the director about your schedule and I´ll see you later- Bye now!

In retrospect, I think the Rotarian escort thing was a way for the club to show that they supported me than anything else. Then again, I´m not sure they would have opened the school gates if I didn´t have a middle aged man in a suit by my side. Whatever, it worked.

So the principal called a meeting of all the teachers and explained what I came for. They immediately began to disagree whether we should offer classes to all of the kids or just the good kids. This was surprising to me. I think their main point was that the “bad kids” will make it impossible for the “good kids” to learn. It was a little uncomfortable for me-I really couldn´t say anything, I mean, I wanted to teach all of the kids, but at the same time had no idea what they meant by “bad”. Eventually they decided that all of the kids should get classes which made me feel better and that they will have a teacher on hand at all times for “disciplinary enforcement” which I´m assuming will help a lot. By this point I had figured out that there apparently are no English classes in the school at all and I would be starting from zero.

We had a meeting for about an hour, during which all of their students were completely unattended doing “independent study” (Kindergarteners? Really? I digress….). They decided I should teach 5^th and 6^th grade every day, an hour each (because they´re closest to high school) the other grades will just get two or three hours a week. I will show up at 8 o´clock every day until Feb.15^th, when I start school. Each class period will be an hour. I can give out homework. I don´t have to discipline. They´ll talk to the parents. Don´t worry.

 I start tomorrow. One thing that really struck me was how quickly they gave me these responsibilities. There wasn´t any criminal background check, they didn´t ask to see my school ID, they don´t even know if I am in the country legally, but suddenly I am teaching 20 hours a week. English must be REALLY important to them, because they´ve never even seen me talk to a child but have reorganized all of their lesson plans so that I can spend as much time as possible with the students.

I wonder what would happen if a teenager with a thick Hispanic accent and no teaching experience showed up in one of our elementary school back home offering to teach free Spanish classes for a month. Probably not this.

This isn´t going to be a “pull out your workbooks” kind of class, because they don´t have any. I am REALLY starting from zero. I have no materials, no experience, and no teachers that speak English in the school. Scary?  Yes. A little overwhelming? Yes. Exactly what I need to be doing right now? YES.  So, short term, this blog has been turned into: “Adventures in ESL” with Miss Elena. I will try to post funny stories, embarrassing stories, cute stories, or at least what I´m teaching.

I start tomorrow morning with Miss Lupita´s fifth grade (33 students) Followed by Miss Tania´s sixth grade (39 students) and for the other two hours I will be teaching either kindergarten or third grade (no child count given). I went to the store and bought two notebooks and a bunch of construction paper. If you think of it, pray for me.